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Bucks struggle in second half in loss to
Crane
Father-son battle goes into overtime
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NHS girls crumble in fourth quarter, fall to Apollos 45-39 |
The Newberg girls basketball team is outscored 15-1
in the fourth quarter Wednesday |
By B. Scott Anderson, Newberg
Graphic sports editor
E-mail Scott at banderson@eaglenewspapers.com
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GRESHAM — The only thing that
could have kept the Newberg High School girls basketball team from a
win Wednesday was not scoring in the fourth quarter.
The Tigers scored but it wasn’t nearly enough. A Jessica Parrish
free throw with 2:47 remaining in the game was the lone NHS point in
the final quarter as the Tigers suffered a 45-39 loss to Sunset
Wednesday at the Centennial Holiday Invitational Tournament. In the
fourth, Newberg was outscored 15-1.
For the first three quarters, Newberg stymied Sunset. The Apollos
would go several possessions and not score while the Tigers built
their lead. But midway through the third quarter the Apollos cut
Newberg’s eight-point lead to two with 56 seconds remaining when a
basket by Crissy Watts pulled Sunset within 30-28.
The Tigers rebounded though. After Michelle Hildreth got an
offensive rebound, Sara Zahler went 1 of 2 from the line. Hildreth
then hit Parrish who knocked down a three-pointer to give the Tigers
a 34-28 lead.
Parrish, who led the Tigers with 22 points, then drove to the
basket and as time expired was fouled by Watts, who was then called
for a technical foul after slamming the ball off the floor in
response to the call. Parrish calmly swished all four free throws to
give the Tigers a 38-30 lead to start the fourth quarter.
The fourth quarter is where everything went wrong for Newberg.
Sunset’s full-court press gave the Tigers fits.
“They threw out that full-court press and it rattled us a little,”
said NHS coach Marianne Funderhide. “That’s when the momentum of the
game changed. They picked up their intensity and it wasn’t like our
intensity went down, but we just didn’t take advantage of the
opportunities.”
The Newberg defense stood firm and the Apollos weren’t able to tie
the game at 39-39 when Laura Cook hit two free throws with 1:49
remaining in the game.
Newberg then committed turnovers on its next two possessions and it
was only a matter of time before Sunset took advantage of the NHS
miscues. Katie