WesCo leader Snohomish hands Viking girls another loss

BY ANDREW KUNAS | CONTRIBUTING WRITER Tuesday, Jan. 6 it was lack of size that hurt the Lake Stevens Vikings against Cascade. Thursday night, it was experience that helped the Snohomish Panthers hand the Viking girls their second straight loss, 57-36 in a Western Conference North basketball game.

The Vikings, who have only one senior and three juniors (one of them splitting time between junior varsity and varsity), played tough against the first place Panthers in the opening period that saw four lead changes. Led by junior Corinne Burke’s seven points, the Vikings led by as many as four points and led 14-13 entering the second period.

The Panthers, whose 11-player roster consists of eight seniors, quickly ended any thoughts of an upset by shutting out Lake Stevens in the second while putting up 22 points of their own to take a commanding 35-14 lead at halftime. After being down 14-11 when Katie Goddard dropped a 3-ball for Lake Stevens with 17 seconds left in the first period, Snohomish scored 26 straight points before Stephanie Schumacher finally hit a shot 32 seconds into the third period to end that run.

While Snohomish, who improved to 5-0 in WesCo North play and 7-2 overall, is running through the league much like Lake Stevens did a year ago, they may very well resemble this year’s Lake Stevens squad next season when all of their seniors and stars from this year’s team are gone. Here and now, however, the Panthers are on a roll.

Already having hit three shots from behind the arc in the first period, Snohomish’s experience and collective ball movement skills took over the game and they hit eight more baskets, including another three from three-point range. With the game at 17-14 in favor of Snohomish, but still manageable for Lake Stevens, things started to get out of hand as Emily Guthrie and Karley Lampman knocked down consecutive 3-balls only 17 seconds apart.

More ball movement resulted in open players and easy baskets, while the youthful Vikings repeatedly committed turnovers and nothing went in when they did get shots up. Guthrie knocked down another three-point shot with less than two minutes left in the half. With five seconds left, Guthrie knocked down another two-point basket despite being fouled. Her free-throw capped a nine-point second quarter for her and Lampman also had nine points.

Lake Stevens scored nine points in the third quarter, but Snohomish still upped its lead to 27, its largest advantage during the game, at the end of the period and got another nine points from Lampman, including a jump shot at the buzzer. Lake Stevens opened up the final period with a 8-0 run to crawl back within 19 points, 50-31, with points coming from Schumacher, Burke, Lauren Goddard and Meghan Warbis.
 
Snohomish responded with a small 7-1 run to increase the lead back to 25 points before Katie Goddard got a basket and a pair of free-throws in the final 64 seconds to cut the final margin to 21.
 
Lampman would lead all scorers with 18 points total for the game. Katie Benson, another Snohomish senior, turned in 11 points of her own. Burke finished with nine points to lead the Vikings. Warbis scored eight points, the Goddard sisters, Lauren and Katie, each scored seven and Schumacher finished with five.
 
After their four-game win streak came to a halt against Cascade, the Vikings’ loss to Snohomish dropped them to 2-3 in the WesCo North and 4-5 overall. The Vikings host long-time rival Arlington on Friday, hoping to avenge their loss on December 10th. On Monday, Jan. 19, Lake Stevens travels to Oak Harbor to make-up their game that was snowed out on Dec. 20. Lake Stevens then gets a chance at a season sweep of Stanwood when they come to Lake Stevens on Jan. 21.

Score
 
1 2 3 4 - F
Snohomish 13 22 15 7 - 57
Lake Stevens 14 0 9 13 - 36
 
Individual scoring
 
Snohomish
14 Karley Lampman, 18
32 Katie Benson, 11
10 Emily Guthrie, 9
30 Jenn Berg, 5
34 Kristina Bride, 4
20 Amanda Keithley, 4
12 Ally Schmitt, 3
24 Marissa Timmerman, 3
 
Lake Stevens
30 Corinne Burke, 9
22 Meghan Warbis, 8
24 Lauren Goddard, 7
10 Katie Goddard, 7
44 Stephanie Schumacher, 5

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