Mead 7, Riverside 3 — end of 1st qtr.

Welcome to championship basketball, sort of. Mead was 0-12 from the floor and still is leading thanks to 7 of 8 free throws. Riverside wasn’t much better making 1 of 12 shots.

These are good teams, but they are good defensive teams too. I’m sure we’ll see a few more baskets.

Mead 23, Riverside 22 — halftime

Well, it looked ugly and the numbers prove it. Mead was 4 of 26 from the field for an icy 15.4 shooting percentage. But two of the field goals were 3-pointers and the Panthers maded 13 of 15 free throws. Their first field goal came at the 5:39 mark of the second quarter.

Jazmine Redmon has 11 points on 2 of 9 shooting from the field and 6 of 7 shooting from the free throw line.

Riverside led for much of the second quarter, but some missed free throws haven’t helped. The Ravens shot 9 of 29 from the field and 2 of 7 from the free throw line.  Star guard Mercedes Wetmore was 1 of 12 from the field for 3 pints. She does have five rebounds. Kat Cooper has five points and four rebounds, but its Brooklynn Hinkle, who’s leading Riverside with 7 points, including a 3-pointer.

Riverside 56, Mead 52 — final in OT

Sorry about the delay, but time was dwindling and deadline was approaching. Riverside won a thriller as Mercedes Wetmore scored four straight points in the extra period to lead the Ravens to a perfect 29-0 record and their first 4A state title.

Wetmore finished with 17 points on just 5-of-22 shooting from the field and just 7 of 15 shooting from the free throw line. Junior Kat Cooper had a monster game, scoring 20 points and pulling down 11 rebounds, and when Wetmore wasn’t hitting, Cooper kept the Ravens in the game.

Mead took a huge hit when senior guard Jazmine Redmon fouled out on a questionable call in early in overtime. It left the Panthers without a go-to scorer. Like Wetmore, Redmon didn’t have the best shooting night, scoring 15 points on 4 of 15 shooting. But she was 6 0f 7 from the free throw line and pulled down 11 boards. Kalee Junkermeier led the Panthers with 19 points, including the game-tying shot to send it into overtime.