Foster had overpowered two previous opponents, but for much of the first quarter the Bulldogs were mired in a close battle before they got over their lethargy.
Sara Paponjak scored 11 of her 17 points after halftime while senior Lanaya Daniels added 12 points and Jasmine Horton notched 12 to help Class 2A Nisqually League Foster blitz homestanding Class 3A Seamount League Highline 63-17 in a Thursday girls basketball nonleague encounter.
Boasting terrific talent with a team that qualified for the state tournament last season, the Bulldogs (3-0) started out slowly, shooting drowsily from the field. Sophia Locklear scored from outside to give the battling Pirates (0-4) their only lead at 2-0. Highline rode the momentum to hang close and tie the score at 4-4 before trailing only 7-4 after one quarter.
"When we don't play with intensity, we don't play well," observed Foster Bulldog head coach Eric Fletcher. "We started picking it up toward the end of the first half. In the second half we played with emotion and played team basketball, getting into people's faces."
Amanda Mendoza and Paponjak scored the first two goals for Foster to begin a 25 point Foster second quarter. Finally taking advantage of the numerous turnovers created by their press, the Bulldogs settled down even as the Pirates fell victim to their own mistakes. Foster ran wild on the court.
Highline was unable to move the ball consistently into decent shooting range and was unable to put up many shots. Like a rapidly rising river, the Bulldogs overwhelmed the Pirates, leading by 51 points at one stretch.
"We're very excited," Fletcher continued. "Every one is back from last year and we put in hard work during the summer. When we play the way we're capable of, there's not a lot of teams that can stop us. I really believe that."
Amanda Mendoza just missed double figure scoring for Foster with nine points.
Despite losing four consecutive nonleague games, the Pirate head coach looked forward to the league season.
"We have a guard that is injured and another guard that will be eligble to play soon," said Highline head coach Paul Gerry, Jr. "These aren't excuses, but just what we're dealing with. Combined with some sickness, we just haven't had our full complement of players. We're extremely young and inexperienced with no one that saw any appreciable playing time last year. I've seen an improvement in skills each game."
Maria Mulvihill led Foster with six points and Marissa Mitchell scored five points to lead Highline.
