Kangs knock off top seed to set up rematch with No. 2 Garfield
CLASS 3A GIRLS
By DOUG DROWLEY - Special to The Seattle Times

TACOMA — In the end, it came down to a single word.

Trust.

The Lake Washington Kangaroos trusted their interior defense in the final seconds. And the heart of that defense, Elise Hani, trusted herself to stand firm and protect the rim when Lake Washington needed it most.

That trust paid off for the Kangaroos, who held off a furious rally from the previously unbeaten and topseeded Mead Panthers to escape with a 42-41 Class 3A state semifinal upset victory at the Tacoma Dome on Friday night. The win puts Lake Washington back into the title game for the second straight tournament.

Lake Washington will play No. 2 Garfield, which rallied to beat Arlington 56-42. The Kangaroos lost to Garfield in 2020. There was no tournament played in 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Elise is a 6-4, Division I athlete,” Lake Washington coach Jeff Wilson said. “Her defensive IQ is incredible.

We trusted her in that situation to handle it and protect the rim.”

The “situation” that Wilson referred to was the final two seconds of a game that the Kangaroos (21-4) looked to have put away three minutes or so earlier. But a 10-point lead had been whittled to just one point, 42-41, with 16 seconds to go.

Mead had possession.

After a timeout, the Panthers ran their offense and with it the clock down to the last few seconds. That’s when Teryn Gardner cut along the baseline, took a pass from Olivia Moore, and tried to get to the rim for the game-winning layup.

Hani slid across the lane, threw her hands high in the air and caused Gardner’s attempt to finish short, hitting the underside of the rim as the final buzzer sounded.

“Stay straight up,” Hani said. “That’s what crossed my head.”

Hani looked to have put this one away when she made two free throws with 3 minutes, 26 seconds to play that staked LW to a 42-32 lead. Those free throws reestablished a double-digit lead that was even larger for much of the contest.

Mead (23-1) made just three of its 22 field goal attempts in the first half as the Kangaroos pulled away to lead it 27-11 at the half. It was 30-12 when Haley Burns made a shot for the Panthers with 4:41 to play in the third quarter, starting Mead on its first comeback trail.

With 2:01 to go in the third, Mead had trimmed the deficit to nine, 33-24. Lake Washington extended back to a 36-24 lead entering the fourth quarter, and still had that 10-point advantage on the last two of Hani’s teamhigh 19 points.

“You can’t play just one half of basketball,” Mead coach Quantae Anderson said.

One still almost was enough as that last doubledigit advantage turned out not to be as safe as it seemed.

Gardner got the last comeback rolling for Mead with a pair of free throws of her own with 2:58 to go. The Panthers’ 5-foot-8 sophomore reached in and stole the ball near midcourt on each of the next two trips LW attempted to bring up the floor.

Both steals resulted in breakaway layups that tightened the Kangaroos’ advantage to just four, 42-38 with 1:53 left. And those points gave Gardner a game-high 24 for the game.

Garfield 56, Arlington 42

The Bulldogs (20-0) turned around a three-point deficit early in the fourth quarter to beat the Eagles (20-3). Katie Fiso led all scorers with 25 points and Malia Samuels added 15 for the Bulldogs, who won the title in 2020.