TACOMA, Wash. — Why not?
Let’s do it again.
Davis and Sumner gladly will.
For the first time since 2003, the same two schools from the previous year will hold a WIAA Class 4A girls basketball championship-game rematch.
The defending state champion Pirates methodically wore down Kennedy Catholic, 57-38, in the first semifinal game. Sumner used suffocating fourth-quarter defense to put away Lake Washington, 52-41, in the other semifinal.
“It’s now at the point with Sumner - why not?” Davis girls coach Akil White said.
The series recap:
Davis won in a 2024 consolation game, 70-67, for third place.
Last season, the Spartans traveled to Yakima and won a wild WIAA regional game, 67-62.
A week later, the Pirates defeat Sumner for their first WIAA title, 61-45.
And last week, the two teams met in another WIAA regional game in Yakima. Davis won, 73-48.
“We’ve put together really good pieces of games against them, and you cannot do that. They are too good of a basketball team,” Sumner girls coach Katie Hyppa said. “We’ve got to put together four full quarters against them.”
But first, the state champions had to take care of No. 11 seed Kennedy Catholic, which had taken out the other league champions from eastern Washington - Mid-Columbia Conference’s Chiawana and Greater Spokane League’s Gonzaga Prep - earlier in the tournament.
With offense hare to come by - and eventually with 4A CBBN player of the year Cheyenne Hull finding herself in foul trouble - it was Deets Parrish (team-high 15 points) and Isa Garcia (three 3-pointers) who picked up the slack.
It was especially encouraging for Davis to get steady work out of Parrish, who did not enter the lineup until January after a shoulder issue.
“It took me a while (to find a rhythm). I was getting frustrated because my shots weren’t going in,” Parrish. “It took seven or eight games where I came back really good.”
Added White: “She is playing like a (NCAA) Division I point guard. She keeps us calm.”
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