In first tourney appearance

The free throws gave the aggressive Red Devils a hard-earned 61-59 victory over the run-and-gun Eagle Mustangs, who led 50-44 with 5@FN(1)@FD(2) minutes to play but got outscored 17-9 the rest of the way.

Neah Bay took its first lead since the second quarter when Alisha Kallappa sank two free throws to make it 59-57 with 40 seconds to go.

Senior Dave'y Lumley answered for TLG 21 seconds later by stepping to the foul line and canning both ends of a 1-and-1.

But when they needed a defensive stop most, the Eagle Mustangs' gritty man-to-man couldn't keep Nagel from driving to the basket. Her defender, senior Kindra VanLaar, tried to cut her off but got whistled for the foul instead.

Nagel completed Neah Bay's comeback with the last of her six free throws, which gave her a team-high 19 points and helped offset the exploits of TLG sophomore Katie Yarnell, who led everybody in the game with 20 points and 23 rebounds.

VanLaar also had a strong game for the Eagle Mustangs. She added 12 points on 5-of-11 shooting and included a 2-for-3 effort from 3-point range.

Lumley, who played all 32 minutes, chipped in with nine points, five rebounds, five assists and four steals, and freshman Liz Vogt came off the bench to score nine points, grab eight rebounds and block two shots.

"We played the best we could," VanLaar told Marqise Allen of the Yakima Herald-Republic. "We just laid it out there but came up short."

The loss ended a magical season for the TLG girls, who qualified for the third-year athletic combine's first state tournament and set a team record for wins in a season (17 in 25 games) under second-year head coach Roger Huffsmith.

Moreover, in their three state tournament games, the Eagle Mustangs showed they could compete with the state's best teams at the 1B level and proved Huffsmith was correct when he said in an early January interview that, "If we make it to state, I can't think of a more deserving bunch."

Among the team's tournament highlights were a few individual honors: Yarnell being selected for the All-Tournament Second Team based in part on her team-leading averages of 12.7 points and 11.7 rebounds per game, and Vogt, VanLaar and Lumley receiving Sportsmanship medallions.

TLG 60, Taholah 36:

Four players scored in double figures in the Eagle Mustangs' first-ever state tournament victory last Thursday.

Dave'y Lumley led all scorers with 15 points, Katie Yarnell and Kindra VanLaar each scored 13 and supersub Liz Vogt had 11 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Eagle Mustangs past the Chitwins in the loser-out game.

TLG took control of the game with an 11-1 run that began with just over 6 minutes left in the first quarter.

The Eagle Mustangs closed out the game with a 9-2 surge that featured four points by Lumley, three by junior Heather Huffsmith and a putback by Vogt that gave TLG its biggest lead at 60-34.

Keys to TLG's victory were its offensive rebounding (31), which produced 19 second-chance points, and a pressure defense that yielded 16 points off 25 Taholah turnovers.

Colton 64, TLG 30:

The Eagle Mustangs fell behind 10-0 and didn't get their first basket until the 4-minute mark of their opening round game against the tournament's eventual runners-up last Wednesday.

That was as close as TLG would get to the Wildcats who ended the first quarter with a 16-3 lead.

Sophomore Megan Anderson paced the Eagle Mustangs in scoring with 11 points and had seven rebounds to share the team lead in rebounding with Liz Vogt.