Camas hands Garfield rare girls basketball loss at Puget Sound Holiday Classic, 3 takeaways

TACOMA, Wash. - During a three-year reign as Class 3A girls basketball champions, many times the Garfield Bulldogs have taken opponents in their firm grinding grasp and sucked the life out of any thought of victory.

Camas was in one of those squeezing holds Monday.

And in a rare instance, the Papermakers wiggled free.

Camas scored six unanswered points in the final minute of overtime, capped by Keirra Thompson's two game-sealing free throws, and the reigning Class 4 A runner-up scored a 64-62 victory at the Puget Sound Holiday Classic in a showdown of No. 1-ranked teams in their respective classifications.

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Katie Fiso sent the game into overtime with her long 3-pointer with 2.5 seconds to go - and Garfield held a 59-58 lead before Camas went on the 6-0 run, triggered by Reagan Jamison's three-point play with 50.2 seconds to go.

"It’s always felt like they’ve been kings of the state," Camas girls coach Scott Thompson said. "We knew this was important because you never know when you can get massive games like this on the schedule."

At one point in the first quarter, Garfield led by 11 points - 17-6.

Here are three takeaways from the Camas-Garfield game:

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KATIE FISO NEEDED A BIG MOMENT

For more than two quarters, Fiso - the top-ranked senior recruit who has signed with Oregon - went without a field goal as the Papermakers rallied from a big deficit to take a halftime lead, 30-26.

She wasn't getting a lot of shot attempts. When she did, she was off the mark.

But after Fiso made back-to-back buckets to close the third quarter, it felt she was ready to go off.

And she did - burying a right-side 3-pointer with just seconds to go in regulation to tie the game at 53-53.

She scored all nine of her team's points in overtime - and finished with a game-high 25 points. In the end, it wasn't enough.

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CAMAS CLIMBED OUT OF A BIG HOLE

In the early going, Garfield was on a roll - and the Papermakers were left grasping for answers.

After giving up the first basket, the Bulldogs scored the next nine points, all in a two-minute span.

And Jada Lewis' bucket gave Garfield a 17-6 lead with 1:02 to go in the quarter.

But it took 5:36 of the next quarter for the Papermakers to wipe the deficit away, ending it with an exclamation-point run of three consecutive 3-pointers by Reagan Jamison, Addison Harris and Riley Sanz to grab a 29-23 lead with 41 seconds remaining before halftime.

"Offensively, we came out in a let’s feel-them-out-to-see-how-they-play-us (mode)," when we wanted the girls to be in attack mode," Thompson said. "Our offense generates on girls being aggressive and getting downhill."

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PAPERMAKERS HELD UP ON GLASS

One of the biggest reasons Garfield has been so successful over the past three seasons is its towering, physical rebounding advantage.

That did not play out Monday as the teams were even, 39-39.

Harris led Camas with 23 points and 14 rebounds. Jamison added 15 points and six rebounds. Lewis was fantastic for the Bulldogs with 14 points and 15 rebounds.

"They are definitely a great team. They came out and punched first," Jamison said. "But we had an answer every time."

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