From the dark days of December to March Madness, the trail to the Class 1A quarterfinals has been filled with potholes for the Seattle Christian girls basketball team.

With all-everything Lexi Petersen already out with a torn ACL, the Warriors' problems were further magiified by the season ending knee injury to starting guard Carissa Doyle.

At that point in time, few observers expected SCS to be true contenders for the title they were once top favorites to grab.

But gradually, Seattle Christian reinvented itself and changed its style to a more grind it out squad. Although the remaking of the Warriors forced some tough changes, they continued to give it their all.

Now, after two months of retrained thinking, SCS has gained the state quarterfinals at the Yakima Sun Dome after holding back the Mountaineers of Rainier, 51-41, at the state 1A state regional showdown at W.F. West High School on Saturday, Feb. 26, with a huge Seattle Christian following in attendance.

"We knew we would have to become a grind it out team," coach Bob Kickner expressed as he has since the injuries. "The girls battled and fought and won even when it wasn't pretty. It took awhile to get adjusted to the new roles. It's been a two month season of learning and now everyone is playing to their roles. We're looking to see how (unbeaten) La Salle of Yakima plays (in our quarterfinal opener)."

This evening's game turned into another one of these grind it out games.

Despite a huge first half rebounding dominance (32-12 total and 13-5 offensive rebounds) that would continue throughout the game, the Warriors (21-5) struggled on second chance opportunities and sometimes third tries. Turnovers (10) and barely missed close in shots also held SCS back.

Seattle Christian held a slim 16-12 first quarter lead before the stubborn Mountaineers tied the score at 22-all near the end of the first quarter. Katie Collier powered to the hoop for two consecutive baskets to send the Warriors into halftime with a 26-22 clearance. Collier had three fouls and drew her fourth foul with 3:13 left in the third quarter, necessitating an SCS zone defense and situational substitutions to keep her from fouling out.

Alayna Gleason would also get into foul trouble while working hard for 13 total game rebounds.

Senior Maddie Harris torched one of her five three-pointers ahead of a Collier to Gleason bucket as Seattle Christian stretched out the margin, eventually holding a 36-24 advantage before the feisty Rainier team rallied to trail only 36-29 going into the final quarter.

Another Harris trey established a 41-33 lead with nearly two minutes elapsed in the fourth quarter, but the Mountaineers stormed back within 43-39 on Mikaila Mortlock's three-pointer as 3:39 showed on the scoreboard clock.

Enter Harris once again with a killer three-pointer to enlarge the SCS lead to seven points with 2:45 left. Following a Rainier turnover, the Warriors worked the clock and outscored the game Mountaineers 5-2 the rest of the way.

As one of the seniors, Harris was 5-for-7 from three-point land on the way to collecting 19 points to tie Collier for game-high. Harris also hauled in eight rebounds. Collier avoided fouling out and grabbed nine rebounds with three assists while shooting 11-for-12 from the foul line.

"We didn't want this to be our last game," proclaimed Harris. "We wanted to show people how we still have a lot of talent across our team. We worked our butts off to do it. Most of all, it was teamwork."

For senior Kelly Jansen, who opened her offense at regionals to go along with her floor game and defensive skills, it was a truly gratifying reward for the hard work.

"I decided to step up and take a lot of shots because I knew my teammates would cover," she said. "This is really satisfying. We worked hard to get to state."

Jansen closed with five assists. Catie Shelton had eight points and nine rebounds.

For the game Seattle Christian held a 57-27 control of the boards.

Kristen Shoenherr with 17 and Kelsey Eygabroad with 10 paced the Rainier point producers.