For the first time in the program’s history, the Todd Beamer Titans are going to play in the postseason.
The Titans (12-8 overall, 9-7 SPSL South) secured fourth place in the South Puget Sound League South Division with a 52-38 win over the Puyallup Vikings in their regular season finale Tuesday.
Beamer will now face the Tahoma Bears at 3:30 p.m. at Auburn High School Saturday in the SPSL Tournament. The Bears finished 8-8 in the SPSL North Division, which was good for fourth place. The winner will earn the league’s seventh seed into the West Central District Tournament and the loser will be the eighth.
The nine wins in the SPSL South Division this season comes just a year after the Titans finished 1-15 in league play with pretty much the same roster. In fact, during the previous three seasons, Beamer finished just 7-39 in the SPSL South.
It was Beamer’s “Big Three” who were too much for the Vikings Tuesday night. Shyla Akins, Meghan Graf and Megan Huff combined to score 50 of the Titans’ 52 points during the victory over Puyallup. Akins led the way with 21 points, Graf finished with 19 and Huff chipped in 10.
The threesome is scoring over 41 points a game for the Titans with Akins averaging 16.0 points a game, Graf at 15.1 and Huff, a freshman, scoring 10.2 points.
Beamer jumped all over Puyallup (4-15 overall, 3-13 SPSL South) from the opening tip and rolled to a 21-12 lead after the first quarter. The Titans extended the lead to 35-24 at halftime.
In other action:
at Federal Way 75, Spanaway Lake 23 — The top-ranked Eagles finished the SPSL South season with a perfect 16-0 record after blowing out Spanaway Lake Tuesday.
The Eagles will now face a familiar foe Friday night with the SPSL championship on the line. Federal Way will take on the SPSL North champion Auburn Riverside Ravens at 6:30 p.m. inside Kent’s Showare Center. The Ravens (17-3 overall, 15-1 SPSL North) secured the North title with a win over Kentwood (14-2) Tuesday.
The Ravens beat the Eagles three times last season on their way to winning the Class 4A state championship.
Against Spanaway Lake, Federal Way got another huge game from University of Washington-bound forward. The 6-foot-3 Walton poured in 25 points and helped the Eagles jump out to a 25-6 lead after the first quarter.
Senior Jaleecia Roland chipped in 10 points and a total of 10 Federal Way players scored during the game.
Enumclaw 48, Decatur 41 — The Hornets made a frantic fourth-quarter comeback to tie the game at 39-39 at the end of regulation and outscored the Gators, 9-2, during overtime to win the SPSL 3A tiebreaker Tuesday night at Bonney Lake High School.
The loss means Decatur (6-15 overall, 3-7 SPSL 3A) goes into the 3A Sub-district Tournament as the league’s fifth seed. The Gators will take on Bremerton at 5:30 p.m. Friday in a loser-out game. The winner of the Decatur/Bremerton game will play Bonney Lake (SPSL No. 3) at 2:30 p.m. at Lakes High School Saturday in another loser-out contest.
Against Enumclaw, the Gators jumped out to a 19-14 lead at halftime and led 30-24 after the third quarter. Senior Kayla Lipston led the way for Decatur with 17 points and A’yesia Rogers finished with 10.
Mount Rainier 66, at Jefferson 46 — The Raiders were eliminated from playoff contention with the season-ending loss to Mount Rainier Tuesday. Jefferson (8-11 overall, 7-9 SPSL North) ended up in a fifth-place tie with Auburn, but the Trojans advance to the postseason because they won both regular-season matchups with TJ.
Mount Rainier (17-3 overall, 13-3 SPSL North) rolled out to a 34-19 halftime lead to earn the SPSL North’s third seed into the playoffs. Jefferson was led by 15 points from Christy Kullberg and Keryn Knight and Jada Piper both chipped in 10.
