The Skyline Lady Tigers have missed a lot of shots lately.
But, they sure know how to try, try and try again.
Skyline dominated Spokane on the glass in Saturday’s Class 2 District 10 girls’ championship game and wore out the Lady Owls with relentless defense to claim a 54-33 victory.
Skyline, winners of five consecutive district titles, meets Newburg (24-4 overall) in the Class 2 sectional round at 7:45 p.m. Wednesday at Lebanon High School’s Boswell Auditorium.
“It’s tough to simulate in your practice what (Skyline) does,” said Lady Owls coach Doug Hepler. “It doesn’t matter who they put in the game. The second five looks just like the first five. When you’re not able to match those fresh legs, they wear on you. When your body starts to go, your mind starts to go.”
As for the rebounding disparity, which was 39-20 in favor of Skyline, Hepler added:
“(Skyline) had springs in their legs. Those girls go after the boards like no other.”
Skyline grabbed 19 offensive rebounds, 14 of which came in the first half. McKinsey Mountain had 11 rebounds, Savannah Owen 10 rebounds and 5’5” point guard Kaylee DaMitz even added seven rebounds of her own.
“We did a great job,” said Skyline coach Kevin Cheek about his team’s rebounding efforts. “We didn’t shoot it very well in the semifinal and had to go rebound the basketball. We didn’t shoot the ball very well this evening, but we kept going after it (the ball). It paid off.”
Skyline led 13-2 after the first quarter, but Spokane responded with a 13-2 spurt. The Lady Owls took their only lead of the game, 16-15, on a Casey Wallace 3-pointer midway through the second quarter.
“We got some open looks during that run and the girls stepped up and knocked them down,” Hepler said. “Unfortunately, those looks were few and far between.”
Skyline answered with a similar run (14-2) and led 29-18 by halftime. The Lady Tigers pushed the margin to over 20 by the end of the third quarter.
Skyline’s active, in-your-face man-to-man defense was spearheaded by DaMitz, who hounded Spokane’s ball-handlers throughout the game. Cheek also praised the play of sophomore Autumn Garrett, who was key in limiting Wallace to only five points.
DaMitz and Garrett led Skyline with 16 points each.
“Those nine to 10 kids we have on varsity, they make my job pretty easy,” Cheek said. “You can get away with some things. We can press and pressure the basketball a little more than a lot of people because we’re so quick to recover.”
Senior Meghan Robertson led Spokane with nine points. The Lady Owls were 10-for-18 at the free throw line.
Spokane finishes 22-6 overall and, once again, sees its season end at the hands of a Class 2 juggernaut. The Lady Owls shared a district with four-time state champion Crane from 2013-2016.
Crane defeated Spokane 82-58 in last year’s Class 2 District 11 championship game.
“I don’t know what we’re doing wrong, but we’ve got to figure out some way to get us off of this (district) slide,” Hepler said. “This is a really good team and unfortunately a lot of people aren’t going to know how good we are because we keep running into juggernauts.
“We’ll be Skyline’s biggest fan right now. If we lose, might as well lose to the winner.”
Spokane 2 16 6 9 — 33
Skyline 13 16 18 7 — 54
Spokane – Meghan Robertson 9, Taylor Riott 8, Casey Wallace 5,Kaylee Armitage 4, Rachelle McMurray 3, Paige Tate 2, Shasta Turnbough 2
Skyline – Autumn Garrett 16, Kaylee DaMitz 16, McKinsey Mountain 12, Chloe Cole 5, Savannah Owen 2, Lauren Wouters 2, Sarah Cunningham 1
