By CASEY OLSON, The Mirror
The Thomas Jefferson girls basketball team remained unbeaten with a 57-47 win over Kent-Meridian Tuesday night.
The Raiders’ 4-0 start comes a season after TJ finished 7-13 overall and 3-11 in the South Puget Sound League North Division.
Jefferson was led by the 16 points of Sofia Malamura against Kent-Meridian. The senior has scored in double figures in all four of TJ’s games this season. Keely Nelson-Rivers chipped in 11 points and Stacey Albrecht had 10 in the victory.
The Raiders are averaging 62.5 points a game and are winning games by an average of 25.5 points. Jefferson beat Emerald Ridge by 40, Stadium by 31 and Beamer by 21 during its non-league schedule.
Last year, the Raiders never scored more than 55 points in a game and tallied 50 or more points only three times.
Malamura is leading the Raiders in scoring at 13.3 points a game and sophomore Hannah Kiyohara is chipping in 10.3 a game.
The Federal Way girls ran into the second-ranked Kentwood Conquerors Tuesday night and were blown away, 90-49. The loss dropped the Eagles to 3-2 on the year.
Freshman sensation Talia Walton did most of the damage for Federal Way. The 6-1 Walton poured in a game-high 28 points and is averaging 17.4 points a game.
Decatur and Beamer remained winless on the season with a pair of losses Tuesday. The Gators were beaten by Kentlake, 48-41, and Beamer lost to Graham-Kapowsin, 57-30.
Sarah Quantz led Decatur with 12 points and Kaylah Scott tallied 15 points for the Titans.
Gymnastics
The Todd Beamer Titans scored an impressive 155.4 points in a three-team meet against Rogers (146.8) and Kentridge (142.75).
Beamer’s Cassie Peterson finished second in the all-around with 33.5 points. Rogers’ Chelsea Whitton won with 33.8. Peterson won both the vault (8.5) and the floor exercise (9.0) and finished third on the uneven parallel bars (8.2). Kaylyn Borden ended up third on the vault (8.1), third on the floor (8.65) and tied with teammate Jessica Freeborn for second on the balance beam (8.4).
Sports editor Casey Olson: 925-5565, sports@fedwaymirror.com
