ADNA — Adna wasn’t in an uncomfortable spot by any means heading into halftime against Mossyrock. The Pirates hit five threes in the first half and took a five-point lead into the locker room, but it did feel as though they hadn’t fully kicked it into gear yet.
“We had some lapses,” Adna coach Chris Bannish said. “We weren’t playing sound defense. That was the message at halftime, like, ‘Hey guys, we gotta get back to who we are.’”
The Pirates did just that after the break, quickly extending their lead and pulling away for a 65-43 victory.
Adna came out with the same press it had used in the first 16 minutes, but the takeaways became much more frequent in the third quarter. Some well-earned transition buckets followed, as well as a couple of three-pointers from Kamryn Freeman, who finished the night with 15 points, all on five threes.
“She’s been great all year,” Bannish said. “For a freshman to do what she’s doing, I never would have thought that that’s what she would bring this year. She’s taken that sixth man role by storm … She is outplaying my expectations from where I thought she would be. She’s been a shining star for this program.”
McKenna Torrey finished with a game-high 19 points, seven steals, and seven rebounds, and Bannish made sure to also commend her performance.
“She’s playing at an MVP level,” Bannish said. “She is playing really well right now. She controls the tempo. She controls the game. She’s unselfish. She’s playing at that next level.”
Alyssa Carroll added 11 points, while Emma Kissner was “incredible” on the glass with 12 rebounds and six points of her own.
On their senior night, Rhylee Beebe scored eight points while adding six assists and four steals, and Ava Humphrey scored six points and dished out four assists.
Mossyrock trailed in the first half and was able to rally back to stay within striking distance, but when it fell behind in the third, points were few and far between. The Vikings finished the third with just six points and entered the fourth quarter down 21.
“Everybody’s gonna press us until we figure it out,” Mossyrock coach Nick Rashoff said. “If I was coaching against us, I would do the same thing.”
Adyson Barrows finished with a team-high 17 points, while Maci Rashoff scored nine and both Audrey Ollikainen and Calliope Schultz scored six.
Though the Vikings sit at 0-5 in league play, the first half on Tuesday provided a blueprint for how the Vikings could make a run at the district tournament, which starts next week.
“If we can make it a half-court game I feel like we can play with anybody in our league and at least keep it close,” Nick Rashoff said.
Mossyrock (10-7, 0-5 C2BL) will wrap up its regular season with a home matchup against Rainier on Saturday and a trip to Onalaska on Tuesday. If they lose both, the Vikings will be the eight seed, while a pair of wins could put them as high as the six seed.
If Mossyrock can finish in the top seven, it would avoid the district play-in game and head straight to the double-elimination portion of the tournament.
“The goal is to get as good as we can by districts and see what happens there,” Nick Rashoff said. “We just gotta get more detail-oriented.”
The Pirates (16-2, 5-1 C2BL) are now firmly in control of the No. 2 seed in the C2BL, which would give them a bye to the district quarterfinals. They’ll wrap up their regular season on Tuesday in Randle against Morton-White Pass, but first, they’ll head further east to take on Cle Elum-Roslyn in a non-league bout.
Bannish is hopeful that a win there and a good showing in the district tournament would put Adna in position to potentially grab a top-eight seed at state.
“We’ll see where we’re at,” Bannish said. “I’m just really happy coaching wise. I’m really proud of where we’re at.”
