Time to hang up the sneakers.
Needing two wins last week to return to the class 2A state tournament, the Sequim Wolves ran into two tough opponents who punched their tickets instead.
Sequim fell to Eatonville at the West Central District semifinal Feb. 27 and to Olympic League foe Kingston three days later in a loser-out consolation bracket contest, ending the Wolves’ season.
Following the loss to Eatonville,
Sequim had a chance to keep its postseason hopes alive with a win against Kingston Feb. 29 and another against Foster the next day to claim the district’s second and final seed, but the Leap Day offered no luck – Sequim lost to Kingston 55-36.
After splitting a pair of league contests this season, Friday night’s match-up was no contest. Sophia Baetz led three Buccaneers in double figures with 17 points off the bench as Kingston built leads of 10-7 after one quarter, 27-12 at halftime and 38-17 after three quarters.
Sarah Moores led the Wolves with 17 points, Laine Briggs had eight points and Sunma Agostine chipped in with six, but it wasn’t nearly enough to topple the Olympic League 2A division champs.
The Bucs forced 29 Sequim turnovers.
While Kingston went on to topple Foster 41-38 the next day and earn the ticket to state, Sequim sees the careers of seven seniors come to an end, including Briggs, Moores, Kelsey Langston, Yolanda Chinn, Brittany Gates, Lyndzie Joslin and Cassie Rogers.
Eatonville shakes off start, overwhelms Wolves in semis
The road to state has its detours. This one was called "Eatonville."
Dani Carlman scored 14 points and had 10 steals as Eatonville’s Cruisers overcame an impressive Sequim start to down the Wolves 59-38 in the West Central District semifinals at Foss High School in Tacoma Feb. 27.
Briggs had 15 points and 12 rebounds, and Langston added nine points and 17 rebounds, but the Wolves couldn’t overcome a plethora of turnovers.
Up 17-12 after one quarter behind strong shooting from Langston and Moores, the Wolves saw their lead dissipate behind a suffocating Eatonville defense. When Chinn, Sequim’s point guard, left with her third foul midway through the second quarter, the Cruisers made their run. They grabbed their first lead (since 2-0) with 2:42 left in the first half at 24-23 and never trailed after that, reeling off a 17-4 run to take a 31-25 halftime lead.
When Chinn picked up her fourth foul just 34 seconds into the second half, the Cruisers put it into overdrive, outscoring the Wolves 26-13 in the second half, including a 15-1 run in the fourth quarter.
Sequim committed 39 turnovers in the game.
Afterwards, the Sequim coach was miffed at the disparity in halves.
"I’m still shaking my head," she said, poring over the stat sheets. "I thought it was going to be a fight to the finish. In the fourth quarter, Eatonville just kept making shot after shot after shot. We didn’t recover from it."
Moores had 10 points, seven rebounds and four steals.
