PORT ANGELES — Port Angeles worked the baseline to perfection late against state power W.F. West as Bailee Larson’s dribble drive from the left corner beat a Bearcat defender and her baseline layup off the glass with less than 10 seconds left lifted the Roughriders to a 47-44 girls basketball win Saturday.
“The lane to the basket was wide open, so I just took the lay-in,” Larson said.
“We were supposed to run the clock down [a little more] but that was open, so I had to take it.”
Port Angeles girls beat WF West 47-44. Bailee Larson hit this layup to put the Riders up in final moments. Eve Burke huge game with 17, Millie Long 14. #wabkbscores pic.twitter.com/ktjoEfSk5B
— Michael Carman (@MikeCarmanPDN) December 14, 2019
Poindexter said the discussion was whether to get a shot up with three or five seconds left in the game.
“[But] if you have the lane and a lay-in, take that no matter what,” Poindexter said. “Bailee’s read was perfect and it was in line with what we wanted. It gave [W.F. West] a little time, but I’ll never turn down a wide-open lay-in.”
W.F. West’s offensive possession with less than eight seconds left was a short one as Jaida Wood herded Bearcats’ guard Maggie Vadala to the right sideline where Vadala dribbled the ball out of bounds.
“Jaida on her own … Jaida read that and it was a great read,” Port Angeles coach Michael Poindexter said.
After a Millie Long free throw put the Riders up 47-44, Drea Brumfield’s desperation heave with 0.9 seconds went well over the hoop to preserve Port Angeles’ victory.
Port Angeles held leads after every quarter in Saturday’s win — opening with a 12-0 first quarter thanks to tremendous 2-3 zone defense — holding on for a 21-20 halftime lead and building a five-point advantage heading to the final frame.
W.F. West went up by as much as 42-38 with 3:24 remaining but the Riders kept coming.
A Millie Long bounce pass through the paint found Eve Burke running left-to-right on the baseline to the basket for a bucket with 1:55 to go. Wood hit Burke going the other way to tie it up at 42-all with 51 seconds left.
Both of the sweet looks were set up by some game planning.
Poindexter and assistant coach Jennifer Rogers headed down to see W.F. West beat defending Class 2A champs Washougal on Dec. 5 — a 52-28 Bearcats’ win.
“We saw the one weakness they had defensively that Washougal repeatedly — they didn’t do much with it, they lost by 20-plus — but they got the ball on the baseline a lot.
“And we told them in practice that Jaida could set a career record for assists because I think we were going to get the bounce pass in to Jaida, what we call the flasher in the high post, and then a bounce pass in to Eve. And Jaida and Millie saw Eve all game long.
“And Eve just has a gift for space. She’s sneaky. And she put the ball in the basket.
“They executed that and it was so rewarding.”
Burke, playing the post at just 5-foot-7 against the taller Bearcats, put up a team-high 17 points, scoring consistently all game long.
Long was effective offensively and defensively, where she was tasked with guarding the 6-foot-2 Brumfield – a guard at that height — late.
She put Port Angeles up 44-42 with less than a minute to go before Brumfield hit a pair of free throws to tie it at 44-all with 28.6 left.
Poindexter was pleased with how his team’s varying defensive looks worked throughout the game.
“Our switch to man-to-man defense won the game, our 2-3 zone in the first quarter won the game,” Poindexter said. “And the 1-3-1 [zone] out of halftime, one time [W.F. West] took 23 seconds just to bring it up — and that worked to just break rhythm.”
Poindexter’s takeaway after going toe-to-toe with a Bearcats program that won the 2018 state title and has played in four state championship games since 2013?
His team has gotten smarter.
“We talked about it today, our basketball IQ has gone up,” Poindexter said. “[Assistant coach Daniel Horton pointed out] they are asking great questions at practice.
“Tonight showed our basketball intelligence. We’ve grown in a year.”
Port Angeles (1-0, 3-2) visits North Kitsap (1-0, 3-2) for a huge early season Olympic League game on Wednesday.
Port Angeles 47, W.F. West 44
W.F. West 0 20 9 15— 44
Port Angeles 12 9 13 13— 47
W.F. West (44) —
Port Angeles (47) — Burke 17, Long 14, Wood 8, Larson 5, Brady 3.
