OAKVILLE — An early deficit crushed the hopes of the Oakville girls basketball team here Monday night, as it lost its loser-out Sub-District game to Taholah 59-43.
The Chitwhins outscored the Acorns 14-0 after one quarter of play, which was an uncharacteristic start for Tracy Bray’s team.
“That pretty much killed us,” she said. “We’re just a young, inexperienced team. We had the jitters.
“Taholah goes to districts every year,” she added. “Our season is over. I’m proud of the girls, they rallied back from a huge deficit.”
The Acorns had to postpone any sort of immediate comeback, as Taholah went on to score a game-high 18 points in the second period, going into halftime up 32-11.
Oakville then forged its way back into the game, and ended up with a single-digit deficit midway through the fourth quarter.
“We put them on the line to try and get the ball back,” Bray said, “but we couldn’t catch up.”
Taholah shot 50 percent from the free throw line, but that was on 32 attempts.
Acorn freshman Jordan Merriman and Chitwhin junior Alice Johnstone score 19 each. Merriman also pulled down 13 rebounds, and teammate Skylar Bracero had 15 boards to go with 9 points.
Each team took 58 shots in the game, and Taholah made 19 to Oakville’s 17.
The Acorns end their season with a 10-5 record, which is a turnaround from last season’s record of 5-11.
“It’s a huge difference for these girls to turn around like that and win games,” Bray said.
Oakville loses seniors Tammy Klatush and Haylea Hutchings.
“Both of them did the best they could all year,” Bray said.
Second Half Rally Propels Navigators Past Trojans
LACEY — Northwest Christian shot 10 of 15 from the field in the second half and outlasted the Trojans 52-38 here Monday night in nonleague girls basketball action.
The Navigators, who are currently in first place in the Pacific 2B League, took a 3-point lead into intermission, then outscored the Trojans 17-12 in the third quarter and 15-9 in the final frame.
“They shot really well in the second half and we just came out flat,” said Pe Ell coach Dawna Robinson. “They had the momentum going their way at the end of the game.”
The Trojans struggled from the perimeter on Monday night, shooting just 1 of 20 from beyond the arc.
Alissa Brooks-Johnson scored a team-high 17 points while also leading the Trojans with 8 rebounds.
“Alissa was the player who came to play tonight,” said Robinson. “She was all over the floor diving after balls and working real hard, it’s what we need from all the girls.”
Northwest Christian shot 21 of 41 from the field for the game and held Pe Ell to just 14 of 53 shooting.
Kami Bates led the Navigators with a game-high 23 points, while Taylor Bodine chipped in with 11 points and Erica Edwards finished with 10.
Emilly Denney scored 9 points for the Trojans and Karly Bateman grabbed 7 rebounds.
The Trojans, who finished the Central 2B League regular season in fifth place, will now wait to see how the rest of the Pacific 2B league season plays out this week before they know who they’ll get in the opening round of the District IV 2B Tournament next week in Centralia.
Pe Ell will be the No. 5 seed from the C2BL and will play the No. 4 seed from the P2BL.
