4A Girls Basketball | Lewis and Clark completes threepeat

TACOMA — They came to make history and the Lewis and Clark Tigers left with their dream fulfilled.

The Tigers capped an unbeaten season by winning an unprecedented third consecutive Class 4A state girls basketball championship Saturday night at the Tacoma Dome, beating upset-minded Moses Lake, 42-37.

No 4A or 3A girls or boys team had ever won more than two in a row. Only four other boys or girls teams in any classification have accomplished the feat.

The Tigers (29-0) are the eighth 4A girls team to finish the season unbeaten, but the first since Central Valley of Spokane went 29-0 in 2002.

Kiara January clinched the victory by sinking two free throws with 12 seconds left. Her foul shots followed to huge offensive rebounds by Sarah Kliewer.

Brittany Kennedy, who dazzled on defense all week, was voted to the all-tournament first team with teammate Jeneva Anderson getting second-team accolades. Anderson led her team with 13 points.

Moses Lake's Carly Noyes, a 6-foot-5 junior, scored a game-high 16 and also landed on the first team. Ashley Corral from Prairie of suburban Vancouver was named the tournament's most valuable player after becoming the all-time career scoring leader. Jordan Loera, Moses Lake's flashy freshman guard, earned second-team honors.

Kristi Kingma from Jackson of Mill Creek, who earlier broke the single-game scoring record with 43 points against Skyview of Vancouver, was a first-team choice. Ashlee Smith from Skyview rounded out the top five.

The championship game was tied 19-19 at halftime, and Moses Lake took its first lead on Kelly Sutherland's layin early in the third quarter. But Kelsey Baker and Anderson both came up with three-point plays to bookend an 8-0 spurt, putting Lewis and Clark in front, 27-21.

As they had throughout the first half, the Chiefs responded, cutting the deficit to two. Lewis and Clark again threatened to pull away, leading 34-27 on Kliewer's putback with 1:11 to go in the third. Carly Noyes hit her second straight inside basket to slice it to 34-29 heading into the final eight minutes.

Lewis and Clark led 17-10 early in the second quarter, then watched Moses Lake finish the half on a 9-2 run, capped by Loera's 25-foot three-pointer at the halftime horn.

The Tigers were clinging to a 19-16 advantage and had a chance to extend it when Kennedy nabbed her third steal of the game and went the other direction. But she rushed a three-point try with five seconds left. Loera got the ball, raced up the court and launched her shot just before the horn to knot the score at 19.

Lewis and Clark blitzed to a 7-0 lead as the Chiefs missed their first six shots from the field and turned the ball over three times. Moses Lake didn't get on the board until Carly Noyes made 1 of 2 free throws with 2:44 left in the opening quarter.

Kennedy's steal and layin gave the Tigers a 9-1 advantage. But Loera buried a long three-pointer with 1:50 on the clock — Moses Lakes' first field goal of the game. Sutherland followed with a driving bank shot at the 1:06 mark as the Chiefs were able to trim it to 9-6. The Tigers went scoreless for the final 2:15 of the quarter.

Moses Lake closed the gap to 9-8 early in the second period on a 15-foot jumper by Ann Noyes, but Kliewer stuck in a pair of three-pointers to fuel an 8-2 spurt and extend it to 17-10.

The Tigers missed eight straight shots until Kennedy scored off a feed from Kliewer with 57 seconds left in the half, making it 19-16. Then Loera's dramatic shot pulled Moses Lake even.

Lewis and Clark was ranked No. 1 all year and players admitted they felt pressure coming into the tournament. The Tigers were not overly impressive in their first two state victories over Puyallup and Snohomish, but they turned up the intensity in the semifinals against second-ranked Prairie. They led by 21 in the third quarter, then held off the hard-charging Falcons, 52-45.

Moses Lake had to battle through No. 3 Jackson of Mill Creek and No. 7 Kentwood of Covington to get to the semis, where they handled unranked Pasco, 50-45. Some questioned whether the Chiefs' lack of tournament experience would hurt them here, but they played with confidence.

This is Lewis and Clark's fourth consecutive trophy. The Tigers placed third in 2005, losing in the semifinals to eventual-champion Garfield. They came back to beat University of Spokane and start a string of 13 consecutive state victories, a tournament record. The previous mark was 11.

Sandy Ringer: sringer@seattletimes.com