Lady Bears place second in District 6

OMAK – Unlike the two regular season games that they split by five and six points, the District 6 championship collision between the Brewster and Okanogan varsity girls at Omak last Saturday, Feb. 10, was a one-way trip as the dominant Lady Bulldogs kept the trailing Lady Bears in the rearview mirror the entire time.

Okanogan opened the game with a pair of buckets and a free-throw before Brewster got on the scoreboard with a Paige Wulf. Though the Lady Bears stayed close through half of the first quarter, the Lady Bulldogs gradually added a point here and a point there to end up seven points ahead going into the second quarter. 

Brewster struggled to penetrate Okanogan’s defense, and the Lady Bears’ three-point attempts were not falling as the Lady Bulldogs built a commanding 35-18 halftime lead.

In the absence of a third-quarter turnaround, Brewster whittled down Okanogan’s 17-point lead to 11 by the end of the third, hoping they could muzzle the Lady Bulldogs and rally in the fourth to pull out the win.

Okanogan would have none of it as the Lady Bulldogs kept their composure and sank a couple of critical baskets beyond the arc to put the game out of reach even for Brewster in the final minutes. Okanogan won by 15, 59-44, to claim the last District 6 championship and move on to play Northwest Christian (Colbert) at Wenatchee High School (time TBD) on Friday, Feb. 16.

District 6 runner-up Brewster will play Liberty-Spangle.

Two-point heartstopper 

The fun games are the flatliners, those that have much of the crowd at near-cardiac arrest as the final seconds tick off the game clock. That was the scene at Omak Wednesday night, Feb. 7, as the Brewster Lady Bears pulled out a two-point, 58-56 win over Tonasket after trailing the Tigers to the last minute of play. 

That outcome looked unlikely as the Lady Bears were four points down, 56-52, with barely more than a minute to play. Then Paige Wulf drilled a three-pointer from the sideline to bring Brewster within one. On the next possession, Wulf struck again inside the key to give Brewster the lead with 18 seconds left for Tonasket to score.

The Tigers took a timeout to get the ball to their best shooter, senior guard Jaylo Bello.

Instead, Kaydence Carrington stripped the ball and was fouled. Carrington took Brewster’s inbound pass and was fouled again with 4.4 seconds left. The second infraction was a shooting foul, and Carrington made the second of two free throws to put Brewster up by two, 58-56. 

Pepper Boesel stole the ball after Tonasket inbounded and was fouled with 1.2 seconds remaining. She missed both free throws, and the Tigers rebounded, but time expired as Tonasket attempted a last-ditch shot from beyond half-court. 

The Tigers are the one team that seemed to have Brewster’s number after handing the Lady Bears two regular season losses, 57-54, on Jan. 2 and 58-52 on Jan. 23. Tonasket took the early lead at Wednesday’s third meeting and only allowed the Lady Bears to briefly edge ahead by a point twice in the first quarter before quickly regaining the lead.

Tonasket led by six points, 29-23, at halftime, and were still up by six, 46-40, at the end of the third quarter. The Tigers’ largest margin was 10 points. 

Wulf led all scorers with 25 points and was one of three Lady Bears in double figures, including Morgan McGuire with 13 and Pepper Boesel with 12. Grace Becker added 4, and Carrington, 2.

In the game following Brewster over Tonasket, the Okanogan Lady Bulldogs defeated Lake Roosevelt, 62-36, to advance to the championship game.

Mike Maltais: 360-333-8483 or michael@ward.media