The importance of a fine floor leader presented itself on Wednesday, March 3, at the Tacoma Dome in a Federal Way girls basketball 43-40 loss to No. 4 Chiawana of Pasco, a team it had beaten 55-48 in Pasco on January 2.

Clutching a decisive eight-point lead with 4:44 remaining in the fourth quarter of its Class 4A WIAA/Dairy Farmers of Washington/Les Schwab Tires girls basketball state tournament opener at the Tacoma Dome, third-ranked Federal Way had its lead and hopes of victory fall off after sophomore point guard and leading scorer Darah Huertas-Vining fell to the floor with a tournament-ending high ankle sprain incurred by stepping on the foot of a Chiawana defender less than a second after a precision assist to Talia Walton that gave the third-ranked Eagles a 39-31 command.

Huertas-Vining was helped off the floor shrieking from the utter painfulness of the injury.

Without Huertas-Vining, the Eagles failed to make another field goal the rest of the game while turning the ball over numerous times

Shelby Ellsworth's three-pointer ignited a Riverhawk charge that gave the Riverhawks their first lead of the game at 40-39 with 1:10 remaining in regulation.

Federal Way missed two chances to regain the lead and was forced to foul. Chiawana's Mikaela Rivard converted the second of two free throw chances to complete the Riverhawk 10-0 surge and push the lead to 41-39 with 28 seconds remaining.

The Eagles then lost the ball on a wild pass and had to scramble to get the ball back.

Chantel Dixon was fouled on a drive with 4.2 seconds remaining and converted the second of two free throw opportunities. The Eagles were forced to foul again and Ashley Hodgkin's responded with two free throws with 1.8 seconds left.

Federal Way's Brittany Barrington missed a last-ditch halfcourt three-pointer at the buzzer.

"They did a good job of making the right plays at the right time," said Eagle head coach Danny Graham. "We took good shots, although they were heavily guarded."

Graham refused to use the Huertas-Vining injury as the deciding factor.

"We've had a no excuse policy all year," he stated. "We've lost a lot of girls this year. We still expect to win games. So the girls we had on the floor we expect to do the job."

Before being injured, Huertas-Vining scored 13 points to lead the Eagle game scorers. Walton finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds while Barrington added six points.

Federal Way began the game hitting Chiawana like a tornado by putting intense pressure on the Riverhawks while also outquicking them for a 6-0 start that turned into a 12-4 first quarter lead.

Huertas-Vining's three-pointer put FW up 19-8 with 2:12 remaining until halftime before Chiawana closed to 21-14 going into halftime.

Chiawana capitalized on nearly five minutes of Eagle scorelessness to rally within 25-20 in the third quarter. Huertas-Vining knocked down a three-pointer later for a 30-22 margin before the quarter closed with Federal Way ahead 30-25.

Chiawana narrowed its deficit to one point on two occasions before Barrington's putback basket and Huertas-Vining's three-pointer joined with the fateful Huertas-Vining to Walton basket that set the end action into motion.

E-W 55, Federal Way 52

Federal Way was bumped from the tournament early with a 55-52 loss to Edmonds-Woodway on the second day of action Thursday -- even though they outscored the Warriors, 22-13, in the fourth quarter.

Talia Walton tallied 20 points to lead the Eagles, also hauling down seven rebounds and coming through with five steals.

Brittany Barrington scored 16 points and had four rebounds and three steals. Chantel Dixon chipped in eight points and five assists. Dyesha Belhumeur scored three with five rebounds. Molly Campbell and Cache Jones tossed in two each and Tiara Fuller added one.

Edmonds-Woodway was led by the 17 points of Sydney Donaldson and Angela Woods. Madeline Kasper added 11 and Ashley Albertson scored eight. Alex Kenney contributed two.

Albertson also had 14 rebounds and four steals. Donaldson had six rebounds and Amia Nash had four rebounds with Kenney adding three.

Campbell, Jones and Fuller are graduating off of Graham's team, while the rest are eligible to return.