Ice cold shooting chilled the hopes of the Evergreen Lutheran girls basketball team at its Winterfest celebration on Saturday, January 23.
Capitalizing on this weakness and scrapping for long rebounds, Tacoma Baptist won the battle of unbeaten Class 2B SeaTac League South powers to emerge with a 53-43 victory.

With the win, the Crusaders raise their records to 8-0 league and 14-2 overall. The Eagles stand at 5-1 and 9-4 with one league game to be played before a rematch at Tacoma Baptist on Friday, January 29.

"Our 22 per cent shooting didn't help us," Evergreen Lutheran head coach Jeff Kurbis stated. "We played hard and were beating them up and down the court. They got too many of the loose balls at unfortunate times for us. The free throws were the difference, but the Crusaders were better than us tonight."

In addition to the sub par field goal shooting percentage, Evergreen Lutheran shot only 8-for-18 from the free throw line.

Tacoma Baptist carried a 36-32 lead into the fourth quarter, before Evergreen Lutheran staged a resounding rally. Markelle Lance started the fourth quarter for the Eagles by draining a three-pointer. After Griffin Lowe's inside basket for the Crusaders, Melanie Laete converted two inside buckets for Evergreen Lutheran, giving the Eagles a 39-38 edge.

Tacoma Baptist retook the lead on an Alyssa Wolf basket in the low post, but Evergreen Lutheran regained the lead with 4:06 remaining when Caty Poetter shot home a short baseline jumper, giving the Eagles a 41-40 margin. It was the last time Evergreen Lutheran would enjoy the lead.

Firing up its arsenal one more time, Tacoma Baptist answered with a free throw followed by an outside shot two-pointer as the Crusaders would go on to complete a 9-0 spurt that had them drawing clear at 49-41 with 1:31 left.

Uncharacteristically committing turnovers and shooting a woeful 22 per cent from the field for the game (in comparison with its normal 41 per cent), Evergreen Lutheran trailed 5-0 at the start and spent the greater part of the match up trying to whittle away Tacoma Baptist leads.

Working their inside game well, the Crusader led 12-7 after one quarter and pulled away to a 17-9 margin midway through the second quarter. Erika Herman's outside field goal launched a six-point Eagle surge to make the score 17-15.

Near the end of the quarter, Lance drilled another three-pointer ahead of a Laete basket to briefly bring EL into a 20-19 lead before the stanza ended with TB holding a 21-20 lead.

Aggressively beginning the second half, Evergreen Lutheran jumped on top, 26-23, on two consecutive three-point goals from Caty Poetter after a Crusader goal.

A Tacoma Baptist three-pointer was countered by three free throws from Laete. Ten consecutive points from the Crusaders against a quarter ending three-pointer from the Eagles' Erica Hansen preceded the final quarter action.

Laete came on strong in the second half to finish with 15 points and six rebounds while Lance and Caty Poetter notched 10 points apiece. Megume Poetter passed for six assists.

Alyssa Wolf ranged for 17 Tacoma Baptist points. Melanie Shank scored 15 points and Jennifer Rea added 10.