For the third time in three tries, the Evergreen Lutheran girls basketball team fell just short of toppling Tacoma Baptist in an exciting Tuesday, February 23, 41-37 semi-final loss at the Tri-District 2B basketball tournament being held at the Four Seasons Center on the campus of the Chief Leschi Schools.

With 29.2 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, the never-say-die Eagles had an opportunity to catch the Crusaders after Markelle Lance drained a three-pointer to close the Evergreen deficit to 40-37.

Forced to foul, the EL team regained possession when Erika Herman rebounded Kelsey Lyons' miss on the front end of a one-and-one free throw chance. Tacoma Baptist ended this posession with the theft of an errant Eagle pass. Alyssa Wolf converted the second of two charity tosses, making it a two possession game for the Eagles with 10.2 seconds remaining.

A trio of Evergreen Lutheran missed shots were launched before the final buzzer sounded to end the electrifying event.

"It was an exciting game, but it was hard to watch from the bench when I wasn't in the game," observed Lance, who scored 11 Eagle points.

Tacoma Baptist (21-2) moved into the finals with its berth to the state tournament at the Spokane Arena secured. Evergreen Lutheran (17-6) matches up with Bear Creek on Friday at 4:45 p.m. in a winner-to-state, loser-out game at Chief Leschi Schools.

Ball hawking defenses dominated as the championship level squads fought superbly until TB gained an 8-6 lead after one quarter.

Feeling the pressure of a state berth on the line, the teams opened the second quarter with more than three minutes of scorelessness. The Crusaders from Tacoma then tallied four consecutive points to assume a 12-6 advantage.

Clinging defense by the Eagles brought them back. Megume Poetter's two free throws followed by Melanie Laete's lay up on the end of a three-on-one break launched the response. Evergreen Lutheran recovered an errant Tacoma Baptist pass in back court, leading up to a Markelle Lance driving lay up.

Erika Herman's outside bank shot completed an 8-0 run that positioned the Eagles into a 14-12 that became 15-13 by halftime.

Back and forth went the action until the Eagles regained the lead for the final time at 20-19 on a Lance outside shot. Melanie Shank, who terrorized the court for 23 points, scored the last seven points of a 9-0 Crusader scoring run that sent Tacoma Baptist riding away to a 28-20 margin.

Following three minutes of scoring silence by Evergreen Lutheran, the Eagles scored on Melanie Laete's two free throws and another Lance field goal to close within 28-24 with one quarter to play.

Forcing turnovers with earth-shaking defense, Evergreen Lutheran closed the gap to two points twice before TB lengthened its distance to 40-34 with 42.5 seconds left, setting the stage for the closing action.

Melanie Laete hauled in 10 rebounds with nine points for Evergreen Lutheran. Megume Poetter corralled eight caroms with six points. Herman scored six Eagle points while Caty Poetter had five points with seven rebounds.

"We fought back, but turned the ball over way too many times on unforced errors, especially down the stretch," said Evergreen Lutheran head coach Jeff Kurbis. "There were three areas where we lost the game: free throws (6/14), not completing on our transition game and not boxing out in the last 30-40 seconds."

To reach the Tacoma Baptist game, Evergreen Lutheran opend with a 42-38 victory at Orcas Island where the host team has lost less than a handful of games in two years.

"It was one of the top three most exciting games I have participated in," noted Kurbis.

Trailing 22-18 at halftime and 33-24 going into the fourth quarter, Evergreen Lutheran Lutheran rallied behind defense and the efforts of the Poetter sisters, Erica Hansen and Laete, especially. Megume Poetter drove to the hoop to clinch the win with 20 seconds remaining.

Hansen led the Eagles with 11 points while Caty Poetter scored 10. Laete was next with seven.