Deer Park Girls Basketball Heads to State
Chants of ON TO STATE resonated from the Deer Park cheering section as the clock in the West Valley High School gymnasium stuck zero last Wednesday and the Lady Stags, in a season of firsts, added another claiming the district title with their third victory of the season over Freeman 53- 44.
The opening quarter was closely contested as Deer Park, with four points each from the all- league trio of Darian Herring, Allie Garry and Brooklyn Coe, led 12- 8 following the opening eight minutes.
The Lady Stags largest lead of the game came in the second period at 21- 10, and was 23- 14 following a score by Coe that capped a stretch of her scoring 11 of 12 Lady Stags points. A 16- 6 surge closing the first half saw the second seeded Scotties trail by one at half, 27- 26.
Herring and Coe shared the scoring load in the third as the Lady Stags entered the final period with a 3935 edge.
Having connected on a three pointer midway in the final stanza, to close to 4742, the Scotties were whistled for an intentional foul. Berlyn Zimmerer hit one of two at the line and Coe drained a triple to push the lead to nine at 51- 42.
T h e starting five of Herring, Garry, Coe, ZImmerer and Kaylee Reiter were “ironwomen” in the second half playing all but the final Freeman possession.
Coe led in scoring with 25 and Herring recorded a double-double with 15 points and ten rebounds. The twotime league MVP also had five assists and rejected four shots.
On Sunday the Lady Stags learned of their state tournament seeding and opponent. They will travel to Davis High School in Yakima for a 2: 00 tip off against
South Central Athletic Association title winner Wapato. With a top eight seed, the squad is guaranteed a trip to the Yakima Valley Sundome the following week. With a victory they would play in the quarter- finals on Thursday. The loser of the Deer Park-Wapato matchup faces the Zillah- Sultan winner on Wednesday needed a win to advance to play on the following day.
“Tale Of The Tape”
Deer Park 20- 2
Wapato 22- 1
Points Per Game
DP 59.3
Wap 73.2 Points Allowed Per Game DP 35.2
Wap 42.8
Common Oppoents: Connell
Deer Park 60, Connell 13 Wapato 76 , Connell 20 Wapato 73, Connell 22
The Deer Park boys entered last week with state tournament aspirations of their own, but needed a win on Wednesday at West Valley to maintain those aspirations.
A slow start in the first half found them trailing Colville at halftime 17- 14, before the offense found it’s rhythm.
Seth Hickman tallied two of the first three buckets of the third, but the Crimson Hawks still lead 21- 20 when Ian Stapf left the court to tend to a bloody nose. The senior wing came back into the game and quickly made up for lost time with nine of the final eleven Deer Park points as part of a closing 13- 0 run. He would tally eleven in the quarter as the Stags closed the third on a 19- 4 run.
The senior trio of Stapf, Hickman and Cole Krepcik provided all of the fourth quarter offense, including Stapf punctuating the victory with a late three pointer for the final 48- 32 tally. Stapf was the leading scorer with 22 and Hickman next with 15.
With one more win needed to punch one of 16 spots in the state tournament, a trip to Omak was on tap for Saturday which was a rematch of a contest during the Stags Christmas break road trip.
The home standing Pioneers, hot off of a 71- 52 win over regular season Caribou Trail League champion Quincy in their district final, lead only 28- 24 at intermission.
As pivotal as the third quarter was in the win over Colville three nights earlier, it was just the opposite on the Pioneers home court. Omak used a 23- 12 third period advantage and parlayed that into a 74- 57 win.
Krepsick closed out his four seasons of varsity play with 19 points and Stapf had 13.
Deer Park finished the season 13- 10.