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SPOKANE — All season long, Adna coach Chris Bannish expected his group would take the court on Friday the week of the State Tournament in Spokane.
“We’ve got enough talent,” Bannish said. “But going in, it was ‘We gotta get to Saturday.’”
The Pirates had their chances to make it to Saturday, but couldn’t capitalize in a 47-43 overtime loss to Toutle Lake in a 2B State Consolation semifinal.
A win would have put Adna through to the 4th/6th game, guaranteeing the Pirates their fourth straight state trophy. Instead, they will return home without a trophy for the first time since 2022.
“I would’ve really liked to keep the string of trophies going, but it’s broken now,” Bannish said. “So that gives us something to work for next year to get back over here.”
For an extended stretch in the third quarter against Toutle Lake, that reality seemed inevitable. After a back-and-forth first half, the Pirates (21-7) scored the first basket of the second half to go up 22-19, but Toutle Lake responded with 15 straight points to go up 12.
A bucket got back within 10 before the start of the fourth, and in the fourth, McKenna Torrey and Ava Humphrey combined to hit three straight threes to get the Pirates within one.
“My goal was to get it to four with four to go,” Bannish said. “We shaved nine in a minute … We could have went away right there and just folded our season. I thought we did a good job of battling there.”
Torrey tied the game at 34 with a free throw with 5:24 to play, and the seesaw battle continued from there.
With less than 20 seconds to play, down two, the Pirates forced a turnover, and Alyssa Carroll hit a layup in transition to tie the game at 38. A driving layup from Toutle Lake’s Lainey Dean before the buzzer was off the mark, sending the game to overtime.
Torrey hit a pair of free throws to open the scoring in OT, but Toutle Lake’s Payton Thayer hit a high-arching deep three to immediately respond.
“I’m a big believer in whoever scores first wins in overtime,” Bannish said. “I really wanted to get that jump. We didn’t get it.”
A free throw later in the OT period from Alyssa Carroll tied the game at 43, but that was the last Adna point of the night. Audrey Kilponen gave the Ducks the lead with 59.1 seconds left with a bucket from underneath, and with 24.6 seconds left, Dean made it a three-point game with a free throw.
On the next possession, Torrey attempted to get the ball inside to Alyssa Carroll, but the pass sailed high, and the ball went back to Toutle Lake with just seven seconds left. Another free throw from Dean sealed it moments later.
Bannish said that the ball could have bounced either way in the final minutes, but he added that the Pirates didn’t help themselves on the defensive glass.
Both teams finished with 24 defensive rebounds, but Toutle Lake was also able to bring in 16 offensive boards compared to Adna’s seven. The Ducks were also able to attempt 10 extra
“They were getting two, three cracks at it down there on that end,” Bannish said. “That cost us. Not only were they burning clock, but they were scoring at the end of the clock.”
Torrey finished with 22 points, seven rebounds, and a pair of assists, Rhylee Beebe and Carroll both scored nine points, and Ava Humphrey tallied three points in her final game as a Pirate after five years with the team.
“That kid plays her butt off,” Bannish said of Humphrey. “She wakes up, she does her work, she goes to school. She doesn’t complain. Not one time has that kid ever complained or been a pain in my butt … Ava is the kid that you want your kids to be like.”
It was also Beebe’s final high school game, and Bannish acknowledged that between her and Humphrey, the Pirates will have holes to fill next winter.
“We have stuff coming back,” Bannish said. “But what Rhylee has athletically, and her will to win man and help us create tempo, we gotta find that.”
Among the returners are Torrey, Carroll, Taylor Johnson, and Emma Kissner, and Madi Otten and Tieander Olson will be back at 100 percent.
Olson missed virtually the entire season, only playing a minute in Adna’s Round of 12 victory over Colfax, and Otten missed the rest of the season after sustaining a knee injury earlier in the season.
Bannish said that despite being eliminated, his team will stick around Friday night to take in the semifinals.
“I got to keep them here today,” Bannish said. “I need to show them the semis tonight, I got to show them that that’s where we want to be next year … We need to learn, and then hopefully, it does happen next year … Let’s go make a run and try and get the big one.”
