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SPOKANE — It took until the final 90 seconds for the emotions to pour out. When Hayden Kaut, Taylen Evander, Sophia Bittner and the rest of the Tigers usual rotation players went to the bench, they were red in the face.
Tears were dropping onto the Spokane Arena floor. Emotions spilled out into the Napavine High School student section, where students and parents briefly got into it with a pair of Cle Elum-Roslyn fans that invaded the south side of the stands.
Dreams of the Tigers winning their second Class 2B state championship were gone over the course of 32 gametime minutes.
And they never even led once on Friday night.
Fifth-seeded Cle Elum Roslyn controlled the state semifinal from the opening tip to the final buzzer, avenging its regular season loss to Napavine with a 58-44 triumph. The hooting-and-hollering Warriors celebrated with their student section and kept it up down the tunnel.
Napavine (21-5) walked into its locker room still processing what happened.
“Somber,” Tigers head coach Shane Schutz said of the locker room mood. “When your dreams are taken away, it is never good news. Kudos to them, just didn’t get enough good looks tonight. This hurts because these kids put in a lot of time and effort and that work got us to this point, grateful for that too.”
It was a stark contrast from the meeting to close the month of January. Napavine dominated the first quarter in its home gym and led by 18 at the break. Cle-Elum Roslyn cut into the deficit and only lost by 13.
Since then, the Warriors went 8-2 – their only two losses to 1A semifinalist King’s and the No. 3 seed in 2B Brewster.
“They came with a little more zest,” Schutz said. “You could see it on the floor, you could feel it. We just didn’t answer very well.”
One of the primary points of emphasis after the Tigers quarterfinal win was to limit CE-R to one shot. On the first possession, they allowed two offensive rebounds. CE-R finished with 11 offensive rebounds and 11 second chance points.
Even though Napavine saw and prepped for the Warriors 1-2-2 full court press defense and 3-2 half court zone, it struggled to break the press and get entry passes into the high post. One day after canning 10 3s, the Tigers went just 4-of-23 from behind the arc.
Plus, they committed 19 turnovers. In two games versus the District 5 runners-up, they totaled 42 turnovers.
“They did a better job staying out on our shooters,” Schutz said. “Too many turnovers, too many offensive rebounds.You could just tell they were hungry. That’s how you're supposed to play in games like this.”
CE-R opened the game up 6-0, then Napavine tied it at eight and 10 despite going 3 minutes, 57 seconds without a field goal. The Warriors got up as much as eight in the second before Bittner hit a running floater and a trifecta to make the margin 24-21 after two stanzas.
Schutz felt fine with where his group was at.
“We didn’t play very well and if we can come out and start (the third) quarter well, we could change the momentum,” he said.
The Warriors came out firing again to start the third with a 7-0 run, only for it to be answered by a 6-0 Tigers spree. Nicholle Valentine’s layup early in the fourth made the deficit five, but they never got closer.
Ava Ondong ended up as the leading scorer for Napavine with nine points. Kaut, the Montana recruit, finished with seven points and a game-high 14 rebounds. Evander and Bittner also finished with seven points while Clara Fay hauled in seven boards.
“Trying to get them in positions to score, just couldn’t find the right look,” Schutz said. “I think it was more what (CE-R) did and less than what we didn’t do.”
Two straight years of semifinal heartbreak have led to Napavine being in Saturday’s third/fifth place game. It will take on No. 9 Davenport at 11:15 a.m. to close the state tournament. The Gorillas fell to Reardan in the other 2B semi.
Schutz was able to regroup his girls and take third in 2025. Now, he’ll have to do that one more time to get the five-player senior class one final victory.
“We never give up on these kids,” Schutz said. “We got to move on, we got to get past this. You get one more day together and we have to find a way to come together and make it a memorable experience. Hopefully, we can find that mojo.”
