Her play has spoke volumes all season.<\/p>\n
But when that season came to a close Saturday night at the Tacoma, Kentwood High\u2019s Lindsey Moore was succinct and precise.<\/p>\n
\u201cMission accomplished,\u201d Moore said to a sea of reporters all the while beaming from ear to ear.<\/p>\n
Indeed.<\/p>\n
Because after three previous cracks at the girls Class 4A state basketball tournament, the Conquerors finally got it right. Heck, they got it perfect, winning four straight.<\/p>\n
Courtney Johnson scored a tournament and game-high 18 points while Moore, Kentwood\u2019s University of Nebraska-bound star, added 16 as the Conquerors knocked off Snohomish 60-47 for the state title.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s Kentwood\u2019s first state title on the girls basketball court.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year, we were crying yesterday. Now we\u2019re crying, but it\u2019s just tears of joy,\u201d said the University of Nebraska-bound Moore, who added four rebounds, three assists and was named the tournament MVP.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are so excited right now. There isn\u2019t a better feeling. We know all our hard work paid off,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n
And it paid off due to an unselfish team-first philosophy that coach Keith Hennig has preached \u2013 and the girls bought in to \u2013 from the beginning.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is just a dream come true,\u201d Hennig said. \u201cI\u2019ve got the easiest job in the world because I just have the best girls. They don\u2019t care who scores, they don\u2019t care who gets the most minutes, they care about winning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Which is pretty much all Kentwood (28-1) did this season. The only blemish of the season came last week, when the Conks fell 52-50 against Auburn Riverside in the district championship. Moore missed that game with a tender hamstring.<\/p>\n
But the loss proved to be a blessing in disguise, Hennig said, because it showed Kentwood could compete with anyone, even in the absence of its star.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat gave us a lot of confidence,\u201d the coach insisted.<\/p>\n
Kentwood came out Saturday night against Snohomish with all the confidence in the world, taking a 5-0 lead right off the tip on a layup from Jessie Genger and a 3-pointer from guard Kylie Huerta.<\/p>\n
It was a lead Kentwood would not relinquish the entire night, though the Panthers did keep things tight throughout, even tying the game on four separate occasions.<\/p>\n
Kentwood received its usual big play from Moore, Genger and Huerta. Genger scored 9, including 4 of 5 from the line. Huerta, Kentwood\u2019s diminutive 5-foot, ballhandling wizard added 11. Six of those 11 points were acrobatic, scoop shots off glass in a lane filled with two and, sometimes, three Snohomish defenders.<\/p>\n
But one of the keys for Kentwood came from a somewhat unexpected source \u2013 Courtney Johnson, whose 18 points were the most she has scored since a tournament in December.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think throughout this season, we\u2019ve played with challenges. We played without Lindsey, we\u2019ve had injuries, sicknesses. And we stuck together,\u201d said Johnson, a sophomore. \u201cWe knew that we could win \u2026 that if we stuck together that we could do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
During fourth-quarter crunch time Saturday night, the Conks did just that.<\/p>\n
Kentwood took a 46-38 lead into the final eight minutes, then hit the extra gear its found so frequently this season. The Conks ripped off an 8-2 run to start the quarter, pushing its lead to 54-40 with 5:38 to play, virtually sealing the team\u2019s first state title.<\/p>\n
Huerta opened the run with a pair of acrobatic, gravity-defying layups, the second of which she converted with her back to the basket. Johnson followed with a short runner off glass thanks to an assist from Moore. Moore then capped the title-sealing victory with a steal followed by a coast-to-coast layup.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels amazing,\u201d said Genger, who earned second-team all-tournament accolades. \u201cFor this to be my last chance at a state championship, senior year, it feels awesome. I just can\u2019t describe it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once the title was in hand, all nine Conquerors stormed the court in celebration. Hennig and wife Wendy, the team\u2019s assistant, stood back for a few moments just to enjoy the show.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you can put nine girls on the court who care about winning, good things happen,\u201d Hennig said.<\/p>\n
Which is exactly what happened for the Conquerors.<\/p>\n
As Moore noted, mission accomplished.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Kentwood 60, Snohomish 47<\/b><\/p>\n
Snohomish<\/b>\t16\t8\t14\t9\t—\t47<\/p>\n
Kentwood<\/b> \t22\t9\t15\t14\t—\t60<\/p>\n
Snohomish:<\/b> Emily Guthrie 12, Ally Schmit 6, Karly Lampman 6, Marissa Timmerman 2, Katie Benson 16, Joanna Balin 5.<\/p>\n
Kentwood:<\/b> Lindsey Moore 16, Jessie Genger 9, Lindsey Huerta 11, Courtney Johnson 18, Liz Mills 2, Shelby Wahlberg 4, Maddison Rankin 0, Kelli Rider 0, Sanda Milovic 0.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Her play has spoke volumes all season. But when that season came to a close Saturday night at the Tacoma, Kentwood High\u2019s Lindsey Moore was succinct and precise. \u201cMission accomplished,\u201d Moore said to a sea of reporters all the while beaming from ear to ear. Indeed. Because after three previous cracks at the girls Class […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-21753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21753"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21753\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21753"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=21753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}