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Liberty Bell 88, Cashmere 73
Game 9. (Loser out)
At Twisp, WA

Liberty Bell sophomore Jennifer Paluck scored 35 points on 16-for-21 shooting, snared a school-record 22 rebounds and had four assists as the Mountain Lions ousted Cashmere from the North Central District A tournament.
Liberty Bell will play Okanogan at 4:30 p.m. Friday at Wenatchee, with the winner to play the loser of the Tonasket-Cascade championship game, also at Wenatchee, for the second state berth.
Paluck scored 15 of Liberty Bell's 30 first-quarter points, but the Bulldogs cut into the lead in the second period and remained within striking distance throughout.
"I'll tell you what, they can shoot the ball," Liberty Bell coach Mike Bourn said of the Bulldogs. "I think they're one of the best shooting teams in the league - Jeff (Kenoyer) has done a great job with them in that respect. That's one of the reasons I voted for him as coach of the year.
"They've just gotten better and better since he's been there. And it shows not only in the basketball skills, but the character of the kids and everything else."
Lynn Brown had 27 points, shot 10-for-20 from the field and had 13 assists for Liberty Bell, while teammate Brooke Bourn had 12 points, nine rebounds and six assists and freshman Erin Torpey had six rebounds.
Cashmere had 26-point performances by both Gina Smith and Keri Peterson.

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Okanogan 59, Omak 55
Game 10. (Loser out)
At Okanogan, WA

The Bulldogs' Melanie Chamberlin scored on a breakaway lay-up, was fouled on the play and sank the ensuing free throw for a critical 3-point play with 40 seconds remaining in the loser-out game.
Chamberlin's score gave Okanogan a five-point lead and helped stave off a frantic fourth-quarter rally by the Pioneers, who had pecked away at a 12-point Bulldog lead and finally cut it to two on a 3-pointer by Trish Wipprecht. Okanogan's Cicely Clinkenbeard sank two free throws to clinch the win.
The Bulldogs played the final five minutes without senior standout Hillary Merkley, who had been in foul trouble for much of the game and finally went out with an injured knee.
"It feels real good to have played well down the stretch, when Hillary wasn't on the floor," Okanogan coach Michelle Ferenz said. "It's a credit to the young kids."
Chamberlin finished with 15 points and Julie Moore added 13 for Okanogan. Omak was led by Tauni Lisenbey with 18 points and Wipprecht with 14. The Pioneers helped themselves by sinking 26 of 35 free throws; Okanogan was 12-for-18.

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Liberty Bell 56, Okanogan 52
Game 11. (Loser out)
At Wenatchee, WA

Mountain Lion senior guard Lynn Brown scored the final two points of her game-high 26 on a pair of free throws with six seconds remaining to clinch the victory - one that had not even seemed in doubt four minutes earlier, when Liberty Bell was ahead 54-44.
"We were told to run some plays and they weren't working," Brown said. "When Brooke (Bourn) fouled out, you might have thought that would be the end for us. But that also opens up a two-man game with me and Jennifer (Paluck), and that'd been working all night long.
"As long as we were up by two, up by one, whatever, I knew we could pull it off. I have a lot of confidence in our team."
Paluck finished with 21 points and nine rebounds, and freshman Erin Torpey hauled down 11 boards.
The Bulldogs were playing without senior standout Hillary Merkley, who sprained a knee ligament Tuesday in Okanogan's victory over Omak. She dressed and went through warmups with a knee brace, but was in too much pain to play.
Her younger sister, sophomore Jocelyn, filled in like a budding star with 18 points and 11 rebounds. Julie Moore finished with 18 points and eight rebounds.

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Cascade-Leavenworth 48, Tonasket 37
Game 12. (Championship, winner to state)
At Wenatchee, WA

