By Gerardo Bolong

Flowers on Valentine's Day provided heartfelt excitement in SeaTac.
With freshman sisters Zareya and Zakeya Flowers spearheading the quickness of their six-person squad on both sides of the court, the Tyee girls basketball team planted a 67-41 defeat on visiting Washington (Tacoma) to capture the Class 2A sub-district seventh seed to the bi-district tournament.

Tyee (13-6) moved on to a 1 p.m. loser-out opener against Olympic in a Monday match up at Curtis High School.

"we just lost back to back games for the first time all season," said first-year Totem head coach Amanda Segerman. "Tonight, they came out strong. This has been a building season and I'm proud of their progress. They have a lot of heart and are really trusting each other. I'm happy to see them smile out there."

In the first quarter, Tyee opened up in high gear, constantly stealing the ball and literally running away with the game. great accuracy on outside shooting, especially from beyond the three-point arc as the Totems established a 17-6 lead and finished the quarter ahead, 21-7.

"We're young and just play hard," said Zareya Flowers who scored 23 points on the strength of seven three-pointers. "We just play our hardest."

Propensity for high percentage shooting from three-point distance surfaced more strongly in the second quarter as exemplified by Zareya Flowers going perfect on four consecutive three-point goals to grow the Tyee lead to 36-12 en route to a 41-14 halftime domination.

"It's fun for me to see our players smiling," said Zakeya Flowers. "Everybody has come so far." Zakeya Flowers notched 17 points with a pair of three-pointers.

Keyara "Kiki" Brooks was also in double figures at 13 points while Breonna Abraham (8), Jessica Solomona (3) and Khalya Guy (3) were other Totem scorers.