By Gerardo Bolong
Contributing Sports Correspondent

PASCO - State title ambitions were dashed for the 15th-seeded Seattle Christian girls basketball team in a Sat., Feb. 24, winner-to-final 12 of the Hardwood Classic, loser out, 2017 Washington state1A regional 65-58 overtime loss to 10th-seeded Columbia-Burbank on the court of Chiawana High School.

For the Warriors (17-3), all hands on board underwent emotionally exhausting as well as physically draining experiences after fighting through injuries to reach the brink of a trip to the Yakima Sun Dome. The Coyotes (23-1) advance to a loser-out match up Wed., March 1, against seventh-seeded La Center.

With sophomore guard/forward Seri Anderson emulating an exploding super nova by bursting a quartet of 3-pointers as part of her 16 first quarter points, the Seattle Christian athletes accelerated away from a 6-5 deficit triggered by Anderson's initial 3-pointer and capped by her trey just ahead of the buzzer to roll into a 22-15 lead going into the second quarter. For the quarter, Anderson shot 4-of-5 on treys.

Following the first quarter break, the Coyotes changed up their defensive strategy of helping defense and put Taylor Turner into man pressure against Anderson. This strategy kept the deadly Anderson under constant pressure en route to no more first half points. SC struggled with its offense while notching only six second quarter points as an 11-2 Columbia-Burbank run to open the quarter eventually led to a 29-28 Coyote margin at the halftime intermission.

Firing back with a vengeance, the Warriors commanded the first five minutes of the second half to gain their biggest lead at 38-30 with 2:39 remaining in the third quarter. Columbia-Burbank refused to yield the court to trail only 39-37 at the end of the quarter.

In the initial stages of the fourth quarter, Seattle Christian regained control to extend its margin to 44-37 with 5:48 remaining. Again, the Coyotes buckled down to tie the score at 44-all as 2:20 was displayed.
Interchanging baskets down the stretch, the teams were bound together at 50-50 with 4.7 seconds to go after senior guard Kelli Ronish accepted an in bounds pass to down a layup while being fouled The charity tossed refused to go down and overtime ensued.

In the overtime, Seattle Christian instituted a 53-52 lead with 2:42 left, but C-B wrestled away control to the tune of a 13-5 surge, ringing down the curtain on a workmanlike Warrior season that included the Class 1A West Central District III championship. The regular season RPI system that established regional pairings and locations forced SC into a loser-out regional. Going into this game the Warrior RPI was 19 and the Coyote RPI was 10.
Anderson closed out with 24 SC points based largely on 6-of-10 from beyond the 3-point arc. Freshman Olivia Clark tallied 13 points while Ronish added 10 on a solid 5-of-6 from the field as she also contributed six rebounds and three assists to the cause. Alex Ellis scored six points to go with six assists and a trio of assists. Makenzie May and Julia Seibel each scored two points while Maddy Fors notched one. May brought down seven rebounds.
Senior guard/post Turner was nearly unstoppable for Columbia-Burbank, posting game highs of 38 points and 19 rebounds with three blocked shots and . Michelle Maine had 10 points, nine rebounds and five steals.

The Warriors shot 22-of-59 from the field versus the Coyote shot making of 20-of-52. In the free throw category, SC went 6-of-19 while Columbia-Burbank went to town with 23-of-34 accuracy. One of the most telling blows against the battling Warriors was the Coyote carom control of 50-31.

Dave Laudan contributed to this report.
Statistics provided by Dave and Steven Laudan