BY GERARDO BOLONG
Contributing Writer

TACOMA - Seattle Christian achieved its third consecutive key victory with an emphatic 52-24 Nisqually 1A League girls basketball triumph at the Charles Wright Academy in the Chuck Wright Gymnasium on Tues., Feb.3, to take over second place in the standings at 4-3.

In a previous 44-35 home loss to the Tarriers, the Warriors were missing three important players. This time, half of CWA's dynamic guard tandem, Majestic Moler, was unable to play, resulting in a Warrior domination.

Several possible scenarios exist, including a three-way tie for second behind Cascade Christian, but a Seattle Christian win at Bellevue Christian on Tues., Feb 10, guarantees the Warriors a No. 2 seed to the District 3 tournament and a host game on Feb. 13 against Olympic League No. 3.

As of this date, Port Townsend and Chimacum are tied for third, one game behind Klahowya.

"We're healthy and the girls played hard to get the job done," said Seattle Christian head coach Dave Jansen. "We're where we would have been at Christmas (without the injuries). We need to fine tune some things and still have some work to do. If we had played against them with Moler, we would have a better idea of how far we've progressed. Now, there's a week to prepare for Bellevue Christian."

The Warriors avoided a let down after a huge 41-37 home win against league leading Cascade Christian by quickly getting on task by way of a 14-0 first quarter run after missing some close in shots early.

Leading 14-2 after one quarter, the Warriors, with Alexandria Ellis providing floor leadership and outside scoring, went on an 11-5 second quarter surge to lead at halftime by 25-7.

As Madelyn Weber and the rest of the Seattle Christian squad contributed mightily on defense and rebounds, the SCS squad also dealt out an abundance of assists for easy shot attempts to build up leads that reached as much as 32 points early in the fourth quarter.

"I'm feeling really good about how we're playing," said Ellis, who was one of the players that was unavailable to play against CWA in the previous encounter. "I've got my 3-point shot going. There was pressure and the team got it done. I just thank the Lord for this."

Ellis was 5 of 7 beyond the 3-point arc and 4 of 8 on standard shots to amass 23 points while running to eight rebounds.

Another double figures scorer was Weber, who was also efficient from the field with 6 of 8 for 12 points and a total of six rebounds and four assists during her court time.

"We were aware of needing to come out strong after the big win against Cascade Christian," she said. "There was no relapse. Another thing we did tonight was change our defense into a 3-2 (zone). This worked really well and we're very confident about our playing. We've worked hard and we're pumped."

Taelor Willhoite joined the assists parade with six as Kelli Ronish dished off four.

All 10 varsity players saw court time for the Warriors in a 42 rebound performance. SCS also shot 40.6 percent from regular field goal range against Charles Wright's 19 percent.

From 3-point land, Seattle Christian shot 8 of 14.

Shoni Pritchett notched 15 points for Charles Wright while grabbing seven boards.