TACOMA — Lakeside made sure Auburn Mountainview’s first appearance in the Tacoma Dome since 2011 would be nothing more than a day trip.
The Lions employed a three-quarter court trapping press regularly in the loser-out contest on Wednesday morning, befuddling the Mountainview offense into 22 turnovers in a 47-27 victory that propels No. 7 Lakeside (20-7) into a 10:30 a.m. Thursday quarterfinal against top-seeded Metro League rival Garfield.
“We’re excited,” Lakeside senior Claire O’Connor. We love a competitive game. It will be fun.”
The Bulldogs will begin their quest for a third straight title in that game. The Lions gave Garfield one of its closest games of the regular season back in January in a 53-47 Bulldogs victory.
On Wednesday, No. 15 Mountainview (17-7) stayed close for a quarter as neither team could find the basket consistently in the first quarter. Lakeside eked out a 13-10 lead after the first eight minutes.
“I think we have to give them a lot of credit,” Lakeside coach Mia Augstavo Fisher said. “They’re a good team that was well coached as far as effort. It shows you it’s playoff basketball. You can’t take overlook anyone at this point. They made it here for a reason.”
Lakeside jumped into its pressure defense. Mountainview turned it over 13 times in the first half and Lakeside scored the first seven points of the second quarter to extend the advantage to double digits, 20-10.
“We try to have different looks,” Augstavo Fisher said. “And we have very quick guards.”
Mountainview closed within five, 20-15, and had a chance to tighten things up even more. But it missed four shots in the lane on its next possession. But the half, the lead was back to 27-15 and Lakeside never led by less than 10 again.
“We played a great half of basketball,” Auburn Mountainview coach Caitlin Doherty said. “Defensively, we did what we wanted to do. They’re great shooters, but we just were going to clog up the middle as much as possible, rebound and try to keep them to one shot a possession. In the second half, we just couldn’t buy a bucket.”
When Mountainview last was here in 2011, Doherty was in uniform as a junior playing for her dad, Chris Carr. Father and daughter still were together on Wednesday, with Carr serving as one of Doherty’s assistants.
“Someone asked me what it was like to now be coaching,” Doherty said. “It’s interesting. Definitely a different perspective.”
Auburn Mountainview finished sixth that year, then didn’t get to Tacoma in Doherty’s senior year. Her team made only two field goals in the third quarter, the first a layup by Iliayah Wallis-Caw with 1:58 to play in the game.
By then, O’Connor and company had put this victory away. Lakeside made four three-pointers in the fourth quarter and finished with 10. The Lions in white led it 47-23 when Wallis Caw finally got Auburn Mountainvew on the board again.
Wallis-Caw led Auburn Mountainview with 11 points and six boards.
O’Connor led all scorers with 21 points. She added 13 rebounds for her double-double as Lakeside earned its second straight quarterfinal try against Garfield. The Bulldogs advanced to the semifinals with a 67-50 win over O’Connor and the Lions a year ago.
“We are always on the same side of the bracket,” Augstavo Fisher said. “Last year was the same thing, and we played them four or five times. With them it’s, ‘OK, Lakeside again.’”