Makana Stone made a quick transition from high school to college, playing a major role for a Whitman College team that went to the Elite Eight. (John Fisken photo)
The end, when it came, arrived in a hail of missed shots.
A tired, racked-by-illness Whitman College women’s basketball squad hit an ice-cold 27% from the field Saturday, falling 65-48 to undefeated St. Thomas in the fourth round of the NCAA D-III basketball championships.
The Elite Eight defeat, in which Coupeville grad Makana Stone racked up six points, five boards and two blocked shots playing against an All-American, ends Whitman’s season at 26-5.
It was the best finish for the Blues since 2014, when they lost in the national title game.
St. Thomas, which entered the tourney ranked #2 in the nation, improves to 31-0 and advances to the Final Four in Grand Rapids, Michigan Mar. 17-18.
Whitman, ranked #16, rolled to five straight postseason wins, capturing the Northwest Conference tourney, then sweeping through its first three foes in the NCAA championships.
But playing on back-to-back nights in frigid St. Paul, Minnesota, on the home court of its opponent, the Blues could not buy a shot.
Whitman’s big three — Chelsi Brewer, Casey Poe and Emily Rommel — who were all averaging double digits in scoring, went a combined 4 of 26 from the field Saturday, while the Blues missed all 15 of their three-point attempts.
Stone, making the 14th start of her freshman season, opened the game on a tear.
She rejected the first shot of the game, then dropped Whitman’s first two buckets. First she hit a sweet jumper from the left side, before neatly dropping in a running layup.
But already Whitman was showing signs of cold shooting, trailing 11-4 early in a game in which it never held the lead.
St. Thomas didn’t pull away quickly, but continued to creep out a bit more here and there.
A 17-10 lead after one quarter turned into a 33-23 margin at the half when St. Thomas gunner Lucia Renikoff drilled a three-ball right on the final play of the first half.
It was a huge crusher, as Whitman had just rallied to within seven after Stone snatched up a loose ball and took it coast-to-coast for a layup with 43 ticks to play.
Whitman got stabbed right in the chest again at the end of the third quarter, as Maddie Wolkow buried a trey with a second to play, lifting St. Thomas to a 48-36 lead.
As the hometown crowd celebrated a second straight buzzer-beater, all the Blues could do was shake their heads and go to the bench.
Rommel, Stone and Poe all fouled out in the fourth quarter in a game that felt like it was called fairly one-sided. But, a look at the stats (22 fouls on Whitman to 17 by St. Thomas) turns out to be much closer than expected.
The pride of Coupeville had a highly-successful debut season in college ball, playing in 30 of 31 games (concussion protocol kept her benched one night).
While on the floor, Stone poured in 208 points (6.9 a night) and hauled down 191 rebounds (6.4).
She was #2 on the team in rebounding and field goal percentage (hitting 48.4% on 92 of 190 shots), while racking up 31 assists, 16 steals and 13 blocks.
Stone played 576 minutes, the most of any of Whitman’s seven freshmen.
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