Chelan Girls Basketball

In the final seconds of game four, Coach Tom Robinson discusses strategy with Taylor McClellan, Kelli Bowers, Jaicee Harris and the rest of the squad on how to

close out the game against the Lakeside Eagles.

Lady Goats bring home fourth place trophy

By Richard Uhlhorn

The Lady Goats added their 10^th trophy to the Chelan High School trophy case on Saturday, March 6.

The run to the fourth place trophy began on Wednesday, March 3, and Chelan got off to a quick start, defeating Bellevue Christian 49-41. This win put them up against Lynden Christian (19-2) on Thursday, March 4, and it turned out to be the one team the girls could not get by, losing 28-44.

The Lynden Christian Lyncs were extremely physical and used their aggressiveness in the first quarter to build a 15-4 lead over the Lady Goats. In this decisive quarter of play, the Lady Goats were turning the ball trying to get their inside game going. From that point on, this game was played on a pretty even scale with Kelli Bowers posting a game high 19 points. The Lyncs did not allow anyone else to score more than three points. Houston Robison had a great rebounding game with 10. The loss put the girls into the losers bracket with a chance for a fourth place trophy.

On Friday, the Lady Goats went up against the Onalaska Loggers in a loser out/must win game. In this game it was all Jaicee Harris who had a double/double with a game high 16 points (12 points in the first half) and 11 rebounds.

Onalaska proved to be a tough team and was able to stick with the Goats throughout the first three quarters of play. At the break the Goats only led by one point, 20-19 and late in the third quarter, Onalaska went into the lead 28-25 with only 54 seconds remaining before the final period.

Onalaska was disrupting Chelan’s inside game, creating turnovers which they were taking advantage of. Robinson made some adjustments in the timeout and Chelan was able to hold Onalaska scoreless in the fourth quarter of play. It wasn’t until Houston Robison came up with a huge putback to put the Goats back into the lead 29-28 that the game turned around for Chelan.

As the Loggers became more desperate in the waning seconds of this crucial game, they fouled Kelli Bowers who put one of her two free throws through the hoop to give Chelan a two point lead. With only seven seconds on the clock, Cari Williams was fouled and she hit one of her two shots. Now Chelan was ahead by three points. Then it was Kelli at the free throw line where she closed the game out with only two seconds remaining, taking the final score to 33-28.

“The seniors played big today,” said Coach Tom Robinson after the game. “We call it gut check Friday and we shut them out in the fourth quarter, which is a testament on their determination to get to the trophy round.”

The win put Chelan up against another tough team, Lakeside (Nine Mile) who came into the tournament with a 17-2 record.

Saturday afternoon was the perfect setting for a run for fourth place and both teams were ready to do battle. Chelan immediately jumped out to a 9-0 lead before the Lakeside coach called a timeout to settle his girls down. Jaicee Harris was getting some great shots underneath on some great passing from Kelli Bowers.

Lakeside battled back after the timeout and ended the first quarter by tying the game with Chelan 14-all. Chelan kept the advantage through the second quarter until Lakeside’s Lexi Zappone hit a three pointer to even the score at 22-all with 1:45 remaining in the first half, and that’s where the first half ended, 22-22-.

Chelan got lots of looks in the third quarter but the ball wasn’t falling and every time Chelan got out front, Zappone would hit a three point shot. With 6:38 remaining to play it was 33-33; with 4:42 remaining it was 36-36. Chelan went out to a 38-36 lead and then Zappone did it again and put the Eagles into the lead, 39-38.

The Kelli Bowers hit her big three to finish off her high school career to put Chelan out front 41-39. Houston Robison hit one of two attempts at the free throw line to put Chelan up 42-39.

Jaicee Harris finally pounded the nail in with 50 seconds left an assist by Cari Williams to put Chelan in the lead for good 46-43 and that is where the game ended.

“It was quite a ride,” said Coach Tom Robinson. “It was a fun way to end the season on one of our better games of the tournament. They would push it out and we would push back and I told the girls that we would have to push it out and then hold them.” Chelan did that at the end of the game and took home the fourth place trophy… their tenth in 12 years.

“The girls did a lot of really nice subtle things to win this game. We sent a lot of them out with smiles on their faces.”

Player statistics for the four games:

Cari Williams – 12 pts., 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 6 turnovers, 4 steals in 82 minutes of play; Jaicee Harris – 39 pts., 36 rebounds, 5 assists, 12 turnovers, 3 blocked shots, 10 steals in 110 minutes of play; Lyndsey Fox – 6 pts., 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 7 turnovers in 45:52 minutes of play; Houston Robison – 15 pts., 24 rebounds, 3 assists, 12 turnovers, 3 blocked shots, 10 steals in 90 minutes of play; Darcy Austin – 1 point in 2:13 minutes of play; Sarah Waszkewitz – 2 pts., 8 rebounds, 1 assist, 4 turnovers, 3 steals in 42-23 minutes of play; Kelli Bowers – 53 pts., 20 rebounds, 10 assists, 16 turnovers, 3 blocked shots, 6 steals in 125 minutes; Taylor McClellan – 17 pts., 10 rebounds, 2 assists, 9 turnovers, 2 blocked shots, 1 steal in 80 minutes; Courtney Dietrich – 12 pts., 12 rebounds, 5 turnovers, 2 blocked shots, 1 steal in 54:19 minutes; Clancy Courtney – 1 rebound in 2:13 minutes of play.

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