TACOMA — Katie Fiso knew the challenge ahead. She knew well enough that she changed the treads on her tires coming into Garfield’s Class 3A state girls semifinal game against Teryn Gardner and Mead on Friday night at the Tacoma Dome.
“She told me she had on her defense shoes,” Bulldogs coach Tre Simmons said. “She usually wears her Kobes. Tonight, she had on her defensive shoes. Our team shoes.”
Whatever shoes the Garfield junior wore, they worked as Fiso and the top-seeded Bulldogs pulled away from the No. 4 Panthers in the second half for a 63-54 victory and a trip to their third consecutive Class 3A championship game.
Awaiting them will be a familiar foe.
The Bulldogs (22-1) will try to make it three in a row against the No. 3 Lake Washington Kangaroos at 3 p.m. Saturday. The Kangaroos have fallen victim to Garfield each of the two previous tournaments in the final.
The chance to be the first Class 3A threepeat takes things to another level.
“We put it on their mind just to let them know it’s historic,” Garfield coach Tre Simmons said.
Lake Washington looked early on like it would fall one game shy of getting its third chance to beat the Bulldogs in the final game of the season. But the Kangaroos (26-2) came back late to beat No. 2 Arlington (22-3) to earn its spot, 70-64.
Over the first half against Mead, it appeared as if the Bulldogs might also come up a game short of trying for a third straight championship. Gardner, the Greater Spokane League MVP whom Fiso changed her shoes to guard, found her offense early despite Fiso’s best efforts.
Gardner scored six of the first 10 for the Panthers, who built an early 10-6 lead. Another Gardner basket with 1 minute, 19 seconds to play in the first quarter put Mead on top 18-14 as the Nos. 1 and 4 seeds to the tournament played to a 20-20 tie after one quarter and a 28-28 tie by halftime.
“She’s a great player, a great player,” Simmons said. “I even told her, when I found out she was a junior, I said, ‘All right, you’ll be back for sure.’”
Gardner scored 17 of her team-leading 25 points in the first half.
“I knew she was getting a bunch on me, so that motivated me,” Fiso said. “She’s an amazing basketball player. Definitely hard to guard. You don’t always see a lot of great talent like that.”
Fiso, who scored just six points during the close first half, turned things up several notches offensively after the break. The Bulldog junior poured in 18 of her game-high 26 points as Garfield began to pull in front.
By the end of the third quarter, the Bulldogs led it 44-34. They got it to 14 on Fiso’s final two points of the night, two free throws that made it 62-48 with just 42 seconds left.
Fiso also added 10 rebounds, three assists and three steals to the cause. And slowed Gardner’s output to just eight points in the second half as the shoes finally worked.
Kangaroos rally for another shot
The Kangaroos trailed the Eagles with just four minutes left in the second Class 3A state semifinal 54-51 after Maddy Fischer made Arlington’s 11th three-pointers and Jenna Villa scored inside with 4:04 left.
Then the Lake Washington bench showed up big from behind the arc.
“A little bit of a flip of the switch,” Kangaroo guard Jolie Sim said. “[Ashley Uusitalo] and Rae Butler Wu hit those really big threes for us, and I’m just so proud of us.”
Sim made a three-pointer with 1:41 left to turn that three-point deficit into a 60-55 advantage that would grow to as many as 11 points, 66-55, on a Sydney Hani free throw with 32 seconds remaining.
Only two strange fouls from Lake Washington on three-point attempts from Arlington’s Jenna Villa, which she converted into six made free throws, and a final three-pointer from Villa with 7 seconds remaining made the score look close.
Over the final 1:11 the Kangaroos made 10 of 14 free throws to put away the win and earn a third straight shot at Garfield in the state championship.
“I’m so excited,” Hani said. “I wouldn’t want to play anyone else in the final.”
The nine late points by Villa gave her a game-high 26. Her last three-pointer gave Arlington 12 for the game, tying the Class 3A state tournament record for a team in a single game of 12.
The Eagles are the third team to reach a dozen threes in a game. Mount Spokane did it in 2016 and Snohomish matched the feat a year ago.