February 06, 2012 @ 10:06 am
Knowing the mission at hand after last year's disappointing ending, the Wilson Lady Rams put the pedal to the metal from start to finish in Narrows League play and never looked back as they clinched the Narrows 3A title with a convincing 82-56 win over the Timberline Lady Blazers on Feb. 3.
"At the beginning of the season we laid our pyramid foundation of team goals and reached every one to this point," said head coach Michelle Birge of her champs, who travel to Lincoln on Wednesday night in search of league perfection at 10 and zero.
Timberline hung close early but Wilson's superior athleticism began to take over near the end of the first half, as they took a 45-30 lead into the locker room and never looked back. Tia Briggs and Bethany Montgomery shared scoring honors with 20 points each and Kaysha Fox chipped in with 13. Timberline's Sasha Weber led all scorers with 27 points, as the New Mexico State commit did her best to keep the Lady Blazers in the game throughout the entire contest, but to no avail. Wilson pulled away in the second half, leading by as much as 29 points early in the fourth quarter.
With the regular season nearly in their rearview mirror, the Lady Rams turn their focus to district play and with a good run, the state 3A tourney at the Tacoma Dome. "One of the pyramid features that we concentrated on the whole season was having team unity and trust and the fact that it was important to focus equally on the offensive and defensive ends," said Birge.
With Briggs and Montgomery doing the bulk of the damage on the scoring end of things, Birge singled out her point guard and the way she ran the offense this year. "Kaysha Fox's ability to understand tempo and to put her teammates in the best position was real important in our success this season."
By Steve Mullen
