By Gerardo Bolong

Mount Rainier opened Class 4A West Central IIII/Southwest Washington IV Bi-District girls basketball action with a 69-24 home pounding of Greater St. Helen's League No. 3 Union (Vancouver) on Thurs., Feb. 16.

Shortly after Ram player CeCe Tafia delivered a strong rendition of the National Anthem, Mount Rainier delivered a declaration of devastation to the out sized and outgunned Union contingent.

The tallest Titan player was five-foot, nine inches in height so the home team had little fear of reprisals against their inside scoring and rebounding.

Unencumbered by the opposition, the Rams (19-3) bored inside to the basket for short range opportunities. Despite missing a number of close-in shots and put backs, Mount Rainier cleared away with a 21-2 lead after one quarter and a 33-8 halftime dominance despite some moments of loose play.

Late in the third quarter, the first reserve for the Rams entered the game, setting off a sequence of other substitutes to play in various combinations as Mount Rainier played mix and match with starter and reserves the rest of the way.

With 1:44 remaining in regulation, the MR lead grew to 41, necessitating the continuously running clock until the end of the game as the final score also displayed the greatest lead of the match up.

Any possible motivation problems for this game after a tough Tuesday night win for the SPSL 4A No. 1 seed were quickly alleviated by Stanford-bound senior forward Brittany McPhee who scored 26 points while corralling 15 caroms off the glass.

"This was exciting," she said. "This was our first game at district and the last game for the seniors in this gym."

Making their final appearance on the Mount Rainier home court besides McPhee were Kaiti Freeberg, Jenna Shamseldin and Jordan McPhee.

Other double figures scorers were Aqeelah Williams (13), Emily Fiso (11) and Jordan McPhee (10). Other scorers were Freeberg with 3 plus the trio of Megan Houston, Maddie Fletcher and Jenna Shamseldin at 2 apiece. Seeing action without scoring were Kenzie Gandy, Simone Johnson and Tafia.
Union's top scorer was Tee Anderson who notched 8 points.