First undefeated league campaign. Most regular season wins. First league title in three-and-a-half decades.
Sequim’s 2022-23 girls basketball team is running out of superlatives, but hopes to have plenty in the proverbial tank as they eye the postseason.
Despite missing their top scorer, Sequim got big games from seniors Jelisssa Julmist and Hannah Bates as they outlasted a tough Port Angeles squad 57-46 on Feb. 2.
The Wolves finish their Olympic League campaign at 14-0 and were 18-0 overall heading into a Feb. 7 non-league matchup with 1B powerhouse Neah Bay. Sequim lost 70-55 on Tuesday night.
Sequim locked up the Olympic League title against Olympic two days prior, but in front of a packed Rick Kaps Gymnasium, the No. 2-ranked Wolves had plenty to play for against Port Angeles.
“It’s awesome; we work so well together,” said Bates, Sequim’s point guard, who was fresh off a 11-point, 11-assist, five steal evening.
“It feels so good to bring this [title] to our town.”
Said Sequim coach Joclin Julmist, “They just really wanted it.
“They followed Hannah’s lead. She really believed we could win it.”
With do-it-all forward Jolene Vaara sidelined, Julmist carried the Wolves at key spots in the second half and finished with 18 points on 8-of-12 shooting — including a 3-pointer in her only attempt — and added six rebounds, five assists and five steals.
An energized Bobbi Mixon had 11 points and five rebounds, while teammate Dani Herman hit three of four shots and finished with six points and five boards. SHS guard Taryn Johnson shrugged off a bloody nose for four key steals.
Third quarter surge
Sequim jumped out to a 7-0 lead on the strength of a pair of Mixon scores. Port Angeles, however, kept it close with a balanced attack and trailed by just one (16-15) after one quarter.
The Wolves looked like they might break it open midway through the second frame, pulling ahead 25-17 on a Bates basket. The Roughriders evened the score at 26-26 at the halftime buzzer, with Paige Mason scoring five unanswered to close the second quarter.
The third quarter proved disastrous for the visiting Riders, however; Johnson scored to give Sequim a 31-30 lead they would never relinquish. Mixon hit another pair of baskets to increase Sequim’s lead to 35-30.
“The third quarter was absolutely the difference,” Port Angeles coach Michael Poindexter said. He said the Riders only got off eight field goal attempts in the third due to turnovers and made just one.
“Sequim had 12 more field goal attempts than we did,” he said.
Port Angeles couldn’t get shots to fall, and Julmist was there to corral rebounds — including one in the third quarter when she knocked down teammate Sammie Bacon.
The two laughed about it afterward.
“I was going to get that rebound, no matter what,” Jumlist said, laughing.
Moments later, she completed a three-point play as the Wolves pulled ahead 40-30 going into the final quarter.
PA’s Teanna Clark hit a basket with about two minutes left to get Port Angeles within 11 (51-40) but moments later, star guard Anna Petty went down with a knee injury. An ensuing three-point play from Bates seconds later essentially capped the victory for Sequim.
Players celebrated the league championship with photos just prior to the boys’ match-up — which Sequim won, 60-57, in dramatic fashion — and then held a celebratory net-cutting at evening’s end.
“It was a fun senior night for the girls,” Joclin Julmist said.
While the record books are being written as the season goes on, Sequim players said there are more hurdles ahead.
“We’ve got work to do,” Bates said. “It feels like the season just started.”
Bacon added, “It feels like it was just winter break.”
“We play one game at a time,” Julmist said.
Taking down the Trojans
Even without Sequim’s leading scorer Vaara in the lineup, Sequim’s Wolves had plenty in the tank to knock off Olympic on the road.
Bates had 20 points and six rebounds, Mixon scored 16 points and Jelissa Julmist just missed a double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds in a 67-38 win in Silverdale on Jan. 31.
Julmist also had a team-high four steals.
“Jelissa played a really good game on both sides, moving her feet and getting in the passing lanes,” Joclin Julmist said.
Johnson scored some timely baskets for the Wolves, Joclin Julmist said, finishing with six points, four rebounds and five assists.
Bacon added eight rebounds, six on the offensive glass.
Coming up
The West Central District tournament is set for Feb. 14-18, with 16 teams — five from the South Puget Sound League and four each from the Olympic League and KingCo — competing for six state 2A tourney berths. First and second round games are at higher seeds.
Record-setters
The previous record for most wins in a regular season and most wins overall were set by last year’s Sequim team, who earned a 17-3 mark in the regular season and added two postseason wins for 19 overall.
Sequim posted 18 wins overall in the 1986-87 season when, under head coach Dave Lemar, the Wolves won their most recent Olympic League title with an 8-2 mark. The Wolves picked up a win at districts and another at regionals before going 0-2 at the state tourney.
The Wolves racked up 17 total wins (postseason included) in back-to-back seasons in 2018-19 and 2019-20.
Sequim tallied 15 regular season wins in 2019-20, and 14 wins three times (1992-93, 1994-95 and 2001-02).
The Wolves came close to an undefeated regular season in the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season when they went 9-1. They finished 11-2 overall, falling to Port Angeles twice.
Pierre Labossiere, Peninsula Daily News sports editor, contributed to this story.
Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell The Sequim girls basketball team celebrates its first undisputed Olympic League championship since 1987 — they finished 14-0 in league — following a win over rival Port Angeles on Feb. 2. Pictured, from left, are Kaitlyn Bloomenrader, Mikki Green, Taylor Hetying, Dani Herman, Taryn Johnson, Bobbi Mixon, Hannah Bates, Jelissa Julmist, Jolene Vaara, Sammie Bacon and Libby Turella. See story, A-7.
Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell / Sequim post Jelissa Julmist, center, muscles through the Port Angeles defense for two of her team-high 18 points in a 57-46 SHS win on Feb. 2, to cap an undefeated league record (14-0). Defending the play are Port Angeles’ Paige Mason, left, and Lexie Smith.
Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell / Sequim’s Sammie Bacon joins teammates in a celebratory net-cutting following a 57-46 win over rival Port Angeles last week, as the Wolves finished their Olympic League season at 14-0.
