Yakima Herald

Mustangs Shut Down Buccaneers

Prosser’s Wilson holds Kingston’s leading scorer Baetz to two points

YAKIMA, Wash. — Prosser guard Kelli Wilson averages fewer than four points a game, so she’s never likely to figure as a big scoring presence in the box score. Unless, of course, you’re looking at the other team’s scoring.

That’s where you’ll see her big presence in the form of a very small number: the scoring total of whoever has the misfortune of being the opposing player Mustangs coach Mark Little points to and says to Wilson, “That’s the one. Her. You cover her.”

In Prosser’s 45-23 trouncing of Kingston in the first round of the Class 2A state girls basketball, that was Sophia Baetz, a first-team all-stater last year who came into the tournament with a hefty 20.5 scoring average, second-highest in the field.

With the Mustangs’ defensive ace marking her every move in Prosser’s stingy man-to-man defense, Baetz struggled through a two-point, 1-for-12 shooting night and the seventh-ranked Mustangs (20-3) moved into a 7:30 p.m. quarterfinal against No. 3 Elma.

“I just tried to stay on her, don’t let her get off any 3-pointers, mostly just try to deny her the ball,” Wilson said. “We just like man (-to-man defense) better. We don’t lose anyone that way.”

“She just did a great job of it. She took great pride in her play tonight,” Little said. “I think we have a couple of kids who can do that” — play lockdown defense — “but she’s the Energizer Bunny out there.”

Baetz wasn’t at her best to start with. The Buccaneer standout hasn’t been the same since she injured her knee in the opening round of district play; it was either a hyperextension or a sprain, but in any case it definitely took the edge off her high-powered offensive game. With her left knee heavily wrapped and her lateral mobility obviously affected, she simply wasn’t the same player who had averaged 23.0 points during the Buccaneers’ three-game 2009 tournament run.

“She’s probably 80 percent, maybe, but she did not move well tonight,” Kingston coach Penny Gienger said of Baetz. “In order for us to get anything going offensively, we need Sophia to get us going. When (opposing teams) have to start doubling on Sophia, it gets everybody else going.”

Baetz never got going, and in the third quarter the Buccaneers (17-7) came to a complete halt. Over a nine-minute, seven-second stretch that began in the final minute before halftime and lasted into the opening moments of the fourth quarter, Kingston went scoreless while Prosser ran off 15 unanswered points.

“I think as a team we were kind of nervous early in the game,” said Mustang junior forward Tamara Jones, who finished with game-highs of 15 points and eight rebounds. “But after we scored and then scored again, we started feeling better and doing better. Kelli did a very good job on her defense. That’s really what we want to do, play our best defense. That’s what going to help us win games.”

“We were all jumping to the ball, getting back on defense, trying to steal the ball as much as possible,” added Tayshia Hunt, who scored 12 points and also came up with two of Prosser’s 11 steals. “Playing good defense helps keep them from scoring, and we’re pretty good at that.”

That part did show in the box score, with Kingston shooting just 8-for-45 (18 percent) from the field. Prosser also blocked seven shots, with five different Mustangs notching at least one veto.

“We have some kids,” Little said, “who can run pretty good.”

That won’t show up in the box score either. Only in the final score.