Lady Cruiser Season Comes To An End

Playing in a loser-out contest is always a difficult task. Throwing in the fact you have to travel 130 miles and face a tough opponent who beat you by 21 earlier in the season doesn't help out.

The Lady Cruisers traveled to Fort Vancouver High School on Thursday night to take on the La Center Wildcats in a loser-out contest in the District 4 playoffs.

Unfortunately, the outcome wasn't any better than their first meeting, with the Wildcats ending the Cruisers season with a 61-32 loss.

Hailey Rath led the Cruisers with 12 points to finish her career at Eatonville with 1,074 points. That total ranks her 4th all-time at Eatonville High School.

Earlier in the week, the Cruisers took on the White Salmon Bruins.

Both teams got off to a slow start in the first half, but it was the Cruisers who took over in the 3rd quarter by going on a 14-2 run to take the lead and never give it up to take down the Columbia-White Salmon Bruins 41-33 at Rainier Connect Arena on Tuesday night.

After trailing by 5 at the end of the first period of play, Eatonville fought back in the second quarter behind the five points of Hailey Rath to pull within two points of the Bruins at 15-13 at the half.

The Cruisers came out inspired in the third quarter, stepping up their defense and causing many turnovers that would help them go on a 14-2 run in the quarter thanks to Rath's 5 points, and a couple of timely 3-pointers by Berkeley Porter and Bailey Andersen to take a 27-17 lead into the final period.

The Bruins wouldn't lie down though, as they would cut the lead to 3 at one point in the 4th quarter only to have the Cruisers' Berkeley Porter hit a crucial 3-pointer to deflate the Bruins and extend the lead out to six.

Porter would score seven of the Cruisers 14 points in the final frame and pull down 5 of her 8 rebounds on the night to help the Cruisers avoid elimination.

Hailey Rath led the Cruisers in scoring with 15 points and 7 rebounds. Bailey Andersen scored 7 of her 11 points in the second half to help lead the Cruiser comeback. Berkeley Porter dropped in 10 points to go with her 8 rebounds.