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High School Sports
Girls 4A state tournament: Garfield keeps dream alive

By Sandy Ringer
Seattle Times staff reporter

	JIM BATES / THE SEATTLE TIMES Gig Harbor's Kelli Milham (52), flanked by Roosevelt's Alex Capeloto (4) and Ariel Evans, background, chases a loose ball in the Roughriders' win.
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TACOMA — They watched the celebration a week ago, and envisioned one of their own.

Samantha Tinned and Malia O'Neal have dreams of cutting down the nets after leading Garfield to the championship of the Class 4A state girls basketball tournament at the Tacoma Dome — just like Meadowdale did at the end of the 3A tournament last Saturday.

"That got all of us real pumped," Tinned said of the Mavericks' postgame celebration.

It showed yesterday as Tinned tore up Capital of Olympia with 20 first-half points to spark the third-ranked Bulldogs to a 55-44 victory. Garfield advanced to today's 5 p.m. quarterfinal against No. 5 University of Spokane.

"We're ready," Tinned said. "I think we're going to do real well. We've just got to come to play every game and play as a team and be there for each other."

Garfield (22-2) is playing with extra inspiration after the team dedicated the tournament to assistant coach Mike Tretton, who is home ill. Players wrote "CM" on their arms for "Coach Mike."

University (23-4) was impressive in a 71-48 victory over No. 13 Mount Tahoma.

But even more spectacular was top-ranked Prairie of suburban Vancouver, which handled a good Monroe team with ease, 60-45.

"They're a very good team," Monroe coach Alan Dickson said. "I think they should win it (the tournament)."

The Falcons take a 25-game winning streak into what should be a crackerjack quarterfinal at 3:30 p.m. with No. 6 Central Valley of suburban Spokane. That's a rematch of last year's championship game, which Prairie won 44-39 to end CV's two-year reign atop the state.

Central Valley (24-2) advanced with a 57-51 win over No. 11 Curtis. Ninth-ranked Snohomish also advanced to the next round and plays No. 4 Richland at 7 p.m. Snohomish (22-2) beat Port Angeles 51-38, while Richland (24-2) moved past Foss 58-50.

Roosevelt joined the quarterfinal party with a ragged, 52-29 victory over Gig Harbor. The eighth-ranked Roughriders (22-3) play at 8:30 p.m. against No. 2 Lewis and Clark (24-2) of Spokane. Lewis and Clark beat Bethel 61-49 last night.

University coach Mark Stinson expects Garfield to be a handful.

"They were a preseason favorite along with Lewis and Clark, and if you get respect like that, you know a team is a contender," he said. "They're going to be as tough as nails to compete with."

But the Titans are battle tested. Three of their losses have been to Lewis and Clark and the other was to Central Valley. Garfield coach Joyce Walker knows her team has to play well.

"If we can play our game we have a chance to be in the game and at this time of year that's what you want," she said.

Prairie and Central Valley are used to competing against each other this time of the year. This will be the fifth consecutive year they've met at state. They have each won twice during the stretch. Prairie's victory last year avenged a loss to the Bears in the 2002 title game.

"It's déjà vu," Prairie coach Al Aldridge said.

Central Valley coach Dale Poffenroth isn't surprised.

	JIM BATES / THE SEATTLE TIMES Roosevelt students Vladimir Korshin, Jeff Mason and Duncan Robinson raise the noise level for their team, which thumped Gig Harbor 52-29 to advance to today's quarterfinals.

"It seems we play every year when we come here and it isn't always in the championship game," he said. "I like to play his (Aldridge's) kids."

Both teams lost key players to graduation last year — especially Central Valley, which now starts four sophomores and senior Reagan Pariseau. Pariseau called today's quarterfinal "just another game" and doesn't look at it as a title-game rematch.

"A lot of our girls are gone and same with their team," she said. "It's pretty much like two different teams. It's not like it's a revenge game, at least not for me."

Prairie senior Andrea Sitton agrees, especially with the absence of Emily Westerberg, CV's two-time tournament MVP now at Arizona State.

"It's different this year without Emily," Sitton said. "But they're still a good team."

Snohomish showed yesterday it belonged, and coach Ken Roberts senses his players want to stick around.

"They weren't too excited about winning district," he said. "They've been focused on coming down here and doing well."

Roosevelt has the same mind-set.

"I think we can make a good run," Roughriders senior Darnellia Russell said. "We came in focused and ready to go. I think we can go far in this tournament."

Roosevelt coach Bill Resler won't be surprised if they do.

"They want to go out and bring their lunch buckets and go to work," he said. "This is the hardest-working group I've had in six years at Roosevelt."

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company