Kentlake’s girls basketball team picked up its first South Puget Sound League North Division win of the season thanks to a put back by Alyssa Simonson Jan. 6.
It has been a rough season for Kentlake, which put together a 43-42 victory over Thomas Jefferson at home, as it tallied its second win overall — its first win came in a tournament in Wasilla, Alaska, in December.
Simonson had 13 points on the night while Stephanie Luce led the Falcons with 20.
The Falcons were down 35-33 at the start of the fourth quarter to the Raiders and with 2 minutes, 30 seconds left, trailed 41-35.
But Kentlake didn’t give up.
Simonson made a free throw to make it 41-37 then Paige Engeland drained a three ball to cut the lead to 41-40. Engeland finished with five points.
With 36.5 seconds left Luce made one of two free throws to tie it up.
A few seconds later Jefferson made the front end of a one and one to take the one point lead before Simonson’s heroics put Kentlake ahead for good as the Falcons outscored the Raider 10-7 in the final period.
On the other side of the division, Tahoma traveled to Kentwood, where the Conks raced out to a 10-0 lead in the first quarter over the Bears.
But Tahoma pulled within two at the half, 25-23, thanks to three pointers from Jordan Eberhardt and Kymber Morrison as the Bears outscored the Conquerors 18-11 in the second period.
The Conquerors seemed to make the necessary adjustments at halftime to defend the hot shooters, holding the Bears to just four points in the third period.
Tahoma fought back in the fourth quarter, outscoring Kentwood 19-12, but it wasn’t enough and the Conks won 56-46.
Morrison led Tahoma with 16 points while Eberhardt finished with 13.
Maddison Rankin poured in 14 points, Alycea DeLong tallied 11 and Jenny Johnson posted nine points for Kentwood.
With the win, Kentwood improved to 7-2 in league, while Tahoma dropped to 4-4.
Mount Rainier has a hold on first place after beating Kentwood last week, as the Rams are still undefeated (8-0, 12-0), while the Conks are in third place behind Auburn Riverside in the North. The Ravens are the only other team the Conks have lost to in the division.
Tahoma is in fifth place behind Kentridge with 10 games left on the league schedule as of Monday.
This week, Kentlake heads to Kentwood, while Tahoma hosts Auburn on Tuesday. On Friday, Kentwood travels to Auburn, Tahoma hosts Mount Rainier and Kentlake has the night off.
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