Lady Sparts knock off Lake Stevens to share conference lead

Serenna Duncan (middle), one of seven seniors on the Lady Spartan squad that is now 16-1 and tied for first in the WesCo North, has excelled in her role as harassing defender and ball-handling guard off the bench this season. PHOTOS BY JOHN GALBREATH | STANWOOD/CAMANO NEWS Whether anyone acknowledges it or not, the Lady Sparts’ 60-56 edging of arch-rival Lake Stevens last Wednesday night was a case of sweet revenge.

After two seasons of watching the Vikings rally for huge second halves that obliterated double-figure leads built by the Spartans in the first 16 minutes of each of the three previous contests, the local hoopsters finally took care of the visiting Vikes with aplomb.

Each team now has a 10-1 WesCo 4A North record (16-1 overall) with three league games remaining in the regular season.

In addition, the Sparts routed Kamiak’s Knights 62- 40 and Monroe’s Bearcats 66-34 last week.

Not surprising to anyone present, the game with Lake Stevens was close throughout. Actually, Stanwood manufactured an 11-point advantage midway through the final quarter of play, but rarely did the lead for either squad rise above three points during the game.

Even though there were numerous factors that led to the Spartan victory, making 13-of-14 free throws in the second half has to be considered the key ingredient.

Ten straight successful fourth-quarter charity tosses by Tristan Murphy (two), Sammi Kelleigh (two), Rachel Swartz (two) and four in a row in the last 24 seconds by senior point guard Renee Lucero proved to be the difference down the line.

After Lake rallied to within one point, 35-34, in the third frame, the Sparts united their efforts to build that 11-point margin over the next eight minutes of play with excellent defense and an offense dedicated to coach Dennis Kloke’s vision of utilizing his squad’s size advantage.

Murphy, the 6-foot-1 freshman who was an integral part of coach Dennis Kloke’s specially planned high-low offense against the Vikings, made a pair of gifters to start off the takecharge rally. Senior post Paisley Heckman followed with a free throw before Rachel Swartz put back an offensive rebound for two more points. A nicely threaded pass to Murphy from senior wing Jade Borseth pushed the lead to 42-36 by quarter’s end.

Swartz assisted Murphy for a 12-foot turnaround twiner and then the latter calmly sank two free throws as the local hoopsters built the advantage to 10.

Another assist provided by Swartz, a junior who has provided her team with some excellent play at both ends of the court lately, allowed Heckman to bank in two of her game-high 16 counters.

Sammi Kelleigh followed with two more charity tosses to establish the never- to- be- surmounted 50-39 advantage with 4:04 remaining.

That rally came to fruition because the Stanwood guards and forwards sacrificed much of their offense to pass into the key where Swartz (6-foot-3; 12 points), Heckman (6-foot; 16) and Murphy (6-foot-1; 15) had established their presence in the paint against the heightdeprived visitors.

It worked, and those selfsame guards and wings had to have taken pride in playing roles they were not accustomed to in order to assure a hard-fought victory.

“I was very proud of the entire team as they executed our game plan very well,” said coach Kloke after the game. “We cut down on Lake’s 3’s while playing great team defense on their very quick and talented players. Our team defense held Lake to but two 3’s.”

“In addition, we held both Brook Pahukoa and Katie Goddard to only three field goals each while keeping Abby Molstre off the offense boards,” Kloke added. “She burned us for 17 points the first game - many coming with her offensive rebounds.”

As a team, the local basketeers corralled 28 caroms to their adversary’s 18. Murphy had six rebounds while Heckman, Swartz and Tarah Murphy snagged five apiece.

Besides the three post players, those who scored for Stanwood were Kelleigh 7, Lucero 4, Brenda Bingham 2, Tarah Murphy 2 and Borseth 2.

Against the Knights, Stanwood built a 38-18 halftime lead with an excellent transition game and then cruised to victory behind a tenacious defense and the scoring of Heckman 19, Lucero 13, Bingham 8, Swartz 8, Tr. Murphy 6, Kelleigh 4, Borseth 2 and Jillian Jacobs 2.

“Jade Borseth played outstanding defense on Kamiak’s very talented 6-foot point guard Katie Blackwell,” Kloke noted. “This game gave us positive ‘Mo’ into the Wednesday game against Lake Stevens.”

After scoring 25 secondquarter points to establish a 37-13 advantage over the Bearcats at Monroe, the Sparts had an easy time of it as they eventually won by 32 points.

“My concern going into this game was having a letdown after that huge win over Lake Stevens and having beaten Monroe by 25 the first time around. It did not happen because this senior team showed great leadership in their preparation for this game, and then went out and executed it,” Kloke concluded.

Rachel Swartz had one of her best games of the season as she hustled for 17 points to pace all scorers. Heckman followed with 15 counters while Tristan Murphy 12, Bingham 7, Lucero 7, Kelleigh 6 and Serenna Duncan 2 followed.