Lady Cruiser basketball crushes Highline Pirates

The Eatonville offense really showed up to play this past Friday night when they played host to the Highline Pirates at Rainier Connect Arena.

The Cruisers opened the game with 17 unanswered points and put the game away early to a 70-24 drubbing of the Pirates.

The full court defensive press the Cruisers used to open the game really confused the young Highline team into many turnovers. The Cruisers didn’t allow a Pirate bucket until 3 minutes left in the 1st quarter. They would finish the quarter with a 28-6 lead. Hailey Rath would score 13 of her 21 points in the opening quarter.

That stingy defense and great shooting continued and it helped the Cruisers stretch their lead to 35 points at the half, 45-10.

Eatonville picked up the win 70-24.

The Cruisers seemed to work the ball to post players Kya Stewart and Brooklynn Lucht more in this game than they have all season. 58 of the Cruisers 70 points came from in the paint. Cruiser are fans hoping to see more of that.

Both Stewart and Lucht would finish with 16 points each. Lucht would also pull down 10 rebounds for her first double-double of the season.

Scoring Stats: H. Rath 21 points, B. Lucht 16, K. Stewart 16, A. Hutchings 7, M. Dunbar 4, S. Henley 2, B. Blocker 2, G. Mervyn 2.

Prior to Friday’s big win, the Cruisers headed to Washington High School to take on the Patriots in a league match up.

The Cruisers trailed the entire game until 3 minutes left in the fourth quarter. As they trailed by 1, Kya Stewart was fouled and sent to the free throw line for two shots. She hit them both to give the Cruisers the lead.

The lead was short lived as the Patriots took it back on their next possession.

With a minute left in the game, Hailey Rath drained a 3 from the corner to tie the game up at 41.

After a Patriot turnover and only 40 seconds left in the game, Stewart was sent to the free throw line again for 2 shots and a chance to take the lead. She made the first but the second bounceed out and the Cruisers led 42-41.

The Patriots answered back when freshman guard Sirena Perado drained a 3 from well beyond the arc to give the Patriots a 44-42 lead.

After a Cruiser timeout, Hailey Rath would drive the lane and put up a shot that would miss and Washington got the rebound and the Cruisers were forced to foul to stop the clock.

With 2.7 seconds left, the Cruisers stole the Patriots inbound pass. Andrea Hutchings threw up a last second shot from near half court but it was off target and the Cruisers fell 44-42.

Kya Stewart led the Cruisers with 17 points. She would add 10 rebounds to pick up her fourth double-double of the season.

Scoring Stats: K. Stewart 17 points, H. Rath 13, A. Hutchings 8, M. Dunbar 2, B. Blocker 2.

On Saturday, the Cruisers headed to Rochester to take on the Rochester Warriors in a non-league match up.

Eatonville opened the game scoring the first bucket to take the lead. That was the only time they led the game as the Warriors slowly pulled away to take the eventual win, 44-34.

Kya Stewart with score 13 points to lead the Cruisers.

Scoring Stats: K. Stewart 13 points, H. Rath 9, M. Dunbar 6, B. Lucht 2, A. Hutchings 2, B. Porter 2.

At the close of the week, the Cruisers record stands at 4-7 overall and 2-4 in league play. 

Next up for the Cruisers will be an away game at 5:15 p.m. at River Ridge before returning home for a home game against at 1 p.m. Friday against Clover Park.