Kentlake Falcons bring the fire in regional win, jump to Elite Eight

The Kentlake Falcons girls basketball team scored a ticket to the Elite Eight 4A state basketball tournament after beating Kamiak 42-34 Saturday evening at Rogers High.

By Dennis Box • March 2, 2016 11:08 pm

The Kentlake Falcons girls basketball team scored a ticket to the Elite Eight 4A state basketball tournament after beating Kamiak 42-34 Saturday evening at Rogers High.

Sydney Peterson lead the scoring in a balanced team effort on the defensive and offensive side.

The Falcons opened the state tournament 9 a.m. Thursday at the Tacoma Dome playing Bothell, which was past the press deadline. Check the website for results and game coverage.

The Falcons came out firing against Kamiak building a 22-9 lead with nearly 9 minutes left in the second period. Despite building an early lead, Kentlake never lost focus or took its foot off the gas.

“We knew going in this team could shoot,” Peterson said. “We knew we couldn’t let up and we knew it would be a very physical game.”

On the defensive side both teams lived up to that description. In the final quarter Peterson took a shot to the mouth and Jada Leonard hit the floor hard while battling for a rebound. Coach GC Hillburn took Leonard out, but after a couple of plays she was back on the court.

When Peterson was asked after the game how her mouth was she said, “Oh that was nothing. Just my braces.”

Tough kids.

“I am so proud of this team,” Hillburn said. “They have come so far this season and done everything they have been asked, and more. We knew it would be this kind of game and the girls played great.”

Kentlake went undefeated, 8-0, in the 4A South Puget Sound League Northeast Conference and 21-5 overall.

Bothell won the 4A KingCo with a 15-1 record and went 23-1 overall.

The leading scorer going into the Kamiak game for Kentlake was Peterson. The 5-foot-7-inch junior point guard poured in 360 points in 25 games posting a 14.4 per-game scoring average.

Sophomore Aniston Denckla was the second leading scorer for the Falcons with 200 points over 25 games and an eight point per-game average. At 5-11 she plays forward.

Leonard, a junior 5-7 guard, averaged 6.3 per game and scored 157 points in 25 games for the Falcons.

Kylee Johnson, 5-10 junior wing and guard, averaged 5.9 points scoring 147 points over 25 games.

The leading scorer for Bothell is Taya Corosdale, a junior post player at 6-2. She scored 425 points over 23 games and averaged 18.5. Stopping Corosdale in the paint will be one of the main tasks for Kentlake.