Semifinal day at the WIAA Hardwood Classic Tournament was a Purple affair. A Purple affair as in Seattle’s Garfield High School Boys and Girls teams winning their Semifinal games to move into Saturdays State Title Games.
Boys beat Eastside Catholic
The States top-ranked team advanced to the title game with the continuing theme of starting slow and finish fast. The Bulldogs made just 9 of 29 shots from the field for a 31 % shooting percentage. Garfield scored just 23 first-half points. Eastside Catholic was 7 of 25 from the field and shot just 28 % from the field. While the shooting percentages where low the game was a high paced athletic contest. Garfield found thier shooting touch and their superior athletic ability prevailed in the second half as the Bulldogs made 11of 22 shots from the field. Eastside Catholic gave it all they had offensively making 11-27 shots from the field for a 40 % shooting average but their inability to stop the Bulldogs from scoring resulted in a loss to the top-ranked Bulldogs.
While he was happy with the win Garfield head coach Brandon Roy is still perplexed by teams slow starts.
Garfield will take on Rainier Beach for the State title 7:00p.m Saturday night
Girls advance
After watching the Boys win their game the Garfield Girls team did their part to complete the Purple double with a 46 to 40 win over Stanwood. Dalaya Daniels scored a game-high 21 points and was a catalyst in holding Stanwood to just seven fourth-quarter points.
” I was ready to do whatever I needed to do to help my team win, Daniels said after the game. ” We are a close unit and this is something we were committed to achieving through hard work and commitment.”
Garfield will play Gib Harbour for the State Title game 9:00p.m Saturday night.
