By Jeremy Martin
Sports Reporter

Thursday night, the Seattle Lutheran girls found themselves in a battle against a visiting Puget Sound Adventist squad; at least for a while they did.

Knotted at 16 midway through the second quarter the Saint's decided enough was a enough and turned on the proverbial jets, racing away on a 16-0 run to close out the half turning a potential Sharks upset bid into a 59-24 drubbing by the home team.

Led by a swarming defense and breakneck offensive philosophy, Lutheran's keys to victory were simple; run, run and run some more.

“We're trying to push the ball, this team is kind of young a lot of the kids haven’t played a lot of varsity basketball. They're still learning the game and were getting better, we're improving,” Lutheran head coach Bruce Carlson said. “We want to push the ball up the court, we hit our shots and did a better job rebounding.”

Of course the Saint's had plenty of success when they chose to slow things down as well.
“They were hitting some shots there against us so we went to a 2-3 zone to see if we could read passing lanes and keep them on the outside. We ended up getting a lot of turnovers and were able to get layups after that,” Carlson said.

Lutheran's half court offense was led by freshman Izzy Jones who found little in the way of her constant attacks on the rim. Finishing with a game high 17 points.

“She's coming in off of a knee injury from last year so she hasn't really been able to get into form yet since she's been off for about a year. She's got a really great future ahead of her and she did a good job for us attacking the basket,” Carlson said.

Junior guard Abbi Sanders took control of many of the Saint's fast breaks, racing down court on misses to receive long outlet passes, often making her way to the basket before defenders could even pass mid-court, netting 15 points, much of which came in transition.

Gratia Doerr was also productive for the Saints, scoring 8 points, while junior Emma Figgins finished with seven.

Sharks fans had a bit of a scare in the third quarter when star guard Allison Walean came up limping with apparent calf cramps following a baseline jump shot. She would remain in the game, hobbled, for two more possessions before a stoppage of play allowed coach Mike Deguiar to carry her off the court.

Walean would reenter the game in the fourth quarter with compression tape covering her left calf.

Despite the injury, the speedy guard made her presence felt throughout the night with full court hustle, sticky defense and an unwillingness to back down despite the score. She would finish with a team high 8 points.
The Thursday night game marked the middle portion of a three game, five day stretch for Lutheran that closes out with a home contest against Northwest Yeshiva on Saturday.

“Were in the middle of a tough stretch. This is the first time we've won two games in a row and they're both league games,” Carlson said of defeating both the Sharks and Christian Faith. “We've got a big game on Saturday against Northwest Yashiva, but were were hoping to come out of this stretch with a 3-0 record in the league, that's what our goal is.”