Zach Bjork’s game-winning layin with 11 seconds left in overtime catapulted the Chieftains to the state title game for the first time in school history.

“I can’t even explain it,” guard Kyle Thurston said. “This is huge for our school.”

Columbia River (22-6) almost didn’t make it. The Chieftains blew a 10-point lead with 59 seconds remaining in regulation. Missed free throws – Columbia River went 2 for 10 from the line during a two-minute stretch late in the fourth quarter – and turnovers left the door open for Bellevue (25-3).

Wolverines guard Aaron Bright buried two 3-pointers before Matt Olson drilled a 3-pointer from the corner with 3 seconds left that tied the score at 44-all and sent the game into overtime.

The Chieftains’ 6-foot-10 center Steven Bjornstad scored 19 points and grabbed 12 rebounds and Thurston finished with 18 points. Bright led Bellevue with 21 points and forward Alex Schrempf had a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds.

The Wolverines had a chance to win, but Bright’s 3-point shot missed its mark and Schrempf’s tip-in attempt clanged off the rim at the buzzer.

Bellevue will play Meadowdale for third place at 3:30 p.m.

It's now down to two teams for the Class 3A state girls basketball championship.

No. 1 Kennedy will play No. 3 Shadle Park at 7 p.m. Saturday in the Tacoma Dome.

For the Lancers, it's been a long ride since their loss at the hands of Auburn Riverside in the 3A title game a year ago. If they win Saturday, it will mark the first time since 2000 that a school lost in the finals the previous year, only to return to win it the next season (Meadowdale won it in 2000 after losing to Bainbridge in 1999).

Shadle Park has to show the same composure and patience it did against a more athletic Holy Names Academy squad in its semifinal. Thing is, Kennedy has three great guards in Jasmine Lemon, Yaz Fuller and Daidra Brown, and Holy Names had one (Erika Johnson).

Those guards were superb against Meadowdale. Fuller led all scorers with 19, 14 coming in the third quarter. Brown had 10, and Lemon added six points.

It's now down to two teams for the Class 3A state girls basketball championship.

No. 1 Kennedy will play No. 3 Shadle Park at 7 p.m. Saturday in the Tacoma Dome.

For the Lancers, it's been a long ride since their loss at the hands of Auburn Riverside in the 3A title game a year ago. If they win Saturday, it will mark the first time since 2000 that a school lost in the finals the previous year, only to return to win it the next season (Meadowdale won it in 2000 after losing to Bainbridge in 1999).

Shadle Park has to show the same composure and patience it did against a more athletic Holy Names Academy squad in its semifinal. Thing is, Kennedy has three great guards in Jasmine Lemon, Yaz Fuller and Daidra Brown, and Holy Names had one (Erika Johnson).

A 7-2 run by the Mavericks, and it appeared they were slowing pulling back into this game, trailing 31-20 with 4:05 to go.

Then Yaz Fuller and her Kennedy teammates woke up.

The Lancers responded with a 10-0 spurt, capped by two Fuller 3-pointers from the corner. She added another long-range bomb with one minute remaining in the quarter.

Looks like Kennedy will get back to the title game, and Shadle Park coach Chad Dezellem had this to say about his Highlanders matching up with a quicker Lancers squad.

"Their athleticism will be a challenge for us," Dezellem said. "We have to be poised, be patient and they'll make some mistakes."

Franklin seniors Peyton Siva and Chris Holmes were being interviewed in the bowels of the Tacoma Dome when the Shadle Park girls basketball team came into sight.

Piercing screams echoed down the long hallway and Siva and Holmes joined in the celebration, hollering with the Highlanders over their semifinal victory.
There was no such celebration for the Quakers on Friday night.

Oh, top-ranked Franklin had won, of course. The Quakers steamrolled No. 9 Meadowdale, 58-37, in the semifinals. But one of the nation’s top teams doesn’t erupt in jubilation for reaching the state title game.

“There’s nothing to be excited about yet,” Holmes said.

Franklin (27-1) will meet Columbia River for the title tonight at 8:30.

The Quakers’ third-quarter explosion vaulted them into the finals for the sixth time in school history.

