Lady Cruisers Knock Off #6 State Ranked Trojans

The Lady Cruisers used a 26-10 run in the final quarter to overcome an 11-point deficit to hand the first place and 6th ranked in the state Fife Trojans their second loss of the season, 49-44 on Tuesday night last week.

The Trojans would lead for most of the game, with that lead extending to around 11 points for most of the second half.

There would be a scary moment midway through the 3rd quarter when Cruiser Sophia Henley would go down hard on the floor. She would hit her head and be knocked unconscious for a moment. The trainer quickly made his way out to check on her. HE did a quick evaluation and took all the needed precautions. Sophia said her left side of her body felt numb, so he made sure and immobilized her head just to be safe. The paramedics were called. Both teams were sent to their locker rooms.

After a thorough and methodic check by the paramedics, they decided as a precaution to put a cervical collar on and then carefully placed her on a backboard. She was then transported to Mary Bridge Hospital in Tacoma to be evaluated.

After about a 15-20-minute delay, the two teams came out of the locker room and had a brief 3 minute warm up before playing resumed.

“It was tough to see Sophia go down. She got banged up pretty good. Our team responded well to that scary situation. Sophia’s energy and toughness are somethings that are very hard to replicate, but our girls embodied what Sophia is all about after she went down”, said coach Erik Swartout.

As the 3rd quarter came to an end, the Trojans would lead 34-23 heading into the final frame.

“We played the most complete game we’ve played all year. We were playing extremely hard, but I believe they hit 7 or 8 threes in the first half. They couldn’t miss from outside. We made a few adjustments at halftime to give them a different look and our girls executed very well.

The Lady Cruisers took those adjustments and must have decided to play the rest of the game for injured Sophia…………....and boy did they.

Eatonville went on a terror in the final period of play. They ramped up their defense and caused numerous Trojan turnovers that lead to many scoring opportunities for the Cruisers.

Regarding the Cruisers big 4th quarter of play Coach Swartout said, “I think the key factor to such a big comeback was our mindset honestly. The 2nd half we came out with a demeanor we have yet to see in full effect this season. So, for us as coaches, it was very fun to watch”.

The Trojans were forced to foul late in the quarter to stop the clock to give them a chance and the Cruisers did well hitting those fouls shots. They would hit 6 of those 9 free throw attempts.

Kya Stewart would catch fire and score 11 of her team high 16 points in the final quarter. She would be 1 rebound short of picking up her 7th double double of the season. Hailey Rath would score 6 in the quarter followed by Gianna Mervyn with 5 to help fuel the Cruisers come from behind victory.

We would hear later that night that Sophia was released from the hospital around 1:00 am with only a concussion.

Scoring: K. Stewart 16, H. Rath 8, G. Mervyn 6, B. Lucht 5, M. Dunbar 5, S. Henley 4, B. Porter 4

Riding high from their huge in over #6th ranker Fife, the Lady Cruisers would travel to Tenino to take on the Tenino Beavers in a non-league matchup.

The Cruisers and Beavers would trade baskets all night keeping the game close before Eatonville would tie the game up on a Kya Stewart hook shot from 8 feet out with about 10 seconds left in the game to send it into overtime. The Cruisers would trade baskets with the Beavers and would lead 44-42 before Tenino’s Abby Severse drilled a 3 point attempt from the corner with 4 seconds left to give the Beavers a 45-45 victory in overtime.

Scoring: H. Rath 15, K. Stewart 13, B. Lucht 6, M. Dunbar 6, G. Mervyn 2, A. Hutchings 2

The Lady Cruisers would finish up the regular season schedule by hosting the Washington Patriots this past Friday night in front of a nearly packed crowd of fans.

The Patriots would take the lead early in the game and not let it go as they marched to a 37-27 victory on Eatonville’s Senior Night.

The Cruiser offense would struggle all night as the Patriot defense held them to their lowest scoring output of the season.

The Patriots would outrebound the Cruisers 55-32 and that would play a key role in the game along with the Cruisers shooting only 12% from the field making only 8 of their 65 shots on the night.

Scoring: B. Lucht 7, H. Rath 6, K. Stewart 6, M. Dunbar 6, A. Hutchings 2

The Lady Cruisers finished the regular season with a record of 6-7 in league play and 8-12 overall. They will have to wait until all 2A classification games in the state are played to see whether they move on to the SPSL tournament. As of Sunday morning, their RPI ranking had them sitting at the #7 seed in the SPSL 2A and would give them a home game against the #8 seeded team on February 5th.

The WIAA uses the RPI system in both basketball and football to help seed posts season play.

Not sure what RPI is? Here is a quick explanation.

What is RPI? - RPI, Rating Percentage Index is a statistical system used to comparatively rank teams.

What is the purpose of the RPI? - The purpose of the RPI is to seed teams into the regional and state basketball brackets using this statistical system.

What is the formula of the RPI?

The formula used is as follows:  RPI = (40% x WP) + (40% x OWP) + (20% x OOWP)

•  WP (Winning Percentage):  Divide the number of wins by the number of total games played for your team.

•  OWP (Opponents Winning Percentage):  Average of the winning percentage of a team’s opponents (Note: this is not calculated via the combined record of the opponents, but rather by averaging the winning percentage of the opponents).

•  OOWP (Opponents’ Opponents Winning Percentage:  Same process as OWP except the calculation is with the opponents of the team’s opponent.