If they were giving out trophies for toughness, Montesano would be the runaway state champions.
As it stands, the Bulldogs will have to settle for fifth place.
Montesano completed a historic season by hoisting some hardware as the Bulldogs earned a fifth-place trophy — its first for a girls basketball team — after a 41-33 loss to Cashmere in the WIAA 1A State Tournament’s third/fifth-place game on Saturday at the Yakima Valley SunDome in Yakima.
Battered and beset by a rash of injuries since the beginning of February, the Bulldogs got more bad news ahead of Saturday’s season finale when junior guard Jaiden King was unavailable to play after suffering what appeared to be a concussion in Friday’s semifinal loss to Lynden Christian.
Despite being one of their all-league guards and having their top two scorers in senior Paige Lisherness and junior McKynnlie Dalan severely hampered with leg injuries, the Bulldogs mustered on.
Montesano (21-3 overall) trailed 13-9 at the end of the first quarter, but held Cashmere (21-2) to just seven points in the second quarter and — after trailing most of the first half — took a 21-20 halftime lead on a fast-break layup from junior guard Maia Young off a pinpoint outlet pass from junior Vanna Prom.
But being slowed by injuries caught up to Montesano in the second half as the Bulldogs saw its slim lead slip away.
Lisherness opened the third quarter with a bucket to put Montesano up 23-21, but Cashmere embarked on a 9-0 run capped by a fast-break basket by Ellie Bessonette to take a 29-23 lead with 3:16 left in the period.
After a Montesano timeout, Lisherness — who was still feeling the effects of a sprained ankle suffered on Thursday — grabbed an offensive rebound and scored to cut the Cashmere lead to 30-25 with less than a minute left in the period.
Down 31-25 with less than 30 seconds in the quarter, Lisherness showed everyone in attendance just how tough she was. The two-time reigning 1A Evergreen MVP was fouled hard and fell to her knees clearly in pain.
With an agonized expression on her face, Lisherness began to walk over to the bench, paused and then made her way back to the free-throw line to take her foul shots.
She nailed both of them to cut the deficit to 30-27 at the end of the third quarter.
“I can’t even imagine how bad Paige’s ankle hurt. She’s maybe 50%,” Mansfield said. “That’s Paige, she’s just a warrior.”
RYAN SPARKS | THE DAILY WORLD Montesano senior Paige Lisherness (23) scores against Cashmere’s Ellie Bessonette (21) during the Bulldogs’ 41-33 loss in the 1A State third/fifth-place game on Saturday in Yakima.
Monte trailed 34-31 on a three from Young with 4:42 left and — after a Cashmere three from Maddie Hammond — trailed 37-33 on a long jumper by Young with 3:05 to go.
But that was as close as Monte would get as the offense was held scoreless over the final minutes of the game.
Monte, which has struggled during the injury stretch over the final month of the season, hit on 26.5% of its shots (13-for-49), including 2-for-21 from 3-point range (9.5%) and 5-of-12 (41.7%) from the charity stripe.
“We just couldn’t make enough shots, which has kind of been the problem lately for us,” Mansfield said, adding that the injuries have also hurt Monte’s defense, which was clearly a step slower in the playoff run. “We were very disapointed to come out on the short end of today, but not by their effort or how hard they worked. It’s basketball and they made a few more shots than we did today.”
In her final game in a Montesano basketball uniform, Lisherness led the Bulldogs with 10 points, grabbed seven rebounds, two steals and recorded one inspirational moment.
Young scored nine points and had three steals for Montesano with junior guard Jordan Karr providing a spark of the bench with five points and a pair of steals.
Dalan was clearly hampered by her injured right knee and scored four points in a gutsy 27 minutes of play. Along with Lisherness, the junior forward was commended by Mansfield for playing through the pain on the state’s biggest stage.
“McKynnlie, she can hardly walk. … I think every game she plays, especially three in three days, it took a little more out of her. But she is such a competitor,” Mansfield said. “This whole thing, this team and where we are at, it means so much to her and Paige both. It was the last game of the season and they were going to go as long as they could. They gave an incredible effort.”
RYAN SPARKS | THE DAILY WORLD Montesano junior McKynnlie Dalan, center, is surrounded by a trio of Cashmere defenders during the Bulldogs’ 41-33 loss in the 1A State third/fifth-place game on Saturday in Yakima.
With its two leading rebounders grounded with leg injuries, a Montesano team usually dominant on the boards was outrebounded 33-26.
Mansfield added the Bulldogs “have a lot of heart” and should not hang their heads considering their accomplishments this past season.
”I’m extremely grateful to coach these girls. Wednesday was our 60th practice. Basketball is a long season and they showed up everyday. They might not always like it, but they didn’t take any days off. That shows in the way they play, how tough they are, just battling night in and night out,” he said. “They are disapointed because if it was third or fifth, they wanted third. It just speaks to their character. We just talked in the locker room: ‘Remember this but don’t let the disappointment cloud what has been a great season.’ In the moment, it hurts. But I bet in an hour from now, they’ll be joking and laughing again.”
Montesano 9 12 6 6 — 33
Cashmere 13 7 10 11 — 41
Scoring
Montesano (33) — Lisherness 10, M. Young 9, Karr 5, Dalan 4, Prom 2, Schrader 2, Stanfield 1
Cashmere (41) — Burts 9, Ledesma 8, Johnson 7, Hammond 6, Bjorklund 6, Bessonette 5
