Though it faced a hungry Forks squad looking to beat it for the first time this season, the Rainier girls basketball team held off a late charge to defeat the Spartans for the third time this season, 64-47.
The Mountaineers matched up with the Spartans in their season opener, and earlier in the district quarterfinals, Rainier beat Forks Saturday afternoon at W.F. West to capture third-place in the 2B District 4 tournament.
“It’s always hard to beat a team three times,” Rainier coach Brandon Eygabroad said. “They wanted this one and they were going to show up and we had to be ready. You want to be playing your best ball this time of year, we couldn’t let up.”
The Mountaineers 2-3 zone, which pressed for the majority of the game, took the Spartans out of pretty much anything they wanted to run, and helped Angelica Askey break loose for fastbreak layups throughout the game.
Askey scored a game-high 20 points, and Bryn Beckman hit five 3-pointers to score another 17. Haleigh Hanson added 12 points and seven rebounds for Rainier.
“Bryn was big tonight,” Eygabroad said. “She hit a couple early and she sealed the deal in the fourth. Any time you have that outside shooting it really opens up the floor for us.”
The Mountaineers will now await their postseason seeding and regional fate, where they will find out which seed the committee gives them on Sunday.
