By Tim Clinton
SPORTS EDITOR

Highline's Pirates prevailed despite having only six players present Friday.

The Highline girls basketball team had to hang on for a 38-36 victory over Evergreen in its short-handed state.

"We have four girls injured right now and one sick," said Pirates head coach Darrin Stolz after the action in the Wolverines' gymnasium. "So five able bodies were down. So that's why we were doing what we were doing."

What the Pirates had to do was avoid too much foul trouble, although they still lost 5-foot, 9-inch freshman starting post Stella Fosberg to her fifth foul.

"Everyone knew she had four fouls except Stella," said Stolz. "She had four fouls and then she got her fifth."

Senior guard Jenny Hovland, on the other hand, did finish the game despite having four fouls in the first half.

Because of the player shortage Stolz had to bring up two junior varsity players for the game.

One of them was Joyce Muliaganotoa, who would up pacing the Pirates with 13 points.

"She's a dynamo out there," said Stolz. "She may never go back now. She played really well."

Also stepping up from JV was Zainab Aliabdi, who scored three.

"That was her first ever varsity game," said Stolz. "She was an emergency starter. She did well."

Evergreen started off well, then finished strong to almost erase a big Highline lead.

The Wolverines led, 10-5, after a three-point basket by Gloria Dabairi with 1:20 to play in the first quarter.
The Pirates scored the next 15 points in a row, however, from the last shot of the first quarter until Jackie Barker of Evergreen broke the string with a free throw with only 11.8 seconds left in the second quarter.
Highlline was still very much in command, seemingly, with a 36-24 lead with 3:06 to go in the game.
Fosberg hit one of two free throws at that time before Evergreen came out fighting to make it close, starting with a basket by Elizabeth Lindo with 2:10 remaining.

The Wolverines then pressured their way into a turnover and Barker buried a three-pointer.

Barker then hit one of two free throws after a steal to cut the lead to 36-30 with 51.7 seconds remaining.
After a jump ball went to Evergreen, Dabairi made a three-point cast to make it 36-33 with only 28.0 seconds left.

The Wolverines then fouled Aliabdi and she made the front end of a one-and-one at 20.3 seconds but missed the second to leave the score at 37-33.

Evergreen then came up empty on a three-point try at the other end and fouled Muliaganotoa, who also made one of two tries to widen the margin back to five at 38-33 with 6.6 seconds to play.

Highline fouled Barker at 2.0 seconds and she made one of two to make it 38-34, then she sent up a buzzer beater after the rebound to put the final score at 38-36.

"Lots of energy," said Evergreen head coach Natasha Hicks McCray of the late comeback attempt. "That's good. It showed a lot of character. I'm proud of our girls for staying in it."

Fosberg scored 11 points for the Pirates, while Jamie Husseman swished in six and Jonnica Royal three along with Aliabdi.

Jenny Hovland hit one.

Lindo led the Wolverines with 13 as Baker scored 12, Dabairi five, Thaiasia Holloway three, Sabrina Pietron two and Veronica Martinez one.

"We're looking forward to the rest of the season," said Hicks McCray. "We're young, and have been learning. We're functioning better as a team."