23rd Annual
North Central District "A"
Girls Basketball Tournament
1998

Champ

ionship

Liber
(22

ty Bell
-1)

Score

: 59-49

Tona
(17

sket
-7)

Score

: 35-33

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Tonasket 53, Lake Roosevelt 43
Game 1.
At Tonasket, WA

After a close loss last Friday, the Tonasket girls' basketball team expected another close game against Lake Roosevelt.
This time it went into overtime, with the Tigers winning 53-43 in a North Central District 1A opener on Thursday. Chelan defeated Brewster 52-35 in the district's other game.
Tonasket moves on to the district semifinals in Omak on Saturday. The Tigers will face Okanogan at 1 p.m., while Chelan plays Liberty Bell at 5 p.m.
Lake Roosevelt used a big comeback to beat Tonasket last Friday to qualify for the district tourney. That nearly happened again.
The Tigers built a 31-15 lead on Nikki Freeman's offense (a game-high 27 points) and solid defense, Tonasket coach Gary Smith said.
"Our motto was ‘if we don't give up the three, the game belongs to me,' " Smith said.
The treys came late. Lindsey Zowada hit a pair of 3-pointers, one to give the Raiders a brief lead. Toni Stanger also had six of her team-high 15 points in the fourth quarter to fuel the comeback.
"This was nearly a carbon copy of the last game. After Zowada hit her 3s, I thought ‘here we go again,' " Smith said.
Nikki Freeman rescued the Tigers though. The senior had a basket and drained two free throws to tie the game.
In overtime, Freeman scored seven more points and Stephanie Clarkson hit 5-of-6 free throws to seal the win.
Nikki Freeman also had 15 rebounds and six blocked shots. Codi Freeman contributed nine points and eight rebounds. Celina Gonsalves, back from a hamstring injury, added six points and eight rebounds.

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Chelan 52, Brewster 35
Game 2.
At Chelan, WA

A productive first quarter (21 points) led the Goats to the district win.
A 3-point shot by Jayme Terry started Chelan's scoring. Shelly Haerling finished off the Goats' offense with seven of her game-high 18 points in the fourth quarter.
"Brewster was concentrating on Shelly and Stacey (Terry), so that left other players open, Chelan coach Steve Stamps said. "Jayme's 3 got us rolling."
Jayme Terry finished with eight points and Stacey Terry had 10 points to go along with eight rebounds. Abby Cullen added eight rebounds and five blocked shots. Melanie Lloyd contributed four assists and four steals.
Genea Flynn led Brewster with nine points.

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Okanogan 56, Tonasket 51 (OT)
Game 3.
At Omak, WA

At the end of each game there was an amazing amount of contrast.
Okanogan was excited but Liberty Bell nonchalant even though both earned trips to the State Class 1A girls' basketball tourney.
The reactions reflected the games. Okanogan needed overtime to beat Tonasket 56-51 in the first North Central District semifinal on Saturday. Liberty Bell rolled to a 52-25 victory against Chelan in the other.
The Bulldogs and Lions will face each other for the district championship at 1:30 p.m. Saturday (a change from the original time) at Omak. Meanwhile, Tonasket and Chelan will battle for the third spot into the state tourney. That battle starts at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday with loser-out games.
Tonasket will host Brewster in one loser-out game Chelan hosts Lake Roosevelt, in the the other. The Tuesday winners will meet at noon Saturday in the winner-to-state game.
The Bulldogs owned the first half with a 26-17 lead. Yet, Tonasket seemed on the verge of going to state with four minutes left thanks to a 13-1 spurt.
Instead, three plays sent Okanogan to state. Three harried plays.
Trailing by five points, the Bulldogs went into a full-court press. A steal by Naomi Peasley created a layup by Joceyln Merkley. After another Tiger turnover, Tiffany Hill scored on a rebound basket to tie the game.
The game stayed tied after three Tonasket misses in the final seconds to create overtime.
Another offensive rebound by Okanogan was the difference. While going after a rebound on a missed free throw, the Bulldogs' junior forward Melanie Chamberlin was heading out of bounds. She passed the ball to Kim Attridge for a layup.
"I just saw a gray uniform and threw the ball that way," Chamberlin said of the play which created a four-point lead for the Bulldogs. "We were pumped up when the game started but came out a little slow in the second half. They (Tonasket) picked it up a notch and then we had to."
Two inside baskets by Codi Freeman started the Tigers' run in the fourth quarter. Four free throws by Nikki Freeman and a three-point shot Celena Gonsalves followed. A 15-footer by Nikki Freeman gave Tonasket a 47-40 lead.
During that span, the Tigers also had two guards foul out (Codi Freeman and Stephanie Clarkson) and lost another to a knee injury (Erin Messenger) in the third quarter.
"All our guards were on the bench when they started pressing," Tonasket coach Gary Smith said. "We didn't have our quicker players in and that hurt us."
Okanogan had its own foul troubles. Merkley sat out for much of Tonasket's fourth-quarter run due to foul trouble while guard Naomi Peasley fouled out, too.
"I had to be patient because we had foul problems," Okanogan coach Michelle Ferenz said. "Finally, I went the press and the kids responded. We had some great play from our young bench."
Merkley finished with 20 points and five rebounds. Chamberlin had six rebounds while Peasley had five steals and Maggie Derting three assists.
Nikki Freeman had 17 points to lead the Tigers. Gonsalves added nine points.

