Mount Rainier looks a lot like last year in girls basketball, early on, anyway, with an average record, while the Evergreen Wolverines look like a team in need of help. They do need assistance after more turnovers than one can count on four hands, losing, 51-46, to the visiting Rams Friday.

The Rams moved to 5-4 overall and 2-1 in the Seamount while the Wolverines dropped to 1-1 in league and 1-4 overall. Both these teams made it to districts last year. The Rams finished with a 13-12 record and the Wolverines were right there, too.

The turnovers were the big story, the Rams committed nine all game, the Wolverines 26, 14 of which were in the third quarter when not so coincidentally the Rams went out to a huge 45-31 lead.

"We turned the ball over too much. We have to come together and take care of the basketball," said Evergreen coach Daylene Boehm, who's team has a good reason for doing that since their double digit scoring point guard has not been back in school since Christmas Break time in mid-December.

"We don't know where she is. We are guessing family problems or something," said Boehm. "Morgan was the one who brought the ball down for us."

So missing her, Morgan Reed, hurts.

"Where's Morgan," asked Rams coach Bob Bolam afterward. He was wondering, too, so that pretty much explains how much Reed is missed.

The other two big scorers on the team got good points, with 6-2 senior center Tiera Lanier having a game-high 25 and other double digit season averaging teammate, Keilah Fanene, chipping in 12.

The scoring dropped off to non-existent just about from there, with next highest scorer Abriel Johnny scoring five and three of those were free throws in the final minute.

Still, the Rams were challenged by the Wolverines, who came back from that 14-point third quarter deficit to get the Rams' lead from as high as 47-31 with 6:20 left in the fourth down to 47-44 with 30 seconds left. To get that big lead the Rams received good play from senior captain Cassi Lard, who scored one basket that made it, 43-28 and then another that made it, 45-30, right before the third quarter ended with Lanier's 1-for-2 free throws. Then, in the fourth, in that comeback for the Wolverines, it was Lanier and Fanene scoring a couple buckets each. Johnny made it 49-46 with eight seconds left. But then Johnny committed a foul trying for a desperate steal and freshman point guard for the Rams, Marisa Blair, 14 for the game, sealed the deal with the making of two free throws.

"She did well for us," said Bolam. "Cassi scored two in a row for us and got a nice steal that helped us and Melissa Yapp had 12 points and 12 rebounds. She got it going out there so that was nice."

The Wolverines ended the game on a 9-2 run in the final 2:30, outscoring the Rams, 16-5, in the fourth. But the terrible number of 14 turnovers in the third were too hard to overcome against a good playoff caliber team like the Rams.

"We played well and kept our heads up and held on at the end," said Lard.

She only had six points, but they came at a time to jump up the Rams' lead enough that it took that much longer for the Wolverines to gather steam and erase what was a 16-point Rams lead two minutes into the fourth quarter.

The Wolverines started this game out good, too, up 17-11 after the first quarter, before the Rams' big 24-9 outscoring of the Wolverines in the second made it 35-26 Rams at halftime.

"They started off pretty hot and then in the second quarter we got after it," said Bolam.

Those many Wolverines turnovers happened because of Bolam's play calling to get after the Wolverines one on one, so to speak.

"Mount Rainer played aggressive man-to-man defense," said Boehm. "Mount Rainer's defense deserves credit of what we did (turn the ball over)."

But past all that, it was a game that the Wolverines were nearly out of before almost miraculously climbing back into it.

"The kids played hard and finished at the end. They never gave up," said Boehm.

It was just a good effort from the Rams to come back from six down after the first quarter and then sustain that momentum to go up by 15 at then end of the third, which was enough points essentially to make even a great 15-6 fourth quarter run by the Wolverines not enough before the clock ran out.

Besides Yapp and Blair scoring well and Lard doing things decisively in a short block of time to extend the Rams lead to end the third, it was also a good time from the outside early on from Lyndsey Breed, who made 12.