Tony Overman/The Olympian
Black Hills' Sheena Prante is surrounded by Kennedy's Karisa Mummert (12) and Michelle Aurelio on Wednesday.

Late fouls cost Wolves

Black Hills coach, players disagree with referees' calls

ELLIOTT SMITH THE OLYMPIAN

TACOMA -- In any basketball game of importance, referees will often do their best to try and remain in the background, letting the game decide itself naturally.

Unfortunately, from the standpoint of the Black Hills girls basketball team, the referees stepped into the spotlight when the game was on the line Wednesday at the Tacoma Dome.

An untimely intentional foul call and a couple of non-calls helped turn a dramatic, nip-and-tuck battle at the 3A state tournament, as Kennedy prevailed in a hard-fought 63-59 contest on Wednesday.

"We felt that the refs should have let the kids decide the game," Black Hills co-coach Paul Dretsch said.

Black Hills will play Burlington-Edison at 10:30 a.m. today for the right to stay alive in the tournament.

The turning point came with less than a minute remaining. Trailing 57-56, the Wolves turned the ball over and Kennedy's Kerisa Mummert streaked to the basket and put in a layup as she was fouled.

One of the referees called an intentional foul on Black Hills, giving Mummert an extra free throw and the Lancers possession of the ball.

Mummert hit one of two to give Kennedy a 60-56 lead with 32.7 seconds left. The Lancers then struggled to get the ball in under heavy duress from the Wolves.

Black Hills seemingly got the break it was looking for as Kennedy threw the ball away, but a late whistle halted a Wolves fast break and Carly Koebel hit two more free throws to bump the lead to 62-56.

"It was real frustrating," Black Hills guard Brie Adderley said. "The refs at the state tournament should be high quality."

The ending put a damper on a spectacular game.

The Wolves stepped up their game in the second half, rallying from a seven-point deficit to take their first lead since 2-0 when Karen Cale stole the ball and laid it in to make the score 38-37 with 1:40 left in the third quarter.

From there, the lead changed 13 times, as both the Wolves and Lancers showed their mettle.

"There was some clutch shooting on both ends," Dretsch said. "We got some great looks from outside. The kids played great. It was a fun game. We never blinked, they never blinked.

"It was a tough call at the end that didn't give either team a chance to blink."

Black Hills led 49-46 with 4:54 left, but never led by more than one point the rest of the way.

"I thought we could pull away when we were up by three," Adderley said. "But we didn't have that last spark."

Adderley led Black Hills with 16 points, but was only 6 of 23 from the floor. Markisha Shattuck added 11 and Tamara Mickelson continued to play well, registering 11 points, seven rebounds and five assists.

"Tamara played outstanding," Dretsch said. "She's really been playing well this season, as well as any guard in our district."

The Wolves got off to a slow start, shooting only 21 percent in the first half to fall behind 26-21 at the break, a fact Mickelson attributed to the pressures of state.

"This is the first time here for a lot of people and sometimes, it's like 'Wow!'," she said. "There's the lights, the people, the hoops. It can take your breath away. But as it goes along, you kind of settle off."

After being so close, the Wolves are going to have to rein in their disappointment and worry about a tough Burlington-Edison squad that went 20-4 during the regular season.

"I think in every game you learn something," Mickelson said. "We needed to play aggressive the whole game. We had to play like we did in the second half the whole game. You can't blame it on the refs."

Elliott Smith covers sports for The Olympian. He can be reached at 754-5473 or ejsmith1@olympia.gannett.com

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