This week, Vashon High School’s girls’ basketball team played four games, including its first league game of the season against Charles Wright Academy.
On Jan. 3, Vashon faced Chimacum for the second time in less than a week. During their first matchup on Dec. 29, Vashon came out victorious, 40-36, at The Blaine Holiday Invite, where Vashon placed second out of four teams.
But the Pirates knew going into the Chimacum game that it would be difficult to beat the team twice. The girls came onto the court, and Vashon’s Kristi Walker won the tip, but by the end of the first quarter, Vashon was down by six and was never really able to recover. Senior captain Eva Anderson had a double-double by the end of the game with 10 points and 10 rebounds; she was also the highest scoring player of the game.
Contributing to the Pirates’ loss were many unforced turnovers in the first quarter, but by halftime the Vashon girls had six steals. Despite the effort, Chimacum beat Vashon 35-27.
On Jan. 4, Vashon was victorious over Crosspoint Academy, 41-19, at the team’s second game in as many days. The Pirates had 18 collective steals, quite a contrast from the Chimacum game the previous day. Sophomore Chloe Kuyper had a double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds. Kuyper and sophomore Olivia Larson were both tied for the most points at 10, and the most steals, four each.
On the Crosspoint side, only three girls got points on the board: freshman Ellie Kimmel, sophomore Joelle Zoolkoski and junior Rachel Degnan.
On Friday, Vashon played, and won, its first league game at Charles Wright Academy. Vashon beat the Tarriers 40-32. Anderson was the top scorer with 16 points, and Ava Butler was Vashon’s top rebounder of the night. With 11 rebounds and 9 points, Butler was 1 point away from a double-double.
At Vashon’s fourth and final game of last week, the team traveled to Cedar Park Christian, home of the Eagles, in Bothell. Cedar Park gained an early lead with Irena Korolenko beating out Walker for the tip and holding the lead for essentially the whole game. Vashon just couldn’t find the energy to get it back. With this being Vashon’s fourth game in five days there is no doubt the girls were tired.
Anderson again was the highest scoring player of this game with 10 points, followed by Larson with 8. One thing the Pirates struggled with during the Cedar Park game was rebounding. Throughout the entire game, the Pirates managed to pull down 16 rebounds, while the Eagles pulled down 37. The Eagles definitely out-rebounded the Pirates and won 53-30.
The junior varsity girls’ team also won two and lost two last week, beating Chimacum 48-16 and Charles Wright 50-5. But the girls lost to Crosspoint on Wednesday and Cedar Park on Saturday.
When asked about how he felt about this week’s games, head coach Rob Kearns said he was “very proud of both” teams.
“Four games in five days is a lot, especially when you throw in a league game at Charles Wright, which is never an easy place to win,” he said. “They [Vashon’s teams] really played hard and grinded out a big win to start league play.”
The Pirates played Seattle Christian at home Tuesday after press time.
Both varisty and JV teams will play two away, league games next week against Cascade Christian on Jan. 18 and Bellevue Christian on Jan. 20
— Lia Crawford is a Vashon High School freshman playing on the JV girls’ basketball team.
