SPORTS
By Neil Macdonald

Summers leads Blaine to 16th straight win over
Mount Baker
With Jessica Summers retrieving 20 rebounds and scoring 14 points for a double-double, Blaine defeated Mt. Baker 49-31 in North Cascades Conference girls basketball on February 6 at Blaine.
The undefeated Lady Bs ended the evening with a 16-0 overall, 12-0 NCC record.
Blaine took a 13-12 lead after Q1, but before the crowd could get around to the idea of a possible barn burner, the Lady Bs out-pointed the Lady Mountaineers 10-4 in Q2 to lead 23-16 at the half. Blaine went from being 7-up to 11-up, outscoring MB 9-5 in Q3 and went into high octane drive to register a 17-10 final Q.
The game was dominated by Blaine’s defense, which was particularly surprising. Fans know that, as far as the Lady Bs are concerned, the defense never rests. Coach Pat Green’s machine defines defense. You place yourself in the foe’s face, move your arms in a fury of eye-distracting motions and, keeping up an endless echoing stream of simplistic verbage (ball…ball…ball), prevent the foe from passing to someone on the inside or shooting successfully from the outside.
Supplementing Summers’ 20 points, Shela Robertson added 11; Linsey Taylor, 10; Kimberly Harmening, 7; Kristina Francis, 4 and Ainsley Nix, 3. Francis got 6 assists Lexy Postlewait, 13 points and 7 rebounds, paced the Lady M’s.
The Lady Bs defeated Lynden Christrian 32-26 in NCC action at Lynden on February 4 with Summers scoring 17 points and getting 9 rebounds. Robertson added 6 points; Taylor, 5 and Francis, 4.
Blaine (15-of-57, 26 percent) out-shot LC (9-of-37, 24 percent) from the floor, taking 20 more shots while hitting at a slightly superior rate. The Lady Lyncs had the edge in foul shooting, hitting 7-of-12 (58 percent) to the Lady B’s 2-of-11 (18 percent). But it was Blaine’s 19-3 superiority in steals that signaled, once again, that it was the Lady B’s D that reigned.
Gang Green play South Whidbey on February 14 in Langley and host Lakewood in the Lady B’s final regular NCC season game at 7 p.m. February 18.

Four Borderites qualify
Four Borderites – Anthony Terris, Bayartsengel Khishigdorj, Richie Tewes and Bryce Lacasse – qualified for regionals at the 2A district wrestling tournament on February 7–8 at Sultan.
Terris finished second at 275, losing to Mt. Baker’s Charlie Brown in the final on a pin in 0:18 in a battle for first and second.
In struggles for third and fourth, Khishigdorj was third at 152, winning a 17-2 technical fall over Meridian’s Jarrod Larsen in the consolation round and Tewes, at 130, gained third, pinning South Whidbey’s Conley White in 3:32. Lacasse was fourth at 275, losing a third-place spot on a pin by Lakewood’s Mack Pederson in 0:20.
Terris, Khishigdorj, Tewes and Lacasse move on to regionals at Mountlake Terrace on February 15. Blaine’s Josh Brandenburger, who pinned Sultan’s Kenny Olsen in 2:25 to finish fifth, is an alternate at 215.
Four other Borderites – Sam Abrams, Calvin Moore, Blayne Brandenburger and Lucas Ambuehl – placed sixth at District.
Prices predominates
Blaine’s Darrell and Andrew Price, who wrestle for the Sons of Thunder, placed at the Washington State Folk Style Wrestling Championships in Washougal on February 1-2. Darrell Jr. took third place in the 120-pound novice division and Andrew was fourth in the 87-pound midget class.

Blaine boys win twice
Blaine defeated Lynden Christian 62-51 at home February 4 and Mt. Baker 53-49 at Deming on February 7 in North Cascades Conference boys basketball.
The Baker battle was the toughest of the two. A 150-pound, 5-foot-10 MB junior guard – a fellow named Whit Tyler – came close to piloting LC to an upset win.
Q1 ended with the antagonists tied at 13. Blaine led 32-25 at the half, but Baker had a 37-36 after Q3. The Borderites, who outscored MB 17-12 in Q4, were ahead 51-46 when, with 38 seconds left, Tyler made things X-citing, hit the second of a pair of ICBM-range 3-pointers to make it 51-49. It was anybody’s game.
A quick “drive-the-lane” deuce by Borderite Ryan Alexander, who scored nine points in Q4, put it back to 53-49. Tyler took another trey try, again from the far country, but this one missed. If Tyler had hit, it would have been 53-52, Blaine, and all bets off.
Alexander led Blaine with 13 points in Q4. Jake Gilmore and Grant Sanders added 12 each. Brendan Mulholland scored 9; Jon Freeman, 5; and Wes Hubbard, 2. Tyler had a game-high 18 points (12 on 4 treys) and 5 assists to pace Baker.
The LC game was succinctly summarized by Gilmore, who said, “We didn’t let them get inside. We just played our game.” Blaine’s game? Keep the tempo tame and keep the opposition on the outside where shooting accuracy gets into the low 20s percentage-wise.
Taking almost permanent residence on the perimeter, LC scored 24 outside points. But this meant hitting 8-of-31 trey tries.
Gilmore had just double pumped a 2-point lay-up into a 48-35 lead for Blaine. There were 12 seconds short of seven minutes left to play, sufficient time for LC to catch fire. But an entanglement of Lync and Borderite bodies led to a LC basket not counting, Blaine’s Hubbard picking up a foul and the Lync being assessed a technical foul.
Sanders promptly hit both foul shots, Blaine got possession of the ball on a turnover and promptly scored to go up 52-35. No fouls – Hubbard’s or the technical – and it’s 48-37 with LC in possession of the ball, 11 down, not 17, with time to make the game interesting.
Blaine (12-4 overall, 9-3 NCC) host South Whidbey’s Falcons at 7:30 p.m. on February 14 and play the Cougars at 7 p.m. on February 18 in Lakewood.

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