Frigid first half by Black Hills girls leads to quarterfinal loss

A cold opening doomed the Black Hills High School girls at the Class 2A state basketball tournament.

The eighth-ranked Wolves made only three baskets in the first half of their 59-44 quarterfinal loss to No. 3 Lynden on Thursday afternoon.

“It’s hard to climb back when you’re down (14-0) in the first five minutes of the game,” Black Hills guard Lindsey Nurmi said. “Climbing back the whole game, that’s a lot of energy for us to give.”

They didn’t have quite enough to make it out of the first round at the Yakima Valley SunDome.

“It’s a learning experience — they’ve never been here before,” Wolves coach Tanya Greenfield said. “You’ve got to establish your inside game the first day at this tournament. It’s not a shooting gym right away when you walk into it.”

Lynden (22-3), by contrast, has been here before. The Lions also advanced to the 2A state tournament the previous two years and knocked Black Hills out in the regional round in 2015.

New year, similar story.

The Lions got out in front early — they were up 14-2 at the end of the first quarter — and shut down the Wolves in the paint.

“They just packed it in,” Greenfield said.

Black Hills had no room to work inside and couldn’t buy a bucket from anywhere on the floor — it finished the first half having shot 3 of 20 (15 percent) and having committed 14 turnovers.

Nurmi netted the Wolves’ first field goal with 6:45 seconds to play in the second quarter, when she nailed a 3-pointer from the left side.

Emma Duff, who is averaging 18 points per game, led Black Hills with 12 points.

Nurmi and freshman forward Maisy Williams added 11 points each. Williams also corralled 10 rebounds, making her the only player with a double-double.

Black Hills cut Lynden’s lead to seven points midway through the third when Duff drained a turnaround 3-pointer from the left corner, but the Wolves never got closer.

“A team gets rolling and you don’t respond, you’re going to get behind,” Greenfield said. “We lost to a good team.”

Lynden’s Elisa Kooiman, the leading scorer in the Lions’ win against Black Hills last year, took over with two minutes to go in the third.

She finished with a game-high 22 points — 18 in the second half — as Lynden pulled away.

“We had a lot of taller girls last year, so it was easier to maintain the inside,” Nurmi said. “This year, it was a little harder.”

Duff popped another 3-pointer at the final buzzer, but it was far too late.

Black Hills (21-4) will play Mark Morris (15-9) at 10:30 a.m. Friday in a loser-out game. The winner advances to Saturday’s matchup for fourth and sixth place.

The Wolves beat Mark Morris, 53-30, in the 2A Southwest District 4 championship game on Feb. 19.

“We have an opportunity to play on Saturday still,” Greenfield said. “We lost to a good team, and there’s nothing but good teams left here. We have an opportunity to beat a team we’re familiar with.

“We’ve got to think next game. At this point, you just need next game. Kind of flush it, and move on to the next opponent.”

This story was originally published March 3, 2016 at 5:24 PM with the headline "Frigid first half by Black Hills girls leads to quarterfinal loss."