La Conner High girls place second at state 2B basketball tournament

Bill Reynolds | Mar 11, 20200

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SETTING A NEW STANDARD – La Conner High players and coaches gathered at center court to accept the second place trophy at the State 2B Girls’ Hardwood Classic in Spokane on Saturday. Placing second is the best finish for any La Conner High School basketball team at the state level. Pictured above are; back row, left to right: Assistant coach Jesse Edwards, assistant coach Lynette Cram, Joanie Benson, Avery Sloniker, Katie Watkins, Josie Harper, Makayla Herrera, Morgan Herrera, Ellie Marble, head coach Scott Novak, and assistant coach Loran James; and front row, left to right: Aubrie Sloniker, Justine Benson, Rachel Cram, Juna Swanson, and Sarah Cook. – Photo by Lauren Reynolds

The La Conner High girls’ basketball team played like champions before placing second with the school’s best showing ever at the State 2B Hardwood Classic in Spokane last week.

Its hard-fought 52-45 title round loss on Saturday to No. 1-ranked Liberty (Spangle) and 6’-0” Division I prospect Maisie Burnham, an Eastern Washington University commit, while disappointing, couldn’t erase the thrill generated by a La Conner hoops team playing in a state championship game for the first time.

“I couldn’t be prouder of the girls,” La Conner head coach Scott Novak said afterward. “To have made it to this level is a great achievement. You couldn’t ask for anything more – the No. 1 and No 2 seeds playing for the championship.

“Liberty, obviously, is a very good team,” added Novak. “Their length gave us problems. We rebounded well, but we couldn’t hit shots. They just didn’t give us many open looks.”

La Conner (23-3) shot just 24 per cent from the floor (16-of-67) against an aggressive Liberty defense.

The Lady Lancers, by contrast, were 18 of 42 (43 per cent) from the field. Liberty (26-1), which was riding a 19-game winning streak, also knocked down 11 of 19 (58 per cent) free throws.

Burnham, who led all scorers with 22 points, hit nine of 20 attempts, including a killer trey early in the final period that gave the Lady Lancers a 43-38 edge.

Moments earlier, Liberty had clung to a narrow 40-38 lead after La Conner had rallied from a pair of 11-point deficits. The Lady Braves were poised to knot the score but Burnham intercepted a pass and was on her way to a breakaway layup when La Conner’s Morgan Herrera hustled back to swat the ball out of bounds.

That play brought the large contingent of La Conner fans to their feet.

But Burnham quickly quieted the Lady Braves crowd by draining her three-pointer from the top of the key.

Junior forward Delaney Goodwin, one of three six-footers in the Liberty lineup, was perhaps the real difference maker.

She hit all four of her shots, three from behind the trey arc.

Goodwin broke a scoreless tie three minutes into the game with her first three-pointer.

La Conner’s Juna Swanson matched Goodwin with a three-pointer of her own to draw the Lady Braves even at 3-3.

Justine Benson, who paced La Conner with 18 points, put the Lady Braves briefly in front 5-3 with a pair of charity tosses.

Freshman Ellie Marble gave La Conner its final lead of the night at 7-6 with a baseline drive at the 3:40 mark of the first quarter.

Liberty closed out the frame with a 7-0 run fueled by a pair of Burnham buckets in the paint and another Goodwin trey.

Novak rotated Rachel Cram, Marble and Herrera to defend Burnham, switching Cram over to guard Goodwin after her early hot streak.

Herrera did yeoman work on Burnham, limiting her low post opportunities and also reeled in a team-best 12 rebounds and hit two key putbacks that drew La Conner within 38-35 entering the final stanza.

After Liberty’s Aleena Cook meshed two free throws to open the fourth quarter, Benson delivered a clutch three-pointer to cut the deficit to 40-38.

That’s when Burnham took over.

Liberty closed with a 12-7 spurt, Burnham hitting all but five of the Lady Lancer points.

La Conner got no closer than four points, at 45-41, on a Cram free throw.

Liberty forced two turnovers in the last minute, one on a five-second count as La Conner tried to inbound the ball under its basket, to clinch the triumph.

