LAUREL — Playoff nerves got the best of Meridian Thursday night against Blaine. For about three minutes.
Once the Trojans got the early game butterflies out of their system, it was all Meridian for the rest of the game in the Trojans’ 60-30 win.
Blaine led 7-3 early, forcing Meridian coach Bree Park to use a timeout.
Whatever words of wisdom Park gave to her team during the stop in play seemed to resonate as the Trojans rattled off 12 unanswered points to close out the first quarter with a 15-7 lead.
Senior Skyleigh James pulled down her own rebound on a missed shot and made the second attempt, making it 14 straight points and a 17-7 lead before the Borderites took a timeout of their own.
“A lot of these girls just needed to mentally check in,” Park said. “They shook off the dust there after the first two minutes and we went on a run and we got after it after that.”
By halftime, the Trojans led 29-11 and cruised to victory in the second half.
It was a relatively quiet night for James, who scored six points. All of the attention she was getting from the Blaine defense opened up her teammates.
Meridian’s Skyleigh James and Emilee Swanson pressure Blaine’s Alia Ball as Meridian beat Blaine 60-30 Thursday night. (Andy Bronson/Cascadia Daily News)
Richter scored a game-high 16 points, senior Ellie DeWaard also scored in double digits with 10 and senior Kadance Blankers added seven.
“When [James] pulled everybody in and kicked it out, [shots] were just wide open and there wasn’t anything holding me back from shooting,” Richter said.
Park said they were able to attack the gaps in the Borderites’ defense all night.
“The more you move the ball the more their defense is having to adjust, so just working the shot clock, working it down and getting good looks,” Park said. “We wanted everyone to score and nine out of 10 scored tonight.”
Meridian’s Ellie DeWaard scores in the third quarter as the Trojans beat Blaine 60-30. (Andy Bronson/Cascadia Daily News)
Surviving one loser-out game should give the team plenty of confidence, Park said, but there’s a taller task now in front of them.
The win gives the Trojans a chance to punch their ticket to the District 1/2 crossover next weekend. They just have to get through not just the No. 1 or No. 2 team in their conference, but in the whole state.
Meridian will play the loser of top-seeded Nooksack Valley and second-seeded Lynden Christian Tuesday. The winner of that advances and the loser is out.
“We’re going to go into practice and work on some defensive stuff because there’s some mistakes we made,” Richter said. “We need to be really aggressive in that game.”
