Lady Jacks sweep series from Ephrata

QUINCY - It had been 15 years - nearly the entire lifetime of most of Quincy's players - since the Lady Jackrabbits basketball program had tasted two wins over rival Ephrata in the same season.

Friday, the Lady Jacks pulled off the feat again, holding off a scrappy Lady Tigers' squad in a 57-49 victory that helped Quincy maintain sole possession of the No. 7 seed for the upcoming Central Washington Athletic Conference playoffs.

The win was particularly sweet for Quincy head coach Cully Donovan and his two most experienced players, senior guards Lesa Hearst and Tashia Zamarron.

"They were really excited," Donovan said of his team. "They wanted this game really bad, especially my two seniors."

Hearst and Zamarron played large roles as the Lady Jacks improved to 5-12 overall, 5-10 in conference. Zamarron torched the Tigers for a game-high 26 points, 10 rebounds and four steals. The final stat sheet didn't tell the tale of Hearst's importance - she finished with three points and seven rebounds - but ran Quincy's offense efficiently. She committed only three turnovers and played all 32 minutes.

"I think Lesa Hearst did a good job of taking care of the basketball," Donovan said. "She did a good job of getting us in our offensive sets."

Zamarron, the CWAC's sixth-leading scorer at 16.1 points per game coming in, didn't have her best shooting night, going 9 of 21 from the floor and 6 of 14 from the free-throw line. But she hit some clutch baskets, including a huge 3-pointer at the end of the third quarter that stopped an extended Ephrata rally.

"She's a gamer," Donovan said of Zamarron. "She's the one we can rely on in the fourth quarter to kind of take over, and she did that tonight."

Zamarron scored the game's first six points and found Hearst for a backdoor layup that put Quincy ahead 8-0 early on. Ephrata's offensive output in the first quarter was an omen - the Lady Tigers made only two field goals in the period and shot only 23 percent for the game.

Ephrata (1-16, 1-14) managed to hang around because of the inside-outside threats of senior BreAnne Duff and freshman Abby Smith. Duff nailed 4 of 11 from 3-point range en route to 14 points, while Smith abused the Lady Jacks' interior defenders at times and added 12 points. Duff added eight rebounds, while Smith had five boards and two steals.

Duff nailed a trey early in the third period that brought Ephrata within six at 28-22, and Smith's putback in the final minute trimmed the gap to 36-32. But Zamarron answered with a 3-pointer at the other end, keeping Quincy ahead after three, 39-32.

Ephrata never seriously threatened after that, finally getting within five again after Lexi Lange hit two free throws with 1:26 left. Quincy made only 20 of its 41 free-throws attempts, but enough of them came at the end to sew up the win.

Zamarron was the only Jack in double figures, but Colleen Knodell had eight points, and Dayanna Lopez and Taylor Kunkel added six apiece.

Defending Ephrata's long-range attack was key to the win, Donovan believed, and the Lady Tigers hit only 6 of 30 outside the arc.

"We've been working a lot on defense this week, defending the 3-point shot, because they put up a lot of 3s," he said. "We spent a lot of time on just closing out the 3-point line and rebounding the long rebounds."