2A Girls State: Lynden Rolls Over Deer Park Into Semis, 58-33

When your game plan works to perfection and you hold two all-state players about 20 points below their average and you still find yourself behind by 31 points … you know you’re outclassed. Welcome to Deer Park’s world.

The No.2 Stags gave No.1 Lynden a battle for one quarter before the two-time defending state champion rolled on to a stunning 58-33 victory in the Class 2A state quarterfinals Thursday morning in the Yakima SunDome.

“That was fun,” said Lynden senior Rian Stephan after the Lions improved this year’s record to 25-0 and raised their winning streak to 73 games.

The Lions will now continue their quest for a three-peat in Friday’s semifinals against another strong contender, No.3 Clarkston. Game time will be 3:45 p.m. with the winner advancing to Saturday’s championship game.

For coverage of all of our Whatcom teams’ state games, click on State Games.

Being it was No.1 vs. No.2, the quarterfinal had a big build-up — “It’s a bummer that it was on Thursday,” said Lynden coach Rob Adams — and after one quarter it looked like the under-sized but highly skilled, athletic Stags had the right strategy to pull off a shocker.

They physically attacked all-state guard Finley Parcher and all-state post Payton Mills whenever they came into the paint — “mugged,” was the term Adams used — and then took their chances with the other Lions. On offense, the Stags wanted to drive inside and then pass it out for their most effective weapon: the 3-pointer.

And when the game was over, Parcher and Mills were held to just 20 points and Deer Park had made more 3-pointers than Lynden. So, how did Lynden blow out to a 11-point halftime lead, a 22-point third-quarter lead, and a 31-point lead late in the fourth period?

Simple. The Lions showed once again that they are not a two-girl team.

“The best part of it all, Finley and Payton were willing to defer for the greater good for a chance to win,” said Adams pointing out how easy it would have been for his stars to try to take over the game. Instead, they focused on helping others take over. “That says a lot. Culture-wise, that’s what makes it fun.”

In the first half, it was Stephan who had the opportunities. The 6-foot-3 forward had 10 points before halftime and would finish with 12 points and 7 rebounds. Her back-to-back 3-pointers helped turn a three-point Lynden lead into a 24-13 halftime margin as the Lions held Deer Park to only two points in the second quarter.

“We were excited to play them,” said Stephan, who plans to play Division I volleyball for the University of Washington next fall. “We’ve been anticipating it all season. We said, ‘Let’s get it done.’ And we did.”

Said Adams of the offensive plan: “We wanted to put them (Lions other than Parcher and Mills) in spots to be successful. Rian was a bi-product of our game plan.”

In the second half, it was everyone else’s turn as seven different Lions would finish with five or more points. It showed during the decisive run three minutes into the third quarter with Lynden leading by 10 and Deer Park still clinging to dreams of an upset.

Junior Lexi Hermanutz hit a 3-pointer, Parcher hit a 3-pointer, senior Degitu Bowler hit a 3-pointer, Parcher scored on a fastbreak, junior Izzie Stephan hit a 3-pointer and Parcher finished off another fastbreak. In just over three minutes, the Lions had gone on an 18-3 tear and were up, 44-22, heading into the final period.

Parcher would finish with a game-high 14 points and 3 assists, Bowler and Izzie Stephan had 8 points each with Bowler making a pair of 3-pointers, Mills had 6 points, and Hermanutz and sophomore Emily Dykstra had 5 points each.

Then, to stop the Stags’ drives to the hoop, the Lions went back in time to pull out an old defense that put their 6-footers in the key while their guards shadowed the Deer Park shooters outside. That defense worked to perfection as Deer Park, which had only scored below 58 points once all year, had by far its lowest point total of the season.

“We made some adjustments going in that would be to our advantage,” Adams said of the defense, which this team had never run before. “I thought we settled in (after the first quarter). We tweaked some resonsibilities and simplified it. I thought the buy-in was great.”

Not surprisingly, the Lions outrebounded the smaller Stags, 43-26. Mills had 14 boards, and Rian Stephan and Parcher had 7 each.

So now, Lynden stands two wins away from becoming the first 2A girls team to win three consecutive titles.

“This was just a hill,” Stephan said of Thursday’s challenge from Deer Park. “We know where we want to go. We just focus on each game.”

Adams agreed, noting it didn’t matter who the Lions would play.

“We always talk about the faceless opponent,” he said. “No matter who we’re playing or where we play them … you can’t be afraid to get beat. Now we move on … and they know that.”

Lynden senior Jules Slayton was awarded the team’s sportsmanship medallion for the game.

Lynden 58, Deer Park 33

Deer Park 11 2 9 11—33

Lynden 12 12 20 14—58

Deer Park: Boesel 11, Kasinger, Zimmerer 1, Jacobs, A. Bryant 10, Mitchell, Gannon 3, E. Bryant 8, Reiter, Haney, A. Ellingson, L. Ellingson.

Lynden: Bowler 8, Hermanutz 5, Nyhoff, Newcomb, Slayton, R. Stephan 12, I. Stephan 8, Parcher 14, Mills 6, Dykstra 5, Basart, Somma.

CLASS 2A GIRLS STATE TOURNAMENT

At Yakima SunDome

Wednesday, March 4

Nathan Hale 83, W.F. West 71 OT (loser out)

Deer Park 67, Mark Morris 32 (loser out)

Archbishop Murphy 53, Port Angeles 29 (loser out)