Wildcats sprint past Patriots

COLTON - After weathering a competitive first quarter from the visiting Liberty Christian Patriots, the Colton Wildcats distanced themselves from the visitors enroute to a 69-39 win to advance to the second round of the WIAA District 9 1B tournament.

Liberty Christian held an 8-7 lead with 3:33 to go in the first quarter. The Patriots spent the majority of the first quarter closing out on long shot attempts, forcing the Wildcats to take their shots early from the paint.

Grace Kuhle made both free throw attempts to put Colton up 9-8. From that point on, the Wildcats continued to build on their lead, ending the first quarter up 19-13.

Colton outscored Liberty Christian 17-10 in the second quarter to go into halftime up by 13.

"Our game plan was that we had to run the Colton girls off the (3-point) line," Liberty Christian coach Tyson Turner said. "They shoot the 3-point ball if you let them. You're giving them more points than (if it was) a two-pointer, so we talked about trying to take away the 3-point shot, forcing them into situations where we're giving up more layups."

Liberty Christian couldn't continue to keep the defensive pace throughout the second half and Colton started making more and more 3-point attempts and outscored the Patriots 19-4 to go into the final quarter with a 28-point advantage.

Aside from a 7-0 run late in the fourth quarter, Colton was able to keep the distance between itself and Liberty Christian and came out with the 30-point win.

"On the offensive end, I thought we were getting some great looks," Colton head coach Clark Vining said. "We were moving the ball well, did a great job passing. Biggest thing was probably rebounding. They were beating us on the board pretty badly in the first half. It was kind of what we talked about at half time, really tightening up things on the glass. We were able to do that in the third quarter and that's when the game broke free for us."

Not only does the win propel the Wildcats to the second round of the District 9 Tournament, it also is a significant mile mark for Vining – who earned his 400th win as head coach of the Colton girls basketball team.

Three players tallied double-digits for the Wildcats against Liberty Christian. Kyndra Stout had a game-high 20 points, 18 of them coming off 3-pointers. Kuhle added 18 and Holly Heitstuman added 16.

Liberty Christian had one double-digit scorer, Ali Bush, who had 19 points.

Colton advanced to play Sunnyside Christian on Friday, Feb. 10 in the second round of the district tournament. The Wildcats won 54-38 to advance to the District Tournament championship game against Yakama Nation Tribal on Feb. 17 in Dayton. Stout led all Colton scorers with 19 points in the win against Sunnyside Christian.

LIBERTY CHRISTIAN (12-8, 6-8)

Savannah Armijo 1 0-0 2, Lauren Reed 3 0-2 7, Camas Van Hollebeke 0 0-0 0, Annalise Drinkard 1 0-0 2, Ali Bush 9 0-2 19, Catherine Lindsay 1 0-0 2, Calista Davis 3 1-6 7. Totals 18 1-10 39.

COLTON (18-1, 9-0)

Grace Kuhle 6 4-4 18, Holly Heitstuman 6 1-2 16, Kyndra Stout 7 0-0 20, Ella Nollmeyer 1 0-0 2, Clair Moehrle 4 0-0 8, Sidni Whitcomb 2 1-1 5. Totals 26 6-7 69.

3-point goals – Reed, Bush, Stout 6, Heitstuman 3, Kuhle 2.