La Conner loses by 2 to girls’ hoop powerhouse Eastlake

The La Conner High School girls’ basketball team did not plan on losing Friday night.

Then again, the Lady Braves had not planned on facing undefeated 4A Eastlake on the road, either.

The team’s regularly scheduled Jan. 14 tipoff with nearby 1B rival Mount Vernon Christian was postponed due to COVID-19 protocols and the open date was filled with a trip to the Sammamish Plateau and a Hoosiers-type matchup with the Lady Wolves.

“We needed to pick up a non-league game for a game that wasn’t played over Christmas break, so we traveled to Eastlake since they needed a game, too,” head coach Scott Novak told the Weekly News.

The game itself was a tough, physical affair that saw La Conner take its first defeat of the campaign – a tense 45-43 verdict decided in the waning moments.

“They took the lead with under a minute to play,” Novak said afterward. “We had a shot to win the game with 1.4 seconds to go and it almost went down.”

Pretty much everything La Conner had put up in the second quarter went down, though, as the NW2B leaders drained five perimeter treys – four by senior guard Juna Swanson enroute to a 29-18 halftime advantage.

But with La Conner hampered by second half foul trouble, Eastlake gradually cut that margin.

The team wore down trying to contend with 6’-3” Eastlake post Ava Schmidt, whom Novak termed a “game changer.”

The hosts’ Sofia Aluas, a 5’8” reserve guard, also fit that category against La Conner as she came off the bench to ring up 14 points and grab 12 rebounds, doing most of her damage after the break.

Still, the visitors played exceptional defense throughout the game against a state-ranked 4A program whose school has a student enrollment topping 2,000.

With the win, Eastlake improved to 12-0 overall. The Lady Wolves are 6-0 in KingCo 4A play.

La Conner, now 11-1 and 5-0 in NW2B standings, was led by junior guard Josie Harper, who finished with 16 points. Included in that total was a deep three-pointer during La Conner’s 21-6 second quarter spurt.

Swanson also landed in double digits with 14 points, a dozen of those coming on perimeter jumpers in the second frame.

Ellie Marble (8), Sarah Cook (3), and Rachel Cram (2) rounded out the attack.

In addition, Marble snared a team-high 13 rebounds while Harper and Cook reeled in six boards apiece.

Despite it being a hard-fought setback on the scoreboard, Novak saw the outcome as a win-win in terms of its impact on strength of schedule and post-season preparation.

“We’ve now played teams from 1B through 4A,” he said. “Who else in the state can say that? We’re definitely not ducking any good teams. This game will be a great learning experience for us moving forward.”

In related notes:

* The La Conner-Mount Vernon Christian boys’ and girls’ games are rescheduled for Jan. 29 at Mount Vernon.

* The La Conner girls were slated to host 1A Meridian last night. Last week the Lady Trojans had to opt out against Burlington-Edison, another example of last-minute pandemic schedule changes.

* The boys and girls teams play league foe Darrington Thursday with the girls’ varsity clash starting at 6 p.m. and the boys’ at 7:30 p.m.

* The Braves (3-5 overall; 1-2 in league) were idle last weekend because of the postponement at Mount Vernon Christian.