High School Sports

News and commentary on high-school sports around Puget Sound.

The fifth-ranked Vikings bounced back from Thursday’s tough loss to top-ranked Mount Rainier and beat their KingCo rivals for the third time this season to advance to the trophy round for the first time in school history.

But it wasn’t easy — despite a big game by 6-4 sophomore Deja’ Strother, who piled up 18 points, 12 rebounds, three blocks and three assists.

For the second game in a row, Inglemoor started slowly. No. 8 Skyline jumped to an 11-5 lead before going into another shooting junk. After shooting just 14.7 percent in the first half of Thursday’s game against Mead of Spokane, the Spartans wound up shooting 17.4 percent in the first half Friday.

Still, Inglemoor led just 16-14 at the break. Strother scored 10 points to fuel a 15-1 run in the third quarter that ultimately made the difference.

Skyline, though, wouldn’t go away and the Vikings left the door open by going scoreless for more than 5 1/2 minutes in the final quarter. Skyline (20-7) closed the gap to 35-32. Strother ended the drought with an inside bucket with 2:17 to play.

It was 37-33 before Jordana Price buried a three-pointer to start a 7-1 run to close out the game. Price finished with 11 points. Lacey Nicholson led Skyline with nine points, while Haley Smith had eight points and 11 rebounds.

Inglemoor (21-6) plays No. 4 Gonzaga Prep (23-4) at 9:30 a.m. Saturday to decide fourth and sixth places.