By Micheal Rios, Tulalip News
After winning their first two games of the District 1B Basketball Tournament, the Tulalip Heritage Lady Hawks (18-3) earned the right to play in the District 1B championship game, held at Mt. Vernon Christian High School. Their opponents were the Lions of Cedar Park Christian (19-1).
These teams played twice during the regular season with the Lady Hawks giving Cedar Park their only L on the season with a 41-23 victory at Francy J. Sheldon gymnasium back on January 6. Then they played three weeks later, this time at Cedar Park’s home court, and the Lady Hawks succumbed to a 15-31 defeat.
The third matchup of these two teams was as intense as can be expected from a pair of league rivals playing with the District 1B championship on the line. In the 1st half, Tulalip opened the game executing their offense and jumped out to a 10-4 lead. Back-to-back stolen passes led to two easy buckets for the Lions that shrunk the Lady Hawk lead to 10-8 to start the 2nd quarter. Tulalip’s defense was making it very tough to score in the half court, while forward Deandra Grant was getting her looks from the post. At halftime, Tulalip led 18-13.
In the 2nd half, the Lady Hawks turnovers changed the pace of the game. The Lions adjusted their own defense to press the Tulalip guards and not allow them to shoot from the perimeter. That adjustment led to the Lady Hawks forcing and sometimes telegraphing passes that were picked off by the Lions players and resulted in transition buckets off the turnovers. Having scored only 13 points in the entire 1st half, the Lions scored 18 points in the 3rd quarter and 13 points in the 4th quarter.
Meanwhile the Lady Hawks offense just wasn’t able to pick up the pace. Guard Aliya Jones got aggressive and scored six straight points, but quickly fouled out to start the 4th quarter. Tulalip fell to Cedar Park by the score of 36-44, resulting in a 2nd place finish to the tournament and a spot in Tri-Districts.
The Lady Hawks (18-4) had three days to practice and prepare before hosting a Tri-District Tournament game versus Mt. Rainier Lutheran (13-10). Coming off the loss to Cedar Park Christian, the girls were eager to move forward and put that game behind them.
In front of a jam packed home crowd cheering them on the girls responded with a quality bounce back game. In a back and forth battle through the first two quarters, the Lady Hawks held a slim four point lead at halftime, 23-19.
Coming out of halftime, Tulalip’s defense clamped down and made nothing easy for Mt. Rainier Lutheran. In fact, the Lady Hawks held their opponent to just eight total 2nd half points. Offensively, forward Deandra Grant was at it again bullying the smaller defenders in the post and commanding a double team. Led by Deandra’s game high 18 points and Myrna Redleaf’s 10 points, the Lady Hawks secured a 40-27 win and moved on to the 2nd round of the Tri-District Tournament.