Lady Cruiser Start Week Off Strong, But Falter At Week's End

Despite reaching the championship game of the Centralia Tigers Holiday Classic tournament the previous week and losing that game to the Eisenhower Cadets, the Lady Cruisers kicked off the year with a 39-31 win against the 2A Rochester Warriors.

The Lady Cruiser basketball team flexing during a photo shoot prior to the season. Photo: Amy Wilson

Eatonville got off to a slow start in the game and trailed by 8 as they started the second quarter.

While the Lady Cruisers got their offense on track in the second period, they still found themselves trailing at halftime, 20-14.

The third quarter is when Eatonville would turn things around and make their move. They would outscore the Warriors 13-6 to pull within one point as the quarter came to a close.

In the final frame, the Lady Cruiser offense would continue to step up while the defense would hold Rochester to 5 points to pick up their 8th win of the season, 39-31.

"We altered our defense, fought for every rebound, and turned up the pressure on the guards," Head Coach Deanna Andersen said of the team's turnaround.

"Lillian hit a couple of clutch shots under the hoop giving us some room to push harder. Hannah used her speed to take the point guard off her game giving Bailey a chance to tip a few away for some lay-ins."

After recording her lowest-scoring game of the season in the previous game, Bailey Andersen was back to her normal ways scoring a game-high 20 points for the Cruisers, with 16 of those coming in the second half.

Box Score

EATONVILLE 39, ROCHESTER 31

Eatonville 3 11 13 12 - 39

Rochester 11 9 6 5 - 31

Eatonville: Bailey Andersen 20, Lilian Bickford 8, Hannah Kralik 6, Hailey Hall 2, Brooke Blocker 1, Sara Smith 1, Ryan Stammen 1

Rochester: Roisin Stull 15, Paige Winter 8, Mandy Andree-Cordell 6, Sara Haury 2

Following that win on the road at Rochester, Eatonville loaded up and headed to Montesano to take on the Bulldogs.

The Lady Cruisers struggled with Montesano's full-court press and swarming defense all night and that allowed the #4 ranked Bulldogs to hand Eatonville a 64-14 loss in their 1A EvCo league opener on Thursday night.

With a stifling defense and relentless rebounding, Montesano deployed the full-court press from the tip and never let up and outrebounded the Cruisers 36-11.

Box Score

MONTESANO 64, EATONVILLE 14

Eatonville 7 3 4 0 - 14

Montesano 22 21 19 2 - 64

Eatonville: Bailey Andersen 7, Lilian Bickford 4, Hannah Kralik 3

Montesano: McKynnlie Dalan 22, Jillie Dalan 13, Jordan Karr 9, Mikayla Stanfield 8, Jaiden King 5, Maia Young 4, Ava Schrader 2, Lizzy York 1.

Looking to rebound from that loss, the Cruisers chose the wrong team to do that against as they took on the #6 ranked Rainier Mountaineers (10-1) in a non-league match-up.

The Mountaineers raced out to a huge early lead Saturday and kept that huge lead as they beat the Lady Cruisers 60-36 to drop Eatonville to 8-3 on the season.

For the second night in a row, the Cruisers struggled with the press and that helped Rainer jump out to a 24-7 lead in the first quarter and trail 40-14 at the half.

In the second half, Eatonville started to find a few more answers. They kept things mostly even in the third quarter before outscoring Rainier in the fourth as the clock wound down.

Box Score

RAINER 60, EATONVILLE 36

Eatonville 7 7 11 11 - 36

Rainier 24 16 14 6 - 60

Eatonville: Bailey Andersen 24, Lilian Bickford 6, Brooke Blocker 4, Hailey Hall 2

Rainier: Angelica Askey 22, Brooklyn Swensen 18, Anika Plowman 8, Haleigh Hanson 6, Acacia Murphy 5, Janess Blackburn 1

Next Up: The Lady Cruisers will host the Tenino Beavers ( ) on Tuesday, January 10th at 7 pm before finishing the week in Hoquiam taking on the Grizzlies on Thursday, January 12th at 7 pm.