CONCRETE — The Concrete girls’ basketball team came back on Darrington once, but didn’t have quite enough time to complete the second attempt.
The Lions erased all but two points of a 12-point deficit in the fourth quarter before falling 48-44 to the Loggers on Friday in a Northwest 2B/1A League battle to see which team’s season would continue.
Both teams finish the regular season at 5-7 in league play, but the Loggers earn the fourth, and final district playoff berth by virtue of their season sweep against the Lions. Darrington will play a pigtail game to enter the main bracket next week.
“We knew it was going to be a battle,” Darrington coach Benny Bryson said. “Everything was on the line.”
Concrete ends its season with an 11-9 record.
“I’m really proud of my team,” senior Beka Thomas said. “Sometimes I had doubts, because we were getting really frustrated.”
While the Lions came up short at the end, it was the beginning of each half that proved the difference. Darrington opened the game with a 6-0 run and led by as many as seven in the first quarter before Concrete stormed back in the second.
Thomas scored seven straight points to give the Lions their first lead on the way to a 21-17 halftime edge.
The Loggers opened the second half even better, scoring the first 15 points in the third quarter to build an 11-point edge — one that reached a dozen in the fourth quarter.
The lead was still in double figures when the Lions mounted a furious comeback, helped out by a five-point play with 2 minutes left.
Amanda Taylor scored and was fouled. She missed her free throw, but Tasha Smith was there with the rebound and putback. She too was fouled, made her foul shot. Just like that a nine-point deficit was 42-38 with 1:55 left.
“I could see it in their eyes that we weren’t done,” Lions coach Kevik Rensink said. “A lot of coaches have to deal with their girls get down by four and they start moping around. It doesn’t matter what the score is, the girls still have a passion to play.”
Concrete cut the deficit to two on several occasions the rest of the way, and Darrington helped out with some missed free throws down the stretch, but the Lions were unable to take advantage.
Concrete had three possessions with a chance to tie, but turned it over twice in the backcourt and missed its only shot to tie. Darrington made a pair of free throws, the last with 1.2 seconds left, to win.
“Honestly, I thought we were going to win,” Rensink said. “When we came back to get within two, and we were hitting our free throws at the end, I thought we were going to win. We had two or three really good chances at the end.”
Thomas finished her final game with 21 points, giving her 1,028 for her prep career, good for 14th on the all-time county list.
Freshman Hailey Wales finished with 18 points, nine rebounds and a pair of blocked shots to pace the Loggers. Jordan Corley added 12 points and Randi Wales, also a freshman, added 10.
“Hailey really got us started well,” Bryson said. “We really got out running the court in the beginning. When it got into a half-court game, we got sluggish.”
• Eric Francis can be reached at 360-416-2131 or by e-mail at
