Youthful Leopards bounced

Taller Pioneers end Zillah’s season ||

YAKIMA, Wash. — The progression of a high school basketball team, whether experienced or youthful, is never a steady one. And among the unfortunate things the postseason can bring is the magnification of such a team’s backward steps by good competition.

Witness Zillah’s girls.

The Leopards had dealt top-ranked Granger, a 2009 tournament finalist, its first defeat in their regular-season finale, then had come within a point of duplicating that feat in the SCAC district title game.

Zillah's Cortney Bounds reacts to her team's loss against Nooksack Valley at the 1A state basketball tournament, held at the Yakima SunDome, on Thursday, March, 4 2010. (Sara Gettys/Yakima Herald-Republic)

So coach Mindi Winters’ squad, short on both seniors (three) and size (no one taller than 5-foot-9 freshman Caitlin Myers) came into the SunDome riding waves of momentum and confidence.

But after running smack into a talented and touted Freeman team in its opener, Zillah on Thursday encountered a Nooksack Valley squad whose record was distorted by the Class 2A and 3A foes in its Northwest Conference.

And the circumstances were not kind to the Leopards, as evidenced by a season-ending 42-28 defeat.

“It just seemed like the little things that sparked us when we were doing well, like when Alisi (Uasike) or Caitlin would get going, just didn’t happen,” Winters said. “And then when those things aren’t happening, confidence can suffer. With a young team, that can be fragile.”

Zillah (15-10) started strongly enough, especially Uasike. The active 5-8 junior, hampered Wednesday by early foul trouble, capped a 9-0 Leopards burst with a 3-pointer at the 3:50 mark of the first quarter.

Having scored seven of Zillah’s first nine points, Uasike then scored the next four, but only after the Pioneers (16-11) had rolled up 15 unanswered.

Nooksack led 20-15 at halftime, then held the Leopards without a field goal for the first 7:07 of the third quarter en route to a 29-17 lead. And complicating matters for Zillah was Uasike’s being whistled for her third foul at 5:16 of the third period and another at 6:25 of the fourth.

She fouled with 4:56 to play, having scored a game-high 15 points, and the Leopards down 31-22. NV then staged a 6-0 run to seal it.

Uasike also collected five rebounds and three steals. Whitney Winters, who scored six points in the fourth quarter, finished with eight and was the only Zillah player other than Uasike to hit a 3-pointer in 18 team attempts.

For the game, the Leopards made just eight field goals including two in the second half.

Austen Beard, a 5-9 senior, led Nooksack with 14 points and eight rebounds.

“People talk about what a great job Granger does — and they do — with being a team of 5-9 players and under,” Winters said, “and here we are with all our players 5-81?2 and under.

“But these girls have accomplished a lot this season, and I’m very proud of them. They have very big hearts, and I wouldn’t trade that for anything.”