Senior Caroline Spink scores first 8 points of fourth quarter, Mead girls outlast, eliminate Lewis and Clark 39-35 | District 6 basketball

If the Mead girls basketball team is going to reach Tacoma for the fifth year in a row, it’s going to be a different route than it has taken the past few years.

A top seed in either the 3A or 4A bracket since the pandemic, the fourth-seeded Panthers have dealt with a litany of injuries this season and found themselves in the District 6 4A losers bracket.

Thursday’s matchup pitted them against sixth-seeded Lewis and Clark – fighting off injuries of its own. And it was a tough battle with more of a football score than a basketball score.

Senior Caroline Spink scored eight of her team-high matching nine points in the fourth quarter, and the Panthers (17-5) outlasted and eliminated Tigers (9-13) to advance to the district third-place game on Saturday against fifth-seeded Kamiakin.

“It was just energy,” Spink said of the difference in the fourth. “We started off a little slow, but we focus on defense always. Our motivator is work hard on defense, and then offense will come. So for us, it was just getting going on defense, which finally led in the fourth quarter to getting our offense going.”

“We have to fight through some adversity this year to get to the Dome, and we’re just gonna keep fighting,” Mead coach Quantae Anderson said. “We’re going to have to stick to the defensive end and just believe in what we can do. And when shots aren’t falling, we got to get stops, and then they’re eventually going to fall for us.”

Mead was missing all-league performers Addison Wells-Morrison and Ellie Thornton to injury, while Lewis and Clark was without senior leaders Olivia Baird and MaKayla Vue.

“Basically, it was a battle of attrition,” Anderson said. “Both teams are hurting, and we knew it was gonna be a physical game. And we told the girls before the game that LC is a very scrappy team. And we just told them, ‘You’re gonna have to outscrap them.’ ”

Mead trailed by three entering the fourth quarter, but Spink and Kiki Kostelecky (nine points) both scored in the paint early in the fourth to take the lead back. It stayed tight, and Spink added a layup and a pair of free throws to put Mead up 36-35 with 3:05 to go.

The Panthers put on a full-court press, and generated turnovers on three consecutive possessions – but could not add to the lead.

Spink scored in the post to make it a three-point game, then LC turned it over again. Spink fouled out with 1:11 left in the game, but Mead got a stop, then worked most of the shot clock before turning over on a miss.

LC got a timeout in the front court with 17.8 seconds to go, but the Panthers generated yet another turnover. Claire Blackwell missed a pair of free throws, but got her own miss and went back to the line, this time hitting one for a four-point game with 7.7 second left.

LC hustled up the court but missed a last-second heave, and the Panthers held on.

“For me, it was life or death,” Spink said of the fourth quarter. “It was one of those things where it’s like, ‘I have to go,’ and I think I pulled it together.”

“It’s one of those things,” Anderson said. “We know teams are going to score, and there’s going to be fouls called. We know there’s a lot of things that happen in basketball, but we’ll stick to our plan, and we persevere through all that stuff.”

Mead got a 3-pointer by Blackwell with about 3 minutes left in the first quarter to open a 15-9 lead, but LC scored the last four points in the period and trailed 15-13 at the end of one.

LC senior Ruby Shaw knocked down a 3 with 2:40 left in the second to tie it at 21. Spink broke the tie on a free throw with 38 seconds to go, but Rhiannon Kilgore (game-high 18 points) answered for LC with 3 seconds left and it was tied at 22 at intermission.

The teams combined for one basket in the first four minutes of the third quarter. Kilgore hit a long 3, then Mackenzie Earling hit a floater to put LC up 27-26 with 2:51 left in the period.

Shaw added a leaner with 50 second left, Kilgore scored on a fastbreak layup and LC led 31-28 entering the fourth.