Franklin dazzled defensively, turning steals into transition baskets and outscoring the Mavericks 20-4 in the first six minutes of the period. The run turned a six-point game into an insurmountable 44-22 lead.

By the end of the game, Franklin had scored 31 points off 22 Mavericks turnovers.

“The points-off-turnovers was huge,” Meadowdale coach Chad McGuire said. “They did a good job of getting turnovers and finishing on the other end.”

Meadowdale hung with the Quakers in the first half. The Mavericks’ zone defense flustered Franklin and they were able to get the ball to forward Conner Hamlett. The 6-foot-7 senior had a significant size advantage over the Quakers and he scored 10 points before halftime.

Franklin, which has no players taller than 6-3 in its starting lineup, cracked down on Hamlett in the second half, limiting him to only three shots and four points. Hamlett was held in check because Meadowdale’s guards couldn’t even think about working the ball to the low-post.

“We’ve got to create a turnover,” Quakers coach Jason Kerr said, “before there’s an offensive rebound for them to get.”

Holmes led Franklin with 14 points, guard Vonchae Richardson had 10 points and four steals and Siva, a McDonald’s All-American, finished with seven points and five assists.

When the final buzzer sounded, the Quakers were subdued. A few players bumped fists, but most left the court with a business-as-usual demeanor. If history is any indicator, Franklin will have its celebration tonight. The Quakers have won every title game they have played in, including their most recent in 2006

“We have one game left,” Siva said, “to take care of business.”

Kennedy's up-tempo, attacking style, plus its superior athleticism, is creating more scoring opportunities than Meadowdale is.

After a slow start, the Lancers have done a great job of attacking the basket. They went 9-of-16 from the FT line in the second quarter.

Yaz Fuller led Kennedy with seven points. Aminah Williams added six. Only two players scored for the Mavericks – guard Julia Fjortoft (seven points) and forward Alexis Nugent (four points).

The Mavericks broke out to a 5-0 lead, but the Lancers, who went scoreless for the first 4:45, got it in high gear behind their quicker guards.

As the game wore on, Shadle Park showed its battle-tested mettle from playing in the 4A-dominated Greater Spokane League (third-place finisher), and methodically pulled away from the younger Cougars in the Class 3A state semifinals Friday night.

The Highlanders won, 43-28, at the Tacoma Dome.

Better days should be ahead for Holy Names Academy, which controlled the first quarter, but endured awful scoring droughts – of 9 minutes, 10 seconds between the second and third quarters, and of 6:02 to start the fourth quarter.

Bianca Pope led Shadle Park with 11 points. Lindsay Neimeier and Aleisha Hathaway added eight points, and Kendra Knutsen had six points.

To sum up the Cougars' outing, they had more turnovers (30) than points (28).

Shadle Park will play for its first state championship since winning the 4A crown in 1989.

It's become such a common occurrence, even game-watches from both sides are calling for "a travel" every time a player moves, dribbles or makes an attempt at a shot.

OK, one man behind me is yelling, "Double dribble" just to change it up.

Latest turnover count through three quarters: Holy Names 24, Shadle Park 23.

The most effective player on the floor in the third quarter is Shadle Park guard Biance Pope, who attack the basket early and got to the FT line. She also made a couple of buckets late, and had seven of her 10 points in that stanza.

Chelsea Chandler's jumper handed Shadle Park a 32-23 lead with six seconds to go.

Shadle Park has settle down a bit, and does not seem as affected by the Cougars' pressure. The Spokane school is now getting the ball inside, and is drawing fouls and get to the FT line.

Aleisha Hathaway's jumper gave Shadle Park the lead for good, 17-15, in the first half with 5:22 to go.

Ball-handling miscues have really hurt Holy Names, particularly by Laura Sullivan. That can be expected from a starting lineup of three 10th graders. Claire Conricode was the Cougars' offense, scoring all five points in the quarter, including a 3-pointer. She leads the team with eight points.

We'll start and continue this just-added element to the blog – turnover watch: Holy Names 16, Shadle Park 16.

If the Highlanders can hold on to the lead and win, it will mark the fourth time they'll play for a state title, but first at the 3A level. They won 4A championships in 1981, 1988 and 1989.

