Montesano secured an impressive fifth consecutive trip to the district-championship game with a 67-50 win over King’s Way Christian in a 1A District 4 Tournament semifinal game on Tuesday in Montesano.

The Bulldogs (17-6 overall) jumped out to an early 8-0 lead by befuddling the Knights (15-5) with a suffocating press defense.

But KWC rallied to take a 17-11 lead after one quarter on a buzzer-beating jumper by senior guard Bridget Quinn.

Monte held a 22-17 lead after junior forward Jillie Dalan stole the ball and fed junior guard Josie Forster for an easy two points in the paint with six minutes to play in the second quarter.

Once again, the Knights would rally behind the inside play of sophomore Addison Bagley and the long-range shooting of sophomore Kallan Sharp to knot the game up at 31 apiece at halftime.

“King’s Way is a good team and broke our press a couple of times and we didn’t hustle back as well,” Monte head coach Mark Mansfield said. “After they did that and we got back into the half-court (defense), we started watching and not moving on their passes. With good teams, if you give them open looks they are going to hit them.”

But the second half was a different story as the Bulldogs asserted their will.

Monte stormed out the gate in the third quarter, bolstered by its press and a more physical, high-energy half-court defense, the Bulldogs held KWC scoreless for nearly six full minutes of the quarter.

“We came out strong, had a lot of energy and were aggressive,” Mansfield said. “At halftime, we talked about how this is about our energy. ‘Are we going to play defense like we think we can?’ Let’s give it our best effort because we didn’t think it was our best effort in the first half. … We picked it up not just in our press, but in our half-court defense and made it difficult for them to get open looks.”

The smothering defense gave Monte extra possessions and the offense made good by making the extra pass to find an open look.

With the KWC defense shading toward Dalan and point guard Tieander Olson, Montesano senior forward Ava Schrader stepped up to score eight points in the frame and lead the Bulldogs to a 19-4 run for the majority of the period.

“We’ve really been trying to focus on our third quarter and staying hot and keeping our energy,” Schrader said. “That has kind of been a struggle for us this season, but being able to feed off all the energy in the room, … It’s what makes us keep driving like that.”

RYAN SPARKS | THE DAILY WORLD Motnesano senior Ava Schrader (22) scores two of her team-high 20 points while defended by King’s Way Christian’s Bridget Quinn during the Bulldogs’ 67-50 win in a 1A District 4 semifinal game on Tuesday in Montesano.

Three straight buckets by Schrader followed by a long jumper from junior Regan Wintrip put the Bulldogs up by double digits for the first time at 46-35 with 1:35 to play in the third.

Monte sophomore Makena Blancas hit a free throw and followed that up by knocking down a shot while being fouled, eliciting an eruption from the Bulldogs faithful. Blancas’ subsequent conversion from the charity stripe put Monte up 50-35 with under a minute to go in the third quarter.

The Knights would get no closer than 12 points the rest of the way as Monte senior Hazel Jones and Dalan would hit dagger threes down the stretch to cap off the victory.

“Our defense fuels our offense. It’s cliche stuff but it’s so true,” Mansfield said. “Once we started forcing some turnovers and making some baskets and stopping them in the half-court, we moved the ball much better. We found open people and made the extra pass. … We did some really nice things.”

Schrader led Monte with 20 points – 12 in the second half – on 9-of-18 shooting (50%) to go along with seven rebounds and an assist.

“Jillie is such an amazing play and, obviously, other teams can see that,” Schrader said. “So recognizing when they are trying to shut her down and not let her score, somebody else has to step up. Tieander and I both try really hard to be that next person. … I knew my team needed me to step up.”

“She fueled that third quarter for us with her defensive energy,” Mansfield said of Schrader.

Dalan (15 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists) and Olson (11 pts., 10 reb., 5 ast.) also scored in double figures for Montesano, which went 27 of 68 from the field (40%) and had 19 assists as a team.

Jones joined Dalan and Olson with five assists apiece to lead Monte.

PHOTO BY FOREST WORGUM Montesano’s Hazel Jones (20) shoots over King’s Way Christian’s Bridget Quinn during the Bulldogs’ 67-50 victory in a 1A District 4 semifinal game on Tuesday at Montesano High School.

“You can see more when you get the other team moving,” Schrader said of Monte’s ball movement. “That’s something that our coaches always pressure us about and make us try to realize. … Just to kind of get that second wave of energy and keep moving, cutting and getting those open looks.”

KWC went 22 of 49 from the floor (45%) and had 25 turnovers in the game.

With the win, Monte advances to the state championship and the district-title game, where the Bulldogs will look to win an unprecedented fifth-straight district title.

“It means a lot,” Schrader said of the win. “We’ve been working really hard and when you get further into the season, it get a lot harder. … Just for us to be such a united family on and off the court, it means so much for us to have this team victory. Everybody is putting in effort. … Everyone plays a really big role on our team.”

Monte faces Seton Catholic in the district-championship game at 5 p.m. on Saturday at Centralia High School.

KWC 17 14 6 13 – 50

Montesano 11 20 19 17 – 67

Scoring: KWC – Bagley 22, Sharp 12, Quinn 7, Poe 6, Lopez 2, Delamarter 1. Montesano – Schrader 20, Dalan 15, Olson 11, Blancas 8, Forster 6, Jones 5, Wintrip 2.