After scoring the first nine points, the Vashon girls basketball team never trailed last Tuesday, riding a season’s best scoring night from Anya Quig to a 54-36 win in their regular season finale over the Chimacum Cowboys. The Pirates shot a blazing 55 percent for the game on 2-point shots and 43 percent from outside the 3-point line, dominating the game from the tip-off.
Vashon returned home on Saturday for a first round Tri-District playoff game against the Bush Blazers. The game, contested in front of a noisy home crowd, was in question early.
The Pirates jumped out to a quick lead, but multiple missed shots, good defensive rebounding on the part of the Blazers and a late Blazers 3-pointer left Vashon down by one point (6-7) at the end of the first quarter.
With its swarming defense unaltered, the second quarter marked an onslaught of offense as the Pirates went on a 16-4 run that left the visitors trailing 22-11 at halftime.
In the third quarter, Vashon picked up where they left off, as the Pirate defense stymied the Blazer backcourt (limiting the Blazers to just four points). The Pirates ran their offensive sets with precision on the way to a 21-point lead by the end of the third quarter (36-15). The Pirate bench put the finishing touches on the game as Vashon cruised to a 40-24 first-round playoff win.
The Pirates — who did not shoot a free throw all evening — were led offensively by Quig, whose 16 points led all scorers. Charlotte Kehoe added eight for the Pirates, and Jasmine Acosta tallied an additional six points.
Five other Pirates tallied 2-pointers. Rachel Hoffman scored after a hustling steal led to getting her own rebound off of an initially missed breakaway layup. Taegan Lynch punched in off a picture-perfect back-cut pass from Kehoe that brought the crowd to its feet. Maria Munsey scored on a zone-penetrating runner from 12 feet in the third quarter. In the final quarter, Cat Amick hit a left-handed power put-back after having her initial shot partially blocked, followed by Katherine Misel, whose nothing-but-net 16-footer put the final exclamation point on the Pirate offensive effort.
“I thought Charlotte’s passing was one key to the game,” said coach Henry Porter post-game. “Bush loaded up on her defensively, and while she took her share of shots, she also was finding her open teammates, who were getting really good looks thanks to all that defensive attention on her.”
The Tri-District bracket is now trimmed to eight teams (five of whom will qualify for the state tournament). All eight teams played on Tuesday, Feb. 15. The Pirates’ first opponent in the double-elimination format, Bellevue Christian, is the number one seed from District 2. The site and opponent for the third round games on Feb. 17 will be determined by the results of the second round games played Tuesday.