It's almost safe to assume, after watching three days of the Class 3A state girls basketball championships, Holy Names' young talent, all long and lean, is going to create problems for years to come.

It has so far in the semifinals.

Shadle Park isn't finding much room to operate, committing 11 turnovers trying to find ways to get inside, especially with guard penetration.

The Cougars' youth also shows in inefficient ways (nine turnovers, badly missed shots), but Holy Names had an early 9-4 lead after Claire Conricode's 3-pointer with 2:33.

Shadle Park has to find a way to get star sophomore Erika Johnson going. She had one field-goal attempt in the quarter.

Sam Howell’s pair of driving layings in the last 40 seconds of the loser-out consolation game lifted the Panthers to the victory.

“We needed baskets and we needed stops,” Howell said. “I just got the ball and put it in.”

Seattle Prep will play the winner of the Rainier Beach-Union contest in the fourth-/seventh-place game at 1:30 p.m. Saturday.

Trailing 52-49, Howell brought Prep (21-9) within one point when he scored on a fastbreak. After Enumclaw (23-4) failed to score on the ensuing possession, Howell was fouled as he attempted another runner. The ball dropped through the hoop and he made the free throw, giving the Panthers a 54-52 lead with 19 seconds left.

Enumclaw guard Wes Caldwell got a shot off at the buzzer, but it missed its mark, sealing the win for Prep.

Panthers forward Patrick Nyeko recorded a double-double with game-highs of 25 points and 11 rebounds. Howell finished with 11 points.

Taylor Myers led the Hornets with 18 points and Jayson Lewis added 15.

The upstart Bulldogs just keep on winning and for the first time since 1998, Foster will leave the state tournament with a trophy.

“To place as high as fifth, fifth is pretty good in 3A,” Bulldogs coach John Barbee said.

Foster will face the winner of the Seattle Prep-Enumclaw game in the fifth-/eighth-place game at 11:30 a.m. today.
Classified as a 2A school, the Bulldogs “opt up” to play in 3A where it is sixth-smallest school in that classification. That didn’t stop Foster (18-8) from beating the Pirates (13-15).

The Bulldogs pressured Rogers throughout, scoring 21 points off 19 turnovers.

“That’s the only way we know how to do it,” Barbee said of his team’s frenetic, pressure defense.

Good shooting helps, too. The Bulldogs made 50 percent of their shots from the floor, led by guard Refugio Soto-Lopez’s 19 points. Travis Miller added 11 points and nine rebounds.

Rogers’ Jesse Vaughan scored a game-high 25 points and grabbed 12 rebounds.

Boys

Peyton Siva, Franklin
17 points, 6 assists, 5 blocks, 5 steals

Anthony Brown, Shadle Park
29 points, 19 rebounds

Aaron Bright, Bellevue
21 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists

Jesse Vaughan, Spokane Rogers
22 points, 12 rebounds

Danny Martinez, Lakes
19 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals

Taylor Hoffer, North Kitsap
17 points, 8 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 blocks

Jody Ruiz, Capital
22 points, 5 rebounds

Patrick Nyeko, Seattle Prep
17 points, 7 rebounds

Sean Jones, O’Dea
17 points, 7 rebounds

Devante Williams, O’Dea
22 points, 3 rebounds, 2 steals

Aaron Matzen, Lynnwood
22 points, 9 rebounds

Refugio Soto-Lopez, Foster
21 points, 4 assists, 3 steals

Andre Winston Jr., Lakes
16 points, 5 rebounds

Girls

Daidra Brown, Kennedy
25 points, made 11 of 12 free throws

Hailey Gullstad, Mercer Island
23 points, 4 assists

Bianca Pope, Shadle Park
10 points, 7 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 blocks

Heather Hitch, Enumclaw
14 points, 11 rebounds

Morgan Merriman, Lakeside
16 points, 8 rebounds

Kayla Williams, Franklin
13 points, 10 rebounds

Ashley Honeycutt, Ferndale
11 points, 13 rebounds

Airashay Rogers, Hazen
22 points, 2 steals

Kari Luttinen, Seattle Prep
20 points

Heather Corral, Prairie
17 points

Katelyn Smith, Yelm
12 points, 8 rebounds