Great effort and tough inside play catapulted the Highline girls basketball team to a 51-32 Seamount League home victory against Lindbergh on Wednesday.

With the win, the Pirates pushed into a fourth place tie with Tyee at identical 5-5 records as well as squaring up their overall record to 7-7.

“We already had some players not available and then we had that (left ankle) injury to Sam (Erben) in the first quarter,” Pirate head coach Paul Gary said. “It was a great effort inside from the people who were here.”

It was still a reasonably close game as the Eagles trailed only 33-25 with 7:09 remaining in the fourth quarter.

Post player Sofia Locklear then scored an inside basket off the inbounds pass and followed it up on a lay up. After Lindbergh notched a basket, Alana Lopez dropped home a basket off a rebound. A Sarah Ganz pass to Locklear for another close-in score had Highline soaring away to a 42-27 margin that simply grew into the biggest lead by the end of the game.

Locklear dominated the paint with eight first quarter points as the Pirates sailed away to a 12-4 first quarter control. Ganz, Locklear, Lopez and Lynette Owusu orchestrated a Highline surge that culminated in a 20-4 margin, but the Eagles whittled away their deficit to 21-9 by halftime.

“In the second half, we knew we had to bring the intensity and play hard,” attested Locklear, who scored 13 of her game high 23 points in the second half with hard work on the inside. “We had to play really tough defense. They have good shooters.”

Enlarging their lead to 29-15 on a Ganz three-point bomb with just less than four minutes left in the quarter, the Pirates fell victim to another Lindbergh comeback that trimmed the Highline advantage to 31-23 before the fourth quarter salvo settled the verdict.

“We were not efficient on offense in the third quarter,” added Gary. “We didn’t finish on easy lay ups. The girls refocused and got the job done. Our kids are improving.”

Playing an excellent floor game was Pirate guard Alyssa Palermo. Palermo also scored nine points. Lopez helped work in the paint for eight points while teammate Owusu finished with seven. 

Emily Graves kept Lindbergh in the game with hot outside shooting - including two three-point goals - en route to 15 second half points and a game total of 17.