Newport coach Travis Whitaker likes his team’s odds when they play stifling defense.

Not even Whitaker could have imagined just how stifling they would be Thursday against Puyallup.

Newport trailed going into the second half of their loser-out game against the Vikings, but held Puyallup scoreless for almost 13 minutes and went on an 18-5 run that keyed a 48-33 victory.

“It was every girl stepping up and taking pride in our defense,” said Newport senior Betsy Kingma, who led all scorers with 26 points and added a game-high five blocks. “It’s a very team defensive effort.”

An Ema Hetlerovic basket gave Puyallup a 26-20 lead in the third quarter but the Vikings would not score another bucket for the next 12:44. Newport (20-6) forced Puyallup to turn the ball over 14 times during the scoreless span.

“I thought everyone was on point,” Whitaker said. “When we do that, we’re a very good defensive team.”

Newport scored 18 points off of Puyallup’s 26 turnovers. Randi Boseman scored eight points for the Knights and Chanel Cambronero added five.

Puyallup (18-10) was led by Hetlerovic, who scored 10 points.

Newport will play Moses Lake tomorrow for the right to play in the fifth-place game.

“These girls have played together forever and just love each other,” Whitaker said. “They wanted all four days together to end this thing.”