Woodinville girls beat Bothell for KingCo tournament title

Falcons snap Bothell’s 26-game streak vs. KingCo teams

All good things must come to an end.

The Woodinville High girls basketball team snapped a 26-game winning streak by Bothell against KingCo opponents on Thursday night at Lake Washington High School in Kirkland, edging the Cougars 52-48 in the conference tournament championship game.

The Falcons, who had lost both regular-season games to Bothell (19-3), held Cougar senior Taya Corosdale to a season-low six points. Corosdale was selected as the co-KingCo MVP earlier this week, and averaged a double-double througout the year.

“I don’t know that we did anything different, but I think our girls played with more confidence tonight,” Woodinville coach Scott Bullock said. “We’ve been right there a few times, and they have a fantastic teams and two of the best players ever to come through this league. They’re really well coached. It was just our turn tonight.”

The Falcons (18-4) made Corosdale the sole responsibility of junior Alena Coomer, who stuck with Corosdale for much of the evening. Corosdale often drew two or three defenders each time she touched the ball, and drew a crowd on rebound attempts.

Woodinville came down with a handful of critical rebounds on missed free throws in the final minute of the game. Coomer hit a pair of free throws with 10 seconds remaining to seal the win for Woodinville — her only points of the second half.

Woodinville claimed a berth in the regional round of 16, and will likely play a loser-out game on Feb. 24 or 25. Bothell, despite a No. 1 rating in the final RPI list of the season, will need to fight to make the state tournament at all.

It was nothing less than what was expected between Woodinville and Bothell.

“This game, it felt a little more physical than usual,” Corosdale said. “They always come out strong and fast, and we usually pick it up with them, but this time I feel we fell a little short coming out. We tried to be physical back, and it wasn’t clicking for us.”

Bothell coach Kent Schaefer, who was honored as the 4A KingCo Coach of the Year after the game, chose his words carefully when it came to the level of physicality and chose instead to focus on Bothell’s shortcomings.

“We’ve got to get better off-ball movement to take advantage of that and to stop that sort of pressure and contact and physical play,” he said. “We didn’t do enough of that. We had a lot of one-side shots and didn’t get enough ball-reversal.”

Senior Keyonna Jones led all scorers with 21 points. Sydney Cowan added 12 for Bothell.

Gabby Whalen scored 14 points to lead Woodinville.

Next, Bothell is set to play Eastlake in a loser-out game at 6 p.m. on Feb. 18 at Lake Washington High School. The winner moves on to the regional round — and for Bothell, the Cougars would play as the No. 1 seed with a guarantee of making the state tournament. Bothell won both regular-season games against Eastlake.

Bothell senior Taya Corosdale (5) and Woodinville’s Alena Coomer (44) battle for position during the 4A KingCo tournament championship game on Thursday in Kirkland. JOHN WILLIAM HOWARD/Bothell-Kenmore Reporter

Bothell senior Taya Corosdale (5) and Woodinville’s Alena Coomer (44) battle for position during the 4A KingCo tournament championship game on Thursday in Kirkland. JOHN WILLIAM HOWARD/Bothell-Kenmore Reporter