Auburn Mountainview battles to keep playoff dream alive | Girls Basketball

Published 10:11 am Thursday, January 28, 2010

Crunch time has arrived for the Auburn Mountainview girls basketball team.

With just three games left in the regular season, the Lions struggled on their home court last Tuesday, losing 43-41 to South Puget Sound League 3A rival Bonney Lake (9-3 league, 12-4 overall).

The loss is the second in the row for the Lions (7-5, 9-7), who lost 47-44 to league leading White River (10-1, 13-2) this past Friday.

Although no loss is good, the past two come at a particularly bad time for the fifth-place Lions, who are fighting to hold onto the last postseason berth out of the SPSL 3A.

“We’re jockeying for position, we just need to get a couple of wins where we’re not supposed to,” coach Chris Carr said.

It has been a trying season for the Lions.

The team came into the season as one of the favorites to win the SPSL 3A.

However, after an early injury to all-league post Stephanie Smolinski, the team struggled to stay in the mix, going 2-4 in her absence.

After her return, the team caught fire and posted a six-game winning streak, before losing to White River 47-44 last Saturday.

With a possible playoff berth riding on the outcome, Auburn Mountainview came into the Bonney Lake game hoping to avenge a 59-39 blowout at the hands of the Panthers earlier this season.

Auburn Mountainview started off the game hot, with Smolinski driving the team to a 18-9 lead with seven first quarter points.

The Lions were unable to hold onto a 24-17 lead in the second half, however, falling prey to the Bonney Lake defensive press and their own inability to score from the charity stripe – shooting under 50 percent from the free throw line.

“We were horrible from the free throw line,” Carr said.

Smolinski and Caitlin Carr led the team with 12 points in the game, with Angel Pele adding 11. The Panthers were led by Marcel Pounds’ 13 points.

Now Auburn Mountainview will have to face the Spartans (9-2, 11-4) at 7 p.m. Friday at Sumner High School. The Lions lost 54-45 to Sumner earlier this year when Smolinski was out.

After Sumner, the team will host Emumclaw and travel to Peninsula, before closing out the season at home against Clover Park.

“We know we have a tough stretch, in a stretch of five games we have Lakes, Bonney Lake and Sumner,” Carr said. “We know that it’s going to be tough, we just need to compete. And we’ve done a good job of competing in these games, but it just comes back to doing the little things to win. When you don’t shoot 50 percent from the free throw line, you don’t win many games.”

ELSEWHERE: Junior Kat Cooper’s 17 points helped lift the Ravens (13-0, 17-0) to a 82-20 victory over Kentridge (0-13, 1-16) in SPSL North 4A play. Mercedes Wetmore and Taylor Wofford both had 12 points apiece in the win and the Ravens held the Chargers to just two points in the first quarter. … The Trojans (7-6, 8-9) fell 65-43 at Federal Way (9-3, 13-3)despite Heather Restrepo’s team-high 12 points.