Mission out in two

PABLO — The shots just wouldn’t drop for the Mission Lady Bulldogs at the Western B divisional tourney in Pablo. As a result, two close ones got away and want it or not - loaded with five seniors, it’s safe to say the team wanted it - Mission high school won’t be appearing at state this year.

First and foremost, the team ran into shooting troubles. On and off throughout the season, the Bulldogs couldn’t find the switch when the time was right. Against Florence in the first round, the Mission shooting wasn’t gruesome, it was actually pretty good through the first three.

Rounding out the scoring, Mission had it all but won going into the fourth with a 10-point lead.

Mission head coach Les Rice said his team played excellent ball for 75 percent of the game.

But Florence didn’t check out. An aggressive ball club, they had swarmed all game. That swarm turned into a typhoon in the fourth. Mission, which hadn’t done much from downtown all game, had to try its inside game for desperate points when Florence breaks gave the Falcons flight on the scoreboard late. But that’s where the eye of the storm was.

Losing the quarter 18-4, Mission may have made a mark in several stat categories - with Mission senior Mattea Grant pulling down he usual numbers, 12 rebounds, eight assists, and three steals, it’s hard not to - but didn’t brush enough twine when Florence got hot. Mission lost 43-39.

Mission sophomore Jonna Grant scored the team high with 12, senior Katie McDonald had nine, Mattea had eight and senior Jordan Adams had six in the loss.

Like the week before at divisionals, Mission felt the hurt of a first round tourney loss yet again.

It meant the quick route to state was gone, and the team would have to run the gauntlet of loser-out matchups.

The Lady Bulldog’s first and last of these was on Friday morning against Valley Christian.

Armed with another balanced attack, six Mission girls scored four or more points in the game and again took control early.

But it didn’t last.

It came down to turnovers by Mission and key free throws by the Valley Christian Lady Eagles.

Again Mission sat on an advantage going to the fourth, and again, the team lost control.

The Lady Bulldogs lost 35-32 and high school basketball was over for the team from St. Ignatius.

Mission junior Rachel Jensen led with eight points and McDonald and Adams each had five.

Mattea again came up big with four assists, four steals and 13 boards. But she wanted more. She had never made it to state in her high school career, and she hoped her last year would be the one.

“It was really hard and kind of frustrating because we had potential,” Mattea said. “I thought we had a great chance.”

Once a Ronan basketball player said, when you think of Mission you think of Mattea Grant.

It is no wonder.

Rice said Mattea will graduate with the school record in number of games played and number of games started in a season and career. She will leave with a season and career steal record, in addition to her season rebound record of 242 - accomplished in just 22 games this year to break her previous title.

Mattea said basketball was no small part of her life so far.

“It’s something that I’ve really enjoyed,” Mattea said. “And met lots of friends and learned lots of life lessons.”

Mattea’s sophomore sister Jonna will stay and represent the family while Mattea hopes to play some college ball.

Rice said he coached a team that always came eager to play and played hard without any drama.

“They were truly a dream to coach,” he said. “On a year like that you just don’t want your season to end. And you don’t want it to end in that manner.”

With five seniors leaving it will be up to younger girls to lead next year. If they run into trouble, they can remember what Mattea used to do before every game: get focused, run through all of the new plays learned in practice, remember all of the errors from the last game so they won’t be repeated and then, most importantly, get out on the court and never give up.