By Kiara Doyal, The Seattle Medium
In another Metro League matchup at the Tacoma Dome, the Roosevelt Roughriders and the Lakeside Lions battled under the bright lights and a packed crowd.
Right away, Lakeside’s Anvi Bhatia scored two points following the opening tip to give the Lions early momentum. The Roughriders, who turned the ball over on their first possession, got on the board when Emma Curtis stripped the ball away from Lakeside and ran down the court for a wide-open layup. Teammate Audrey Richardson followed with the first three-point shot of the afternoon, giving Roosevelt an early 5-2 lead. Down by three in the opening minutes of the game, Lakeside went on a 6-0 run led by Phoebe Porter to regain the lead at 8-5. However, Roosevelt’s Giselle Dollar sank a three-point shot to tie the game at 8. The teams continued trading baskets until the final minute, when Lions’ Lili Brown and Bhatia scored to give Lakeside a 15-11 lead at the end of the first quarter.
The first three and a half minutes of the second quarter were extremely slow, as both teams struggled to find their rhythm. Unable to set up any plays, Lakeside called a timeout at the 5:28 mark in hopes of creating a strategic plan. After the break, both teams continued to struggle offensively until Roosevelt’s Ellery Burke-Brown hit a three-point shot, cutting into the deficit.
With a little over two minutes on the clock, the Roughriders took the lead after Curtis hit a jump shot to make the score 18-17. It quickly turned into a back-and-forth battle, as Lakeside’s Kaliya Woodard followed with a shot to regain the lead at 19-18. In the final minute, the Roughriders’ Sloane Sprangers hit a three-point shot to give Roosevelt a 21-19 lead heading into halftime.
The second half started off slow, as the teams continued a scoreless stretch until Lakeside called a timeout with 5:30 left in the quarter. Curtis finally broke the scoring drought with a basket under the rim to push the Roughriders ahead 23-19. The shot ignited a 7-0 run by Roosevelt, as the Roughriders held the Lions scoreless until the final minute of the quarter when Woodard made a shot off the glass to close the gap to 30-21. Sprangers then hit a three-point shot, and Dollar followed with an opportunity to convert a three-point play on the next possession but missed the extra-point attempt, as Roosevelt built a comfortable 35-21 lead going into the final quarter.
The fourth quarter was fast-paced, as Roosevelt and Lakeside traded baskets on each possession, but the Roughriders maintained their advantage. After a three-point shot from Lakeside’s Sienna Olson, the Lions trailed 35-26. For the remainder of the final quarter, Brown, Porter and Bhatia continued to score as they chipped away at the Roughriders’ lead, eventually cutting the game down to eight points, 40-32.
With 1:35 left on the clock, Roosevelt’s Audrey Richardson made a basket, and Brown countered with a three-point shot to make the score 42-35 in favor of Roosevelt. In the final minute, Woodard hit two three-point shots, and Dollar took two trips to the free-throw line, making both attempts to seal a 49-41 victory over Lakeside and secure Roosevelt’s place in the semifinals.
Burke-Brown finished the game with 15 points, 9 rebounds, and 4 assists to lead Roosevelt, while Woodard finished with 14 points and 14 rebounds to lead the Lions.
After the game, Roosevelt head coach A’li Wilson said she was proud of how her team kept bouncing back.
“We started off slow, but we responded. We know that they like to play slower basketball, but then we started to pick up our tempo and that is when our defense really got us there,” said Wilson. “For the rest of the tournament, we just have to start the games a little bit quicker.”
