By JOEL HILLE
The Vashon girls’ basketball team began its season on Monday, Dec. 1, under the direction of new head coach Rob Kearns and assistant coach Brian Van Buren.
The first game was against the Peninsula High School Seahawks, which is a 3A school. The Pirates began strong with some solid passing and shooting to take a 16-11 first quarter lead. But the Seahawks made three 3-pointers in the second quarter, and the Pirates went into halftime with a 27-24 lead.
In the third quarter, the Seahawks converted several Pirate turnovers into more 3-pointers and had a 43-37 lead at the end of three.
During the fourth quarter, more turnovers and cold shooting resulted in the Pirates scoring only 5 points, which led to a disappointing 56-42 loss to open the season.
The Pirates were led in scoring with 13 points each from Eva Anderson and Annika Hille and 12 points from Sienna Jannetty.
The Pirates traveled to North Seattle to play the 2A Mountlake Terrace Hawks for their second game on Wednesday, Dec 3. After a slow start, the girls finally made some field goals near the end of the first quarter, which ended with the Hawks leading 12-8. But the Hawks shot well and made five 3-pointers during the first half to lead at halftime, 26-14. Midway through the third quarter, Hille and Jannetty made consecutive 3-pointers that got the Pirates to within 3 points, but two minutes later the Hawks also made two 3-pointers, and the quarter ended with the score 37-26. The Pirates pulled to within 7 points midway through the fourth quarter, but another 3-pointer by the Hawks got them back to a 10-point lead that they never relinquished. The final score was 46-32, with the Pirates being led in scoring by Jannetty with 10 points, Hille with 7 and Anderson with 6. Kate Atwell grabbed 6 rebounds while Melanie Stoffer added 5.
The third game of the week was on Saturday night, Dec 6, against 2A Franklin Pierce High School in south Tacoma. It was obvious from the opening tip that this would be a difficult game for the Pirates, as the Cardinals play very aggressive defense. The Cardinals made four 3-pointers in the first eight minutes, and the Pirates were down 16-5 after one quarter.
The Pirates’ shooting went cold in the second quarter, but a field goal by Natalie VanDevanter, two free throws by Kate Atwell and another by Lilly Hennessey gave them 10 points, and the halftime score was 33-10.
The Pirates managed 8 points in the third quarter, but the Cardinals scored 9 and had a 24 point lead at 42-18.
The Cardinals aggressive play finally wore the Pirates down in the fourth quarter, and the final score was 66-22.
Coach Rob Kearns said that despite the overly aggressive play of the Cardinals, which resulted in several girls having minor cuts and bruises, the girls played tough and didn’t complain during the game and he was proud of their effort.
The girls’ next home game will be at 6 p.m. Thursday in the VHS gym against Meridian High School.
— Joel Hille is the father of Pirate player.
