LAKEWOOD One day after putting up 75 points in a losing effort, the Lady Cougars basketball team had a bit of an offensive drop-off en route to a home non-league victory over Darrington.
Lakewood improved to 2-1 with a 57-41 victory in front of a sparse and subdued crowd Wednesday, Dec. 6 and fell 82-75 in overtime 24 hours earlier to Foster of the Nisqually league.
Junior Aly Stewart and sophomore Anna Work led LHS with 16 points each against the visiting Lady Loggers.
Veteran coach Chris Walster acknowledged that his squad might have been little flat with their shots and physically drained after the high-scoring overtime game the day before.
It took more out of us than we thought, Walster said of the Foster game.
Stewart, Work, sophomore Jocelyn Shafer and junior Karli Hesselman paced Lakewood to a 16-9 advantage after one quarter.
Darrington stepped up their defensive pressure in the second quarter and outscored the hosts 11-9, but the Lady Cougars were able to take a 25-21 lead into the locker room at halftime.
Junior forward Mareyoko Butler scored all four of her points in the second quarter.
Hesselman scored the first basket of the second half for LHS for a 27-24 lead, but Darrington came back to take their first lead of the game at 28-27.
We want a b-a-s-k-e-t, the Lakewood cheerleaders yelled to the relatively quiet crowd.
Stewart, junior Emily Steinborn and Work powered the Lady Cougars on a 12-4 run to end the quarter and give Lakewood a 39-32 lead heading into the final eight minutes of play.
One-two-three Cougars the team rang out from a team huddle as they entered the court for the fourth quarter.
Hesselman converted 1-for-2 at the free throw line and junior Juliet Dvorak sank both of her free throws to expand the Lakewood lead to 10 at 42-32.
Dvorak and Stewart both sank two-pointers and junior Jeneca Hoidal dropped a three-pointer for her only points of the game, and Lakewood once again had a 10-point lead at 49-39.
R-o-c-k the stands the maroon and gold clad Lakewood cheerleaders implored the crowd.
Darrington could only muster one more basket in the final minute to close the gap to an eight-point deficit, and Stewart and Work each had four points for the 57-41 final score.
Aly and Anna have kind of been leading the charge this year, Walster said. Darrington is a scrappy team. Weve seen them (DHS) play in Sultan and knew they could go both inside and outside with the ball.
The Lady Cougars travel to Sultan Friday, Dec. 15 to face the Lady Turks and kick off Cascade Conference play.
Junior varsity tips off at 5:15 p.m. and varsity at 7 p.m.
The Lady Cougars showed they have a high-powered offense Tuesday, Dec. 5 but fell short in the end 82-75 on the road.
Stewart had an all-around complete performance with 28 points, 10 rebounds, six assists, six steals and four blocked shots.
Work added 21 points.
Coach Walster said Foster of Tukwila is a good team that plays rough.