The No. 5 Lady T-Birds basketball team dropped a critical match against the Clippers, 66-46, and now Highline’s postseason shot depends on a three-game win streak and two losses from No. 4 Pierce.
Akshay Rabadia/THUNDERWORD
At the Thunderdome last Saturday, South Puget outperformed Highline in all major statistical areas and beat the Lady T-Birds 66-46.
The match was off to a slower start for Highline with 16-0 field goal shooting as opposed to a fiery start for the Clippers who gained an 18-0 lead by the end of the first quarter.
In the second, freshman Mahine Bergeson put Highline on the board with an early three-pointer followed by six points from teammates. With 4:13 left until halftime, the scoring gap slimmed to 19-9. But South Puget revved back up with seven unanswered points to put them ahead 26-9, prompting a Highline timeout. The Lady T-Birds netted 15 points to their opponent’s 12 for the quarter.
At the halftime break, South Puget was ahead by 15 points, 30-15.
The home team got up to speed with 24 points to South Puget’s 23 as T-Bird Sarah Gatluak led in points for the quarter with eight. A Mahine Bergeson trey cut the lead to eleven points with 2:37 left in the third but the Lady T-Birds never got closer.
In the fourth quarter, Highline went cold again with 26.9 percent shooting including 3-13 inside whereas the Clippers kept their numbers consistent with 43.7 percent shooting and 6-14 down low.
The No. 3 Clippers sailed to victory, 66-46, and dominated in the paint where they scored 34 points to Highline’s 20 and snagged a 40-22 rebounding advantage. The win punched South Puget’s ticket to the NWAC championship tournament.
South Puget had four players in double figure scoring, led by Sharay Trotter who made 14 points and eight rebounds.
Savannah Arneach, back from injury, led Highline with 13 points and Mahine Bergeson sank three treys on 3-9 shooting from beyond the arc.
The loss kept Highline at No. 5 with a 3-6 conference record. To qualify for the postseason tournament, Highline will need to win all three of their final conference games and hope for No. 4 Pierce to drop their next two.
Wednesday, Highline hosted 0-9 Tacoma with results unavailable at press time.
On Saturday, the Lady T-Birds travel south to challenge No. 2 Lower Columbia. The match begins at 5 p.m.