Another year of experience showed on Wednesday at the the WIAA/Dairy Farmers of Washington Class 2B state girls basketball tournament.

In a truly tough opening round game, the Evergreen Lutheran Eagles were as sharp as nails down the stretch in a 50-48 edging out the Toutle Lake Ducks, the same foe they defeated in last year's opener.

The Ducks took an 11-7 first quarter lead before the Eagles bounced back to close within 21-19 at the half.

With a lot of pressure being dealt out by both squads, Evergreen Lutheran edged ahead 31-29 heading into the crucial fourth quarter. Torridly exchanging short leads, the teams battled until the Eagles held on to a 48-46 margin late in the fourth quarter. After getting the ball inside, Erika Laete fed a baseline pass to Rachel Hansen for a reverse layup for a 50-46 margin with 28 seconds remaining. But Lindsey Scheffler, who paced the Ducks with 16 points, responded with a quick basket to slice the deficit to 50-48.

Toutle Lake quickly fouled Jessica Ide, who missed a pair of free throws, giving the Ducks one final chance. Nearly in tandem with the game-ending buzzer, Toutle Lake's Scheffler nailed an 18-foot shot. Once the officials decided that the shot was after the buzzer, the goal was waved off and the Ducks were left on the pond to head into consolation round play.

"We played very good defense the entire game," said Evergreen Lutheran head coach Jeff Kurbis after limiting the Ducks to 28 percent field goal shooting for the game. "(Kelsey) D'Andrade and Ide played great defense. We knew Scheffler would get her points, but we held her at bay and stopped their talented guard Kayla Vickaryous."

Laete led Evergreen Lutheran with 16 points and 12 rebounds. Rachel Hansen added 15 points and cleaned the glass for 12 caroms while Ide chipped in with 11 points and seven boards.

Scheffler slashed and drove for 16 points, but Vickaryous was held to two of 11 field goals for 10 points.

Evergreen Lutheran outrebounded Toutle Lake 67-55.

Kurbis talked about how this game stayed so close and how this season's team reacted in comparison with the energetic elation and wild celebrations after last year's first-ever Eagle opening round victory in school history against Toutle Lake.

"We missed a bunch in the first half (31 percent), and that made it a closer game," Kurbis remarked. "This year we barely beat the same team. We might have talked about...how we should have beat them by more, but they were already focused for a really athletic Reardan team."

In Thursday's quarterfinal round match up, the Eagles got off the starting blocks slowly and trailed at halftime before overcoming the disadvantage with the fiery hot shooting of Corey Warner and Ashley Daniels en route to a 63-43 defeat of Reardan to reach the semifinal round against defending state champion La Salle.

Coming out slowly from the starting blocks, Evergreen Lutheran trailed 22-17 at the half.

"We didn't take care of the ball very well in the first half with 15 turnovers, but we only had three in the second half," said Kurbis. "We went to the locker room and said that this was our game and the girls really responded. On defense, we shut them down with great team play from a lot of people. We're thankful we got the win."

Kelsey D'Andrade and Grace Lorette swarmed Reardan's leading scorer Jen Cristerson and shut her down in the second half, holding her to 14 points.

As part of the Eagles' 24-16 third quarter assault, Warner nailed two of her 3-pointers to propel the Eagles into the lead for good in the third quarter en route her team high 15 points. Daniels scored eight of her 13 points during an 18-0 Evergreen salvo to help her team pull away from a 38-34 deficit and charge away to a 52-38 dominance with just more than four minutes remaining. Evergreen Lutheran shut out the Indians for nearly four minutes to open the fourth quarter and left Reardan in its wake for a 22-5 scoring thrust to the end.

Jessica Ide scored 11 points while Erika Laete snared 14 boards despite a sub-par seven points.

Evergreen Lutheran (24-2) cleaned the glass for 55 rebounds against Reardan's 39. An Eagle second half shooting percentage of 58 percent and good free throw shooting contributed to the Evergreen Lutheran cause.

On Friday, the Eagles ran afoul of a merciless, man-to-man, full court press in a 59-33 seminal loss to defending Class 2B champion and No. 2 ranked La Salle at the state tournament.

Evergreen Lutheran fell back quickly and never caught up.

"They're a good team, well disciplined," Eagles head coach Jeff Kurbis told courtside reporters. "They move the ball well, they're a well-disciplined team."

Jessica Ide's game-opening free throws for fourth-ranked Evergreen Lutheran were followed by a 17-0 La Salle Lightning strike. Erika Laete's free throw late in the quarter left the Eagles trailing 17-3.

Second quarter action mirrored the opening period. Midway through the period, Grace Bender finally scored the Eagles' first field goal on a rebound basket, but Evergreen Lutheran still trailed 20-6. Converting only two out of 14 shots from the field in the first half for a 14 percent shooting percentage, the Eagles trailed 32-11 at the half.

As the second half ensued, the deadly Lightning continued to strike with frequent back-door buckets against the Eagles' 2-3 zone defense while building an insurmountable 41-15 margin en route to victory. Grace Lorette's short jump shot was Evergreen Lutheran's only field goal of the ill-fated quarter.

La Salle's pressure defense resulted in 9-of-33 Eagle shooting from the field for 26.5 percent. Evergreen Lutheran's 14-of-26 from the free throw line added to its problems.

"They had good ball pressure," explained Eagles' guard Rachel Hansen. "...it was hard to penetrate."

The Lightning had no problems penetrating. Although La Salle made only 8-of-29 from the field, the drives to the basket resulted in five Evergreen Lutheran players fouling out with a team total of 35 fouls as the Lightning dropped in 29-of-50 from the foul line.

Laete ended with nine points and 14 rebounds for the Eagles. Ide scored eight points.

Jasmine Stohr paced La Salle with 14 points.