SLIDESHOW: BLHS BASKETBALL: Panthers make history as first state hoop team

The Bonney Lake High girls basketball squad might have gone two-and-out during the Class 3A state tournament.

By John Leggett

Staff Writer

The Bonney Lake High girls basketball squad might have gone two-and-out during the Class 3A state tournament, but will forever hold the distinction of being the first Panther basketball team, boys or girls, to earn a state berth.

The Panther girls finished the season with a 16-6 mark overall.

In both state losses, 45-39 to Seattle Prep March 10 and 49-47 to Capital Thursday, Bonney Lake owned the upper hand at the break in both contests.

On the first day of the Sweet 16’s big show, both teams got off to a slow start although BLHS senior guard Marcel Pounds and junior center Rani Wiegand combined for 16 of Bonney Lake’s 25 first-half points as each of them recorded eight-point efforts.

Seattle Prep snapped out of it in the game’s last 16 minutes though, as its leading scorer, Kari Luttinen, and teammate Alexandra Claeys took advantage of their 10 second-half trips to the foul line, hitting eight times.

Thursday, against the Capital High Cougars, Pounds scored 16 first-half points, spearheading an offensive surge that provided the Panthers with a 30-15 lead at intermission.

The officiating didn’t do Bonney Lake any favors, as the Cougars stepped to the line 20 times in the second half, gleaning 11 points, while Bonney Lake had just two visits to the charity stripe.

“I don’t know if it was just a coincidence or not,” Bonney Lake second-year coach Tom Ostrander diplomatically wondered, “but there was definitely a discrepancy in the number of fouls they called on us and them in the second half.

“That really hurt us too, primarily because within a two-minute period early in the fourth quarter we very quickly had three of our starters foul out of the game.”

Ostrander told his squad after its early exit from the tournament that they had nothing to hang their heads about after the tremendous season.

“I told the ladies that they should focus on the positives, that I was proud of them and that they were a group that I would never forget,” maintained Ostrander, who will be saying goodbye to seven senior girls.