Water, water everywhere.
Sweat soaking the uniforms of the Cascade girls' basketball team, the result of four quarters of wire-to-wire, in-your-face defensive pressure.
Water drenching the hair and shirt of Kodiaks coach Mike Lewis, the recipient of a celebratory locker-room dousing by his players.
Tears of joy dripping down the cheeks of junior guard Marni McGregor, who next week will get to experience something an ankle injury cheated her of a year ago: Playing in the Class A state basketball tournament, an honor the Kodiaks earned Friday with a 48-37 North Central District A championship victory over Tonasket.
"It's amazing to be able to get a second chance at state - not many people get that chance over four years (of high school). And I actually get to be there, and to be healthy," said McGregor, who sat out one of the Kodiaks' three Tacoma Dome games last season and was hobbled in the other two.
Tonasket was scheduled to play a winner-to-state game Saturday against Liberty Bell, a 56-52 winner over Okanogan in Friday's earlier loser-out game.
The Kodiaks are heading to Tacoma - and might just make some serious noise upon arrival - because of two primary factors:
1) They are much more balanced than they were a year ago, with four players scoring in double figures - Megan Franza (21.2), Moreshead (13.5), Lyndy Burgess (10.7) and McGregor (10.0). Last year it was The Franza Show ... and Megan likes it better this way.
"I love to get everybody else involved," she said after her 14-point, five-assist effort Friday. "We've got four people averaging in double figures - it's so much more exciting. I don't care how many points I score - it's just so awesome for me to make a connection with somebody on an assist."
2) Their defense has finally caught up with their offense - and maybe even passed it.
"We've been an offensive team, scored a lot of points," Lewis said. "But when the offense isn't working, we have to be able to stop people on the defensive end. We switched out of our zone press (against the Tigers) and went man-to-man and just made them work for their shots. It wasn't anything fancy. It was just good defensive work."
Becky and Megan Franza, McGregor and super sub Brynn Darlington ignited a Kodiak defense that forced 26 turnovers. Nine of those came in the second quarter, when the Kodiaks scored 14 unanswered points to break the game open. Lyndy Burgess dominated the boards with 16 rebounds.
Krissy Range scored 11 of the Tigers' 15 first-half points, but she was ineffective (0-for-7 shooting) in the second half. Only a 9-1 Tonasket run in the final 31/2 minutes made the final margin as close as it was.

Liberty Bell 48, Tonasket 47
Game 13. (Winner to state, loser out)
At Wenatchee, WA

Basketball dreams start early, and the two Caribou Trail League teams who qualified for state Saturday as second-place finishers in the North Central District A tournament began their journey to the Tacoma Dome years ago.
For the Liberty Bell girls, it began with those extra passing sessions back in fifth grade - the ones in which those future Mountain Lions would learn how to hold onto those bullet passes from Lynn Brown.
"When we were younger, she'd pass it to us and it'd go right off our hands," Brooke Bourn said of her fellow senior teammate. "I remember staying late after practice with my dad" - Lions coach Mike Bourn - "and having him throw the ball to us really hard, because that's what it's like playing with Lynn."
"We'd fire it at 'em and they'd catch it - after a while," Bourn said. "It took hours and hours. Actually, days and days."
On Saturday, all that extra practice paid off. Bourn scored 13 second-half points - many of them resulting from some of Brown's 10 assists - helping lift Liberty Bell to its 48-47 winner-to-state, loser-out victory over Tonasket.
Brooke Bourn hadn't been doing a lot of scoring - or even shooting - in recent games, with Brown and sophomore center Jennifer Paluck carrying the load.
But after scoring just three points in the first half, which ended with the Lions holding a slender 24-22 lead, Bourn began to assert herself.
"I saw it in her eyes," Mike Bourn said. "She was determined to take it over. She was going to do whatever it took to get these girls to state. And I'm not just saying that because I'm her father."
Brooke Bourn had 11 third-quarter points as the Mountain Lions pulled out to a 42-37 lead, and they still had a five-point advantage with less than two minutes left. But Tonasket's Mandy Lindhe, who scored 12 of her game-high 18 points in the second half, brought the Tigers to within 48-47 with a free throw and a 3-pointer.
Brown, one of the league's top free-throw shooters, missed one with 10 seconds left, leaving the door open for the Tigers' one last chance. But Michelle Corey missed a 15-footer at the buzzer - with her teammates shouting to the officials that she had been hacked on the play.
"We thought she got fouled," Tigers coach Gary Smith said. "That's what all the girls were saying. But it shouldn't have come down to the last shot. ... We lacked the thing we picked up in this tournament - playing in front of that big crowd, in a big game, a tournament game. I'll tell you, though: I love these girls. They played hard."
Bourn, Paluck and Brown combined for 41 Liberty Bell. Paluck led both teams with 25 points. "That's the way it should be. Referees can't take control of the game. I knew Cashmere would be tough from the way they played Okanogan."

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Tournament Scoring Leaders