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Liberty Bell 52, Chelan 25
Game 4.
At Omak, WA

Full-court pressure. It's what the Lions wanted to create and the Goats knew it was coming.
It led to 26 turnovers for the game, seven in the second quarter when Liberty Bell ran out to a 10-point lead.
"Our game plan was to try to pick up our defensive intensity. Our defense is the strong part of our game and we try to get points off turnovers. We did it in this game," Liberty Bell coach Mike Bourn said.
The turnovers helped create a 6-0 spurt to start the second quarter and a 10-2 run to open the second half.
Chelan coach Steve Stamps was disappointed how effective the Lions' press was.
"That press bothered us more than I thought it would. We just didn't handle it even though we knew it'd be a big part of their game," Stamps said.
Liberty Bell forward Jennifer Paluck contributed to both spurts. She had a rebound basket and a layup off a pass from Maja Nickell in the second quarter to go along with a 3-pointer and inside basket in the third quarter.
The senior finished with 19 points, 10 rebounds and five steals.
"It was a very physical game. Chelan is aggressive and we both played with a lot of intensity," Paluck said.
Beau Bourn added 11 points and five rebounds for the Lions.
Shelly Haerling led Chelan with 10 points. Stacey Terry added six rebounds and Abby Cullen had six blocked shots.
As the game ended, the Liberty Bell coach admitted he was surprised by a sedated celebration. Paluck wasn't.
"This year it was expected. It was nice to win on Omak's floor, even if we didn't play them," Paluck said, eluding to the Lions losing to the Pioneers in the winner-to-state game last season.

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Chelan 50, Lake Roosevelt 48 (OT)
Game 5. (Loser out)
At Chelan, WA

The Chelan girls' basketball team is on the edge of doing something no other team in the program's history has.
With an exciting 50-48 overtime win over visiting Lake Roosevelt in Thursday's North Central District 1A loser-out round, the Goats are one win away from their first girls' state tourney berth.
Chelan will play Tonasket -- a 60-39 winner over Brewster -- at noon Saturday at Omak High for the district's third and final state berth. Okanogan and Liberty Bell follow at 1:30 in the district finals.
"That's just a great win for these kids in Chelan. They've never really tasted this before," Chelan coach Steve Stamps said.
Chelan reserve Amelia Fragnito contributed five big points filling in for Stacey Terry, who fouled out with 10 points with about five minutes left.
"She is not looked on to be a big scorer," Stamps said of Fragnito, who also had six rebounds. "This is a great thing for her."
After Meredith King made a free throw for Lake Roosevelt to tie it 48-all with 32 seconds left, Fragnito got her final chance, sinking the winning two free throws with 11 seconds left.
Shelly Haerling had 23 points and eight rebounds for Chelan, downing a free throw with 11 seconds left in regulation to forge a 42-all tie. Abby Cullen had 10 rebounds and six blocks.
For Lake Roosevelt, Missy Albert had 17 points.

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Tonasket 60, Brewster 39
Game 6. (Loser out)
At Tonasket, WA

Nikki Freeman scored 32 points on 14-of-24 accuracy from the field for the Tigers.
"Nikki had a good night, she was strong inside and she also shot well outside," Tonasket coach Gary Smith said.
Tonasket's Kirsten Helleson, recently back from missing six games with an ankle sprain, had six rebounds and six points on 3-of-4 shooting. Codi Freeman had 10 points. Starting four sophomores, Tonasket had a season-low 10 turnovers and a season-high 17 assists (six by Celena Gonsalves, five by Stephanie Clarkson).
"We had a good team effort passing the ball," Smith said, "and we cut down our turnovers."

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Tonasket 35, Chelan 33
Game 7. (Winner to state, loser out)
At Omak, WA

While her Tonasket teammates were letting go with enough victory whoops to turn the hallway to the locker room into an echo chamber, Tiger senior Nikki Freeman wasn't about to let go of the one thing that symbolized the culmination of a dream.
"I'm not letting go of this baby," she said, clutching the North Central District 1A third-place trophy earned by the Tigers with their gritty 35-33 victory over Chelan in Saturday's loser-out, winner-to-state game. "I'm not letting go of this for a while. I've worked for this since the third grade. We're going." She began to hop up and down, as if the reality of having clinched a berth at this week's state tournament was beginning to sink in. "We're going!"
It's been a long time since Tonasket's last trip to state, but even longer for the Goats, who have in fact never gone. But with 31/2 minutes left in the third quarter, Chelan seemed destined for Tacoma. A 3-pointer by junior Shelly Haerling had padded the Goats' lead to 29-21 and, in a game dominated by defense, an eight-point lead seemed almost insurmountable.
But it would be nearly nine minutes before Chelan would score again. Over that span, the Goats would get off only four shots -- missing each, of course -- while committing 11 turnovers against a suddenly vitalized Tiger defense. By the time Haerling ended the drought with a layup off a pass by Amelia Fragnito, the Tigers had run off nine unanswered points.
The difference down the stretch for the Tigers was the frenetic defensive hustle of sophomores Codi Freeman, Celena Gonsalves and Stephanie Clarkson. Clarkson scored the final go-ahead basket with 1:46 remaining on an assist from senior Marcie Weisgerber.
"Codi has a different gear for crunch-time," Tonasket coach Gary Smith said. "She's real quick and can really anticipate the pass.
"She's everywhere," said Nikki Freeman, Codi's older sister. "She's the greatest. Those sophomores just don't quit. I'm so thankful to be playing with them. I knew we were going to come back."
That the Goats made it close with an extremely young team was remarkable, considering how far the program has come under fourth-year coach Steve Stamps. Chelan had won two games in the three previous years and won just one in his first season. This year, led by Haerling and senior Stacey Terry, they came within one missed shot here, one turnover there, of going to Tacoma.
"Not having been in a pressure cooker like this thing -- ever -- our kids just didn't understand what to expect," Chelan coach Steve Stamps said. "We've been about oh-for-the-decade. A break here or there, and it would have been a different deal.
"We've been nobody for such a long time. I think we're somebody now. And that's a credit to these kids."

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Liberty Bell 59, Okanogan 49
Game 8. (Championship, both to state)
At Omak, WA

Funny how something almost historic can seem almost anticlimactic.
Liberty Bell's 59-49 North Central District 1A championship victory over Okanogan marked the first time since Omak in 1989-90 a Caribou Trail League girls' basketball team had made it all the way through the regular season and district tournament without losing to a CTL foe.
And this one, the grand finale, the district title game -- well, it was over almost before it started. The Bulldogs came out, missed their first 15 shots and dug themselves a hole from which they'd never leave.
"If we would have made a few of those shots, it would have been a different game, that's for sure," said Okanogan coach Michelle Ferenz, whose Bulldogs scored just one first-quarter point and trailed 13-1 early in the second. "I think we were ready to play, but we maybe we wanted it too much.
"I know this: We played three great quarters against a really good team. If we play like that next week (at the state tournament in Tacoma), we'll do fine."
Though the Mountain Lions never blew their early advantage, Liberty Bell coach Mike Bourn never got comfortable with the lead -- especially when a 21-point, six-rebound night by Jocelyn Merkley and a 15-point, five-assist performance by Maggie Derting helped the Bulldogs pull to within five points in the fourth quarter.
"My old coach used to say, ‘Beware of the big early lead,' and there's a lot of truth to that, because we really let down," Bourn said. "And Okanogan never quits. You always know they'll come roaring back."
Liberty Bell's offensive balance made the difference. Though Jennifer Paluck had the lion's share of the statistics with 20 points and a dozen rebounds, 12 of her points came in the fourth quarter -- nine from the free-throw line, with the trailing Bulldogs forced to foul and chase the ball. Inside players Erin Torpey (13 points), Maja Nickell (8) and reserve post Jessica Werremeyer (6) all played strongly for the Lions, and junior guards Katie Liebl and Erin Gardner give them quickness in the backcourt that helped keep the Bulldogs at bay.
"We could have lost some momentum after losing the big lead," Bourn said. "But we didn't."
If anything, they made it look too easy.