As Auburn Riverside’s girls basketball coaches entered a silent locker room, they asked for more noise.

After all, the Ravens had clinched the South Puget Sound League 3A championship with a 50-24 win Tuesday night at Bonney Lake.

The mood inside might have appeared somber, but Auburn Riverside junior point guard McKenzi Williams, who scored a game-high 19 points, said that was only because a brief celebration already had concluded.

“Before he came in there, we were very excited,” said Williams, referring to coach Derek Pegram. “We had music going and were banging on lockers. We were super excited. We’ve been waiting for this moment all season.”

Pegram said it officially is the second consecutive league title for the Ravens (17-0 overall, 11-0 league) because the SPSL 3A does not recognize head-to-head tiebreakers. That means that Auburn Riverside was the co-league champion last season with Sumner, even though the Ravens lost both games during the regular-season series.

Capturing the outright league championship against the Panthers (10-7, 8-3) was not as easy as the final score indicated. Bonney Lake reduced its deficit to 22-20 midway through the third quarter on a basket by senior forward Emily Stonerock. But Williams, who helped force 22 turnovers that fed steal-for-transition layups, helped Auburn Riverside finish the game on a 28-4 run.

“We started slower than we wanted to, but we always find a way to get it back,” Williams said. “We turned it up in the second half, locked down on defense and got it back.”

That followed a recent trend of slow starts. On Jan. 15, the Ravens faced an early 10-point deficit before rallying to defeat Sumner 55-43. Auburn Riverside also struggled from the outset against Auburn Mountainview before winning 52-35 on Jan. 19.

“We’ve got to get it out faster,” Williams said. “We’re really good at finishing games, but we’ve got to pick it up from the start. We’ve got to come out with more energy and lockdown from there.”

Pegram said he conveyed the importance of a fast start because it was the final regular-season game for five Bonney Lake seniors.

“My thing is when you go to someone else’s place and it’s senior night, you’ve got to jump on them early because it’s emotional,” he said. “We had a really good opportunity to do that because they had 14 points at halftime. We could’ve been up by a lot more. We had to go in there at halftime and rally them up a little bit.”

Even though the Ravens started slow after the intermission, Williams felt that was a turning point.

“I would say halftime was the most prominent one,” she said. “We just came in there before coach. It’s our choice if we want to win or not. We wanted to be back-to-back champs, so that’s what we went out and did.”

Pegram and Williams agreed that started on the defensive end. Auburn Riverside held the Panthers scoreless during the fourth quarter.

“She plays amazing defense,” Pegram said of Williams. “She’s the most athletic kid on the court every time she steps on it. She makes really good passes, too. When our kids get open shots most of the time it’s because McKenzi got them that way.”

Or finished it herself.

Williams has always possessed elite speed – she was a sprinter on the Ravens’ track team as a freshman – but Pegram said she has learned to better use that advantage through experience.

“She really has improved with her left hand,” he said. “She gets girls twisted both ways, and she’s done a great job of finishing this year. When she goes to the bucket, in my mind, it’s two points without a doubt.”

And when Williams was not there to finish, 6-foot-3 junior center Faith Turner was. She finished with 10 points. Pegram said Turner has improved significantly on the offensive end.

Williams agreed with that sentiment.

“With a big post like her and such a small guard like me … I know where I can find her,” she said. “I always know where she’s going to be. We’ve got very good chemistry because we’ve been playing together so long.”

Pegram said Turner has a difficult task on one side because the Ravens play a 2-3 zone defense, which forces players to drive to the basket. Despite that, he said Turner plays “dynamite” defense and does a good job avoiding foul trouble.

Auburn Riverside has just three regular-season games remaining, beginning at 7 p.m. Friday at Peninsula. They will open the postseason on a to-be determined date at home against the sixth-place team from either the SPSL 3A or Narrows 3A.

“It’s a comfort thing,” Pegram said. “We love to have our home crowd.”

Elsewhere

Auburn Mountainview 64, at Sumner 45: Taylor Flores scored a game-high 18 points as the Lions (12-4, 8-3) moved into a tie for second place with Bonney Lake with the victory. Lauren Short also scored 10 points for Auburn Mountainview.

Auburn 41, at Lakes 39: Keilani Songcuan and Rebecca Thareek each scored 10 points as the Trojans (4-12, 1-10) earned their first league win.