By John Leggett

The Courier-Herald

When the going got tough the Sumner High girls basketball squad got going Friday, beating Foster High on the Bulldogs’ home court 57-30 in a loser-out meeting with the Seamount League’s No. 5 seed.

As a reward the Spartan girls, who finished fifth in the South Puget Sound League 3A with a 10-6 mark will face Lakes at 6 p.m. Saturday at Auburn High in the opening game of the West Central-Southwest District tournament.

“This will be the rubber match between us and the Lancers,” first-year Spartan coach Robert Thayer said. “This one should be a beauty of contest, because we match up well with Lakes.”

Sumner had it tough in the early stages against Foster, which was sharpshooting from long range, and the Spartans had a bad case of butterflies according to junior center Ashley Delaney, who accounted for nine points and five critical rebounds.

“We really had the jitters early on,” she said. “Coach Thayer reminded us that there was no tomorrow if we lost, though, so we got our act together in the second half.”

In the final two minutes of the second quarter Sumner clamped down defensively, employing a full court press that netted the Spartans six unanswered points to tie things at 23.

Sumner continued to play a stingy brand of defense in the third period and Foster put up a goose egg, while Sumner ran to a 45-23 lead.

The Spartans offense lit up the scoreboard. Sumner received balanced scoring from Angie Wagar-Sanchez, who registered a dozen points, and 11 points apiece from juniors Kendall Theden and Erika Olsen.