Elma girls have taken the long road to reach the 1A state basketball tournament in Yakima

In 2016, a talented group of freshman girls basketball players enrolled at Elma High School.

Potential and possibility were concepts immediately associated with the program.

The Eagles qualified for the 2016-17 Class 1A state regionals, but lost decisively to Zillah. Last year, Elma hit a postseason pothole, and was eliminated at the 1A Southwest District level after losses to La Center and rival Montesano — which snagged the final bid to regionals.

“That ripped our girls’ hearts out,” Elma coach Lisa Johnson said. “We’d been playing well, had a good ranking. That pain was a good driver for us.”

This year, the ride has been slightly different.

The Eagles (22-3) began with a 14-game winning streak, dropped their first meeting with Montesano, then came back to beat their next seven 1A opponents — including the rematch with the Bulldogs, and a 48-37 victory over King’s Way Christian for the district title.

Elma unleashes a potent combination of quickness and size, playing fast with a roster led by 6-foot-2 junior Jalyn Sackrider (14.2 points, 8.6 rebounds per game).

“We worked hard to get past where we hadn’t gotten past before,” said forward Kali Rambo, one of seven juniors on the squad who account for 92 percent of Elma’s points.

Though Elma’s juniors — along with senior captains Molly Johnston and Kassedy Olson — have played with and against each other since fourth grade, Johnson sees new benefits of all of that togetherness.

“They’ve got great chemistry, to an extent I’ve never seen with any of my teams before,” she said. “Our game has gone to the next level for all of them.”

Her daughter, junior point guard Kayli Johnson (team-high 108 assists) sees it each time she gets the Eagles into their offense.

“We’re quicker to the ball, people are setting more screens,” she said.

Quin Mikel, a 6-foot junior forward, is second in scoring with 11.4 points and averages 6.6 rebounds per game. She sees literal growth as a factor.

“It’s both growing up and getting into the weight room. We’ve grown a lot and we’re quicker than last year,” she said. “We knew we had to work on our physicality. We’ve been going hard at each other in practice.”

The Eagles’ district championship win lifted them into the No. 5 spot in the WIAA’s RPI rankings, setting up last Friday’s regional game with No. 4 Cashmere — which the Bulldogs won, 47-34, in Wenatchee.

It was a tough trip for various reasons — the Eagles had to meet up at the school at 7:30 a.m. to make a long drive over a Snoqualmie Pass that was snowy enough to be nerve-wracking. And, they had to play just 11 miles from Cashmere, in front of an enthusiastic crowd.

Topping the stress list was the presence of Cashmere’s star junior Hailey Van Lith, a 6-footer who is ranked as the No. 3 recruit in the nation for the 2020 class by ESPN. Connecticut, Baylor and other top programs are pursuing Van Lith.

“Our girls were star-struck,” Lisa Johnson said. “They must have watched every video of her there is on YouTube. She is amazing. Finally, one of my assistant coaches, Bryan Schneider, said, ‘Hey, she puts her pants on one leg at a time just like you guys.’ ”

Elma followed its defensive plan, and held Van Lith to just 16 points — less than half her 34 points per game average.

“We had to play solid defense and give her a step. She’s got every move in the book,” Mikel said. “We had to be focused where she was on every possession.”

Still, it wasn’t enough. The loss put the Eagles into a loser-out game in Wednesday’s 1A state tournament opening round in Yakima. They’ll meet No. 13 Overlake (18-4) at the Yakima Valley SunDome at 12:15 p.m.

But, Elma believes their regionals experience, combined with the thrill of finally reaching the SunDome, will help them.

“Our game has gone to the next level,” Lisa Johnson said. “It showed during the Cashmere game. We traveled a long way and proved we can play against a team like that.”

Mikel agrees with her coach.

“It does give us extra confidence,” she said. “We’ve been skeptical of ourselves at times. Our team never realized how good we can be on defense. I think we can do some damage at state.”

If they do it will come first at the expense of Overlake in a game of contrasts. Elma presses and runs. The Owls like to walk it up and play through 6-foot-5 center Eliza Friend, while also looking for 3-pointers from the youthful Cosmos sisters, 5-9 sophomore Kaku and 5-5 freshman Mariam.

“We have to keep our energy up, concentrate on defense and shoot the ball the way we can,” Rambo said.

“It feels like its not going to be over yet,” Kayli Johnson said.

This story was originally published February 26, 2019 at 9:18 AM.