With first place in the 3A Wesco League South Conference standings at stake, a motivated Meadowdale Mavericks’ team came out of the gate blazing on Friday, taking an early 10-0 lead in their matchup against the visiting Archbishop Murphy Wildcats. 

And while the Mavericks looked convincing in that first run, it is often the final stretch of the race where winners prevail.

Meadowdale couldn’t sustain that initial push for the game’s entirety, surrendering the lead in the second quarter and then getting outscored 11-3 in the contest’s final four minutes to fall to the Wildcats 68-58 at Meadowdale High School.

Archbishop Murphy was able to erase the Mavs’ early advantage by the first minute of the second quarter and held a slim lead throughout much of the remainder of first half. But Meadowdale fought back to tie the contest three times in the third quarter and was down just 57-55 after a Sam Medina bucket midway through the fourth quarter.

Then in the game’s final four minutes, the Mavericks stumbled and could only muster a Payton Fleishman layin and an Audrey Lucas free throw while the Wildcats were able to sink numerous shots, grab rebounds of missed shot attempts and get to loose balls first to pull away and snatch the victory.

“The game is played late” said Meadowdale Coach Benson Sims. “I think most players can show up in the first 10 minutes of the game. It’s that final 10 that defines the outcome.”

Sims admitted that his squad made too many errors during the course of the contest that allowed the Wildcats to come back and take control. And with his team still learning how to prevail in games that are decided late, Sims saw that pulling out a late win on Friday just wasn’t within their reach.”

“You see a team that is finding the art of finishing,” Sims said of his Mavericks’ squad. “We do start fairly well — even in the last three games we started fairly well or were in the fight.”

“What we did against a team like Archbishop Murphy (on Friday) was, those minor details that we don’t necessarily get the mark on, they opened the door,” Sims continued. “And a team like that, that’s disciplined with finishes: They finish plays, they play until the final bell, they find any airspace and they attack it.”

The Wildcats’ Brooke Blachly led all scorers in the game with 25 points, 12 of which came from four long-range 3-pointers. Ava Marr contributed 13 points while Taylor Cushing and Ashley Fletcher each scored 10 points on Friday.

Meadowdale (2-1 in the 3A Wesco League South Conference, 5-5 overall) was led by the 21 points of senior Audrey Lucas; Payton Fleishman added 11 points on Friday.

With the victory, 2A Archbishop Murphy lifted their league record to 5-0 (9-1 overall) and took sole possession of first place in the 3A Wesco League South Conference standings at the midpoint of the 2024-25 season. 

For Meadowdale, Friday’s loss was their fourth in a row. Those losses all came against teams that qualified for their state or provincial championship tournaments last year — including Washington state 2A champions Lynden and British Columbia champions 3A Brookswood Secondary School. (Archbishop Murphy finished sixth in the 2A state tournament last spring.)

The Mavericks knew this stretch of four games against four strong opponents would be a test. Sims insisted that the losses to Lynden, Emerald Ridge, Brookswood and Archbishop Murphy are nothing to be ashamed of and instead can be the type of adversity that the team can grow from.

“The message is we’re not defined by these defeats,” Sims said. “There’s nothing in this stretch there for us to hang our heads about. In fact, it just shows us where we’re at. We know where we want to be; so it shows us that we’ve got to make some adjustments and work to get where we want to be.”

“It showed us where we’re at and it’s a good thing (because) it shows us where we need to improve. And everyone needs to improve somewhere. The sooner we accept it, the sooner we can move forward,” Sims said.

The Mavericks begin the second half of their regular-season schedule on the road Wednesday, Jan. 8, with a matchup against the Lynnwood Royals. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:15 p.,m.

Prep Girls Basketball: Archbishop Murphy at Meadowdale, Jan. 3

Archbishop Murphy 15 19 17 17 – 68

Meadowdale 18 15 14 11 – 58

Meadowdale individual scoring: Audrey Lucas 21, Payton Fleishman 11, Sam Medina 10, Mia Brockmeyer 6, Lisa Sonko 6, Kaiya Dotter 4, Kyairra Roussin 3

Archbishop Murphy individual scoring: Brooke Blachly 25, Ava Marr 13, Taylor Cushing 10, Ashley Fletcher 10, Kani Cham 4, Celine Wright 4, Oliver Miller 2, Bella Ives

Records: Meadowdale 2-1 in 3A Wesco League South Conference, 5-5 overall; Archbishop Murphy 5-0 in 3A Wesco League South Conference, 9-1 overall

Meadowdale next game: versus Lynnwood; Wednesday, Jan. 8; 7:15 p.m. at Lynnwood High School

Archbishop Murphy next game: versus North Kitsap; Saturday, Jan. 4; 4:30 p.m. at North Kitsap High School

— Story and photos by Doug Petrowski