In so doing, the Lady Lancers avenged a double-digit loss to La Conner in the 2019 Regional round in Everett.

Liberty head coach Chris Colvin felt no lead was safe against the Lady Braves.

“La Conner is really, really, really good,” he said. “They weren’t gonna just go away. This wasn’t going to be a 20-point blowout.”

La Conner, though, was able to exact some revenge at the Spokane Arena, defeating Tri-Cities Prep 69-27 and Wahkiakum 46-60, in the State quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively.

TCP and Wahkiakum had beaten La Conner at the Hardwood Classic a year ago. The Lady Mules had also downed La Conner 62-50 in a big non-league test at Wahkiakum earlier in the season.

“Beating Wahkiakum was a huge thing for our girls,” said La Conner assistant coach Lynette Cram. “They’ve always been a tough matchup for us because they have so much size and are so physical. But we came out strong and cleared that hurdle.”

La Conner won what was a gritty, grinding contest mostly on the offensive glass, where the Lady Braves outrebounded Wahkiakum by a 20-9 margin.

Marble came off the bench to gather a game-high 15 rebounds, eight on the offensive boards, to go along with 10 points to fuel the winners.

La Conner trailed 20-13 and 23-16 in the first half before taking control of the contest.

A long trey by Juna Swanson was the start of a 9-2 La Conner flurry before halftime.

Marble followed with an offensive rebound and dish to Benson for a basket.

Sarah Cook then buried a trey from the left wing, just ahead of two Marble charity tosses.

Benson tallied eight points, including a crucial three-pointer, during a decisive 12-8 La Conner run in the third period.

The Lady Braves flustered Wahkiakum in the fourth quarter with full-court pressure that took the Lady Mules out of their rhythm.

La Conner forged a seven-point lead (41-34) with under four minutes to play on a Herrera post-up hoop from Marble.

That was more than enough of a cushion for La Conner to advance to the 2B Final opposite Liberty.

The Lady Braves opened Thursday with a dominant effort against defending champ Tri-Cities Prep.

Herrera netted 15 points and snared seven rebounds and Cook scored another 14 for La Conner, which shot a blistering 55 per cent from the floor, often the result of well-timed backdoor cuts and passes.

La Conner’s defense thwarted the Lady Jaguars throughout. TCP hit only 19 per cent of its field goal attempts and fired up six airballs in the first half alone.

McKenna Martinez, who played a huge role in TCP’s State tourney win over La Conner in 2019, was held to nine points.

La Conner bolted to a 20-4 first period lead and never looked back.

Benson capped what was perhaps La Conner’s best quarter of the season with a three-pointer in transition.

Novak noted that she, her sister Joanie, and Herrera – all graduating seniors – will be difficult to replace going forward.

“We’ll miss these seniors,” he said, “for what they did on the court and for their leadership.”

In related notes:

• There was one bright spot for La Conner High in the State championship game. Students Miles Sidzyik and Josh Jolly bested a Liberty duo in the halftime speed free throw shooting contest.

• La Conner spring sports athletes put in workouts at the Davenport Towers Hotel fitness center during their Spokane stay.

• La Conner High Principal Todd Torgeson said there had been some discussion beforehand that the 1B and 2B tournaments in Spokane might be postponed due to Coronavirus concerns. The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) ultimately agreed to go ahead with its State Basketball Tournaments in Spokane, Yakima and Tacoma. “It will be interesting,” Torgeson said, “what we’ll see happening in the next couple weeks.”

• Justine Benson finished her La Conner High career with 1,580 points, passing Mount Vernon High’s Kim Brydges (1,577; 1990-94) for fourth place on the all-time Skagit County girls’ basketball scoring list.

• Burnham’s dad, Blaze Burnham, ranks 22nd on the Washington State boys’ basketball scoring leaderboard with 2,121 points, six more than O’Dea alum Clint Richardson, who went on to star at Seattle University and play in the NBA.

TRI-CITIES PREP 4 11 5 7 – 27

LA CONNER 20 13 23 13 – 69

(TCP) – Martinez 9, Chang 7, Dickson 6, Brandner 3, Monteon 2.

