Pay little attention to the records, the season series and series history — such was the mindset for the Kangaroos in a high-stakes conference tussle with Bellevue on Friday evening.
And for the better part of three quarters, the Lake Washington High girls basketball team put up a fight before the short-handed Kangs ran out of gas and lost, 60-41, at Lake Washington High School.
Bellevue (8-2 KingCo, 13-2) came in with the second-best record in the conference, having beaten Lake Washington 74-38 in the first meeting this season. The Kangs (1-9, 2-14) had lost the last six and sit at the bottom of the conference standings, and yet Lake Washington held a two-point lead after the first quarter.
The Kangs were down only seven at halftime, and crept within six midway through the third quarter before Bellevue put on a rally to lead by 13 in the final seconds of the period.
“I knew they were beatable in the first game, but I don’t think the girls knew,” Lake Washington coach Regi Raban said. “They’re used to getting blown out by Bellevue. They’re used to, ‘Oh no, it’s Bellevue.’ We’ve gotten to a point now where we’re not looking at the opponent, we’re concentrating on us.”
The Kangs’ early successes spurred greater confidence as the game wore on, but Lake Washington had only eight players due to injuries on the JV and varsity rosters. No Megan McCarthy and no Marissa Ewald, and no help from swing players.
“Defensively, I think we can be in the game with anyone,” Raban said. “The problem is that we’re not real deep and don’t have a lot of talent, and as we get deeper into the game, physically we start breaking down so mentally we start breaking down.”
Lake Washington was within nine at the midway point of the fourth quarter after a 3-pointer from Olivia Smallman and an aggressive move to the rim from Kathy Helf. But the Wolverines scored the next 10 points, many coming easy or off Lake Washington turnovers, and finished the game on a 13-3 run.
While the loss certainly dampens the postseason hopes for Lake Washington, the Kangs have a shot to qualify for the conference tournament with one or two big results over the next few weeks. The top five Class 3A KingCo teams make the tournament, and Lake Washington is only a game behind Interlake in the loss column.
A result against Liberty, Juanita or Redmond could make for an interesting finish to the year for the Kangs, but Raban said it’s more about mindset at this point of the season than it is about wins and losses.
“Coming into the second half, right away (Bellevue) got some shots off,” Raban said. “Normally, we would have just buckled, and we didn’t do that. They stepped up, they came back and they showed some character and pushed through. That’s what I’m going to judge this team on right now.”
Bellevue guard Ann-Marie Jacobs led the Wolverines with 12 points. Kara Choi had 10 points and Annika Prins had nine.
Smallman led Lake Washington with nine points.
Next, the Kangs are scheduled to continue conference play with a home game against Liberty at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday at Lake Washington High School.
