Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Colton girls, Schultheis
Colton girls, Patchen
After a delay crossing the state in a morning snowstorm Feb. 24, the Mt. Rainier Lutheran High School band set up in the Pullman High bleachers and struck up that Coldplay song that goes, “When I Ruled the World.”
The Colton girls came out and said, “We still do.”
Or they might as well have in a dominant state 1B regional win over the Hawks Saturday, 72-17, which started 45 minutes late due to the late arrival of the MRLHS bus.
Colton (21-1), which had a string of eight consecutive state championships stopped last year in the state semifinals, will now go to Spokane Arena again as the no. 1 seed.
Against Mt. Rainier Lutheran (21-3), the Wildcats started slow, initially missing shots while the Hawks kept failing to get one off before the shot-clock buzzer.
If this continued, the strategy could work. If Colton kept missing and the Hawks never got a shot off in time, the game would remain tied.
But no, Colton began to score and they led 21-2 at the end of the first quarter and 47-7 at halftime.
Emily Schultheis, Dakota Patchen and Abby Kelly each scored 16 points to lead the Wildcats in the game. Jordyn Moerhle added seven points.
Colton junior forward Emily Schultheis scored 16 points in the win over MRL, as did teammates Dakota Patchen and Abby Kelly.
Return to state
Colton will open in Spokane Thursday at 5:30 p.m. against the winner of no. 10-seed Taholah and no. 7 Almira/Coulee/Hartline (ACH).
If it is the latter, the table will be set for a sports revenge if there ever was one. The Warriors beat Colton last year in the semifinal. The team returns four starters while Colton returns three themselves, a core group of juniors that have played significant minutes since they were freshman: Dakota Patchen, Jordyn Moehrle and Emily Schultheis.
Coach Clark Vining has prepared his team each night this week in practice.
“Just fine-tuning everything” he said. “Getting to the Arena again, it’s always a great experience.”
This year the Wildcats will enter Spokane as a different kind of no. 1 seed than before.
Still the favorites to win, they arrive in 2018 without their record streak of titles still current. Nonetheless, the mission is still the same.
“I think our approach is pretty similar, we just try to focus on Thursday, ACH or Tahola, it’ll probably be ACH,” said Vining.
This year, during the regular season, Colton had eight players score in double figures.
“We might be more well-rounded than before,” Vining said.
Is this team better than last year’s?
“I guess we’ll find out,” said Vining. “Talk to me on Saturday.”
That night at 9 p.m. the state girls 1B championship game will be held at Spokane Arena.
It’s been on the mind of Wildcats players, coaches and fans since the game a year ago, when Colton’s absence in the state final signified their record eight consecutive championships was over.
“It’s in the back of our minds, but we don’t really talk about it,” Vining said. “We first have to face four quality opponents on the way.”
One of them may be no. 2 seed Pomeroy, which pushed the Wildcats to a 49-48 result Jan. 19, the Pirates losing by a point. Then, two weeks ago Colton blew them out in the district final in Walla Walla. Another contender at state for 1B girls could be familiar Arena foe Sunnyside Christian, a no. 4 seed this year, with three starters back.
Pomeroy will begin at state by playing the winner of Entiat-Mt. Rainier Lutheran Thursday at 9 p.m. Other teams in Spokane include Yakama Nation Tribal (no. 14 seed), Selkirk (6), Columbia Adventist (13), Mount Vernon Christian (5) and Neah Bay (3).
Dakota Patchen scores against the Hawks in a game delayed by the morning snowstorm.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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