(LC) – Morgan Herrera 15, Cook 14, Justine Benson 11, Swanson 9, Marble 8, Makayla Herrera 8, Harper 3, Cram 1.

WAHKIAKUM 11 12 8 9 – 40

LA CONNER 11 12 12 11 – 46

(W) – Mace 20, Merz 8, Leitz 8, A. Watkins 2, K. Watkins 2.

(LC) – Justine Benson 10, Marble 10, Cram 9, Cook 7, Swanson 5, Morgan Herrera 5.

LIBERTY (SPANGLE) 13 14 11 14 – 52

LA CONNER 7 13 15 10 – 45

(LS) – Burnham 22, Goodwin 12, Aleena Cook 6, Fletcher 5, Denny 5, Budde 2.

(LC) – Justine Benson 18, Morgan Herrera 9, Marbnle 6, Swanson 5, Cram 4, Sarah Cook 3.

Past and present journeys mingle at B-ball tourney

The Greater La Conner area stretched over 300 miles to Spokane for four day

Normally hosts to tourists, folks from La Conner packed their bags and drove more than five hours to support the Lady Braves basketball team in its quest for the state 2B Girls’ Basketball championship at the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena.

Royal blue La Conner attire was much in evidence at Spokane hotels and restaurants, in storied Riverfront Park, and, of course, at the Arena.

Some, like Kurt and Cathi Bassford, of Swinomish, took time to visit relatives in the Inland Empire. They made two side trips to see Kurt’s aunt, Donna Dalan, a 1958 La Conner High alum now residing in Nine Mile Falls, about 10 miles from downtown Spokane.

“We had so much laughter,” Donna said afterward. “It was good for the soul.”

The La Conner High hoop team was attempting to complete a rare double – winning State volleyball and basketball crowns in the same school year – a feat accomplished only 12 times to date.

Alas, 13 would not be the lucky number for La Conner.

But all wasn’t lost for the second-seeded Lady Braves, who finished as State runners-up and won twice before falling to pre-tourney favorite Liberty (Spangle) in the State Hardwood Classic title round on Saturday.

Prior to leaving Spokane and receiving a heartfelt homecoming on campus Sunday afternoon, La Conner defeated defending state champion Tri-Cities Prep and frequent Lady Braves nemesis Wahkiakum.

In so doing, the team finished higher than any other La Conner entry – boys or girls.

Which is saying a lot.

La Conner boys’ basketball teams have made 39 trips to the state tournament and played 113 games. The Braves have placed as high as third twice, in 1973 and 1987.

The La Conner girls made their 13th state tourney appearance last week, with a third-place finish in 2015 their high-water mark until this year.

Blending in with La Conner fans at Spokane was longtime State 2B Tournament historian and statistician David Maley, of Thornton, who noted that Braves’ legend Gail Thulen was the first Washington state high school basketball player to have scored at least 1,500 points.

Thulen’s scoring mark stood for seven years, eventually broken by future NBA player Byron Beck.

Thulen, a 1956 La Conner graduate recruited by the University of Washington, at one time also held the record for most points (41) and free throws (17) in a State tourney game.

He was among many who sent text messages to Dean Swanson congratulating the La Conner team after its big semifinal win over Wahkiakum. Swanson, a 1975 La Conner grad whose granddaughter, Juna, is the Lady Braves’ point guard, gathered fans in in the Arena concourse to share those well-wishes with the players.

It was a rousing get-together.

Especially when amid loud cheering and clapping, and with La Conner scoring leader Justine Benson looking on, Swanson read aloud a congratulatory message from 1973 Braves All-State guard Tony Hernandez.

The 52-45 setback to Liberty the next evening only briefly damped the excitement.

La Conner Athletic Director Kathy Herrera, whose two daughters played on this year’s team, perhaps captured the mood best on Sunday, alluding to her family’s move here from Colorado in 2018.

“I’m so thankful we found La Conner,” she said, “and the girls have the privilege of playing sports here. It’s been a heck of a ride and second place at State is something to be proud of.”