No. 1 River Ridge Meets Red-Hot Mustangs

YAKIMA, Wash. — As expected, River Ridge will take the floor for tonight’s 9 o’clock Class 2A state girls championship game in the SunDome. The Lacey-based Hawks were one of the favorites coming in, and have thus far lived up to their billing.

Joining them, however, will be Prosser’s under-the-radar Mustangs.

That is, Prosser was perhaps taken a bit less seriously than, say River Ridge, before it dealt West Valley of Spokane its first loss of the season, 55-41, in a Friday night semifinal.

“It was supposed to be River Ridge and West Valley,” Prosser standout Tamara Jones said. “We couldn’t let that happen.”

The seventh-ranked Mustangs are 22-3 and riding both momentum and waves of local support.

Top-ranked River Ridge, 25-1, punched its title-game ticket by fending off fifth-ranked Burlington-Edison, 47-43, in Friday’s early semi.

For the Hawks, the title-game experience will be new to some, including second-year coach Tom Kelly, but not all.

Two years ago the Hawks edged Kayla Standish-led Ellensburg 43-42 for the title, and the year prior they beat Tumwater 40-25 for their first crown.

Last season River Ridge made it to state, but didn’t place.

And Kelly, who presided over victories that he estimated were attained at a 30-point-plus average, was grateful for the increased competition here.

“Absolutely,” he said, dispensing kudos to Burlington-Edison, which rallied from a 17-point deficit to tie it at 43. “That was a gutsy performance by those kids. But the thing I was happy with was that our kids didn’t get rattled when they came at us. And they came at us.”