By AARON MANAGHAN

Sports editor

TACOMA — Despite having already topped a Lincoln program in a steady decline earlier this season, it was the rebuilding Abes who had the last laugh.

After trailing through three quarters, Lincoln (6-14, 4-10), and namely standout Deanna Trammell, took over in the fourth as the Abes ended CK’s season 54-49 at Stadium High School on Thursday.

“We controlled it but we were never really in charge,” CK coach Denise Baxter said. “We just played poorly. We had too many turnovers and bad decisions. This is a tough one for us.”

Lincoln didn’t actually take the lead until late in the fourth, as CK entered the quarter up 38-28.

But a Trammell free throw with 32 seconds to play gave Lincoln a 50-49 lead they would only build on. Trammell scored a game-high 34 points, including 25 in the second half to lift Lincoln over the Cougars.

“All the teams have gotten better,” Baxter said. “They’ve gotten better and they have a phenomenal player.”

The loss ends not only CK’s season, but the high school careers for six Cougar seniors: Nolan Winger, Lindsey Hart, Katie Lintz, Lauren Forney, Sam Sudy and Mandy Warner.

“They’re a great group of kids,” Baxter said. “That’s the hard part. They want to live for another day. But they’ve just been a sensational group.”

Lintz scored a team-high 14 points for CK while Amanda Evans was right behind with 13. Winger added 10.

But turnovers off of bad passes, some timely poor decisions and too many prolonged scoring droughts kept CK from coming out on top despite the balanced scoring effort.

“It was more about what we didn’t do,” Baxter said of the loss. “We didn’t execute and we didn’t take care of the ball when we needed to.”

With so many seniors graduating, Baxter said the dynamic will change next season.

“That’s quite a bit,” Baxter said. “It’ll be different.”