Vashon’s girls basketball team had a full week of play the last week of January.

Starting off the week, the Pirates hosted the Cascade Christian Cougars on Tuesday, Jan. 27.

The Cougars are a scrappy young team that played tough, in-your-face defense for 32 minutes.

After spotting the Cougars a 7-0 lead, Vashon settled down and started to run their main offense, climbing back in but still finding themselves down by 1 at the end of the first quarter, 9-8.

The girls started hitting some shots and managed to take a 23-20 halftime lead into the locker room.

In the third, the Pirates were led by Kelly Costello’s 9 points, which helped push up the team’s lead to 7 points going into the final period.

“We did a good job of using our size and maturity in the second half to overpower the smaller Cougars,” said coach Henry Porter. “Chrissy (Swope) did a great job of rebounding and being a dominant player in the post in the second half.”

In the fourth quarter, the Pirates outscored Cascade Christian 19-7, winning the game 56-37.

In the second game of the week, Vashon traveled to Puyallup Valley to play the Cardinals of Orting.

Vashon showed a lot of ball movement in this game, Porter reported, passing over the top of Orting’s defenses, striking from the corners and holding the Cardinals to four points in the second quarter — with the Pirates taking a 23-11 lead into the locker room at the half.

In the second half, the Pirates picked up where they left off, moving the ball and looking for their teammates. They amassed 17 assists as a team, taking a 47-24 victory home with them.

In the final game of the week, played Saturday night, the Pirates found themselves stepping into a hornet’s nest at the field house of Auburn Adventist.

“The Falcons were a big, strong team and played a physical game against us all night,” Porter said. “They play in a big, open-aired gymnasium without backdrops behind the baskets, and it seemed with the combination of that and our legs being tired from the night before, we had a hard time putting the ball in the basket.”

The girls played tough, battling back and forth the entire game. The team had two good looks at the end of the game to win, but both shots just didn’t make it.

The Pirates ended up losing 39-37. This was a non-league game, however, and doesn’t affect the Pirates’ standings in league.

“We will learn from this game and come out strong down the stretch,” Porter said.

The girls played Seattle Christian, the number-one team in the state, last night. Results came in after press time. On Saturday, Feb. 7, the Pirates play Bellevue Christian, the leader in the Emerald City league.

— This article was compiled with information supplied by Coach Henry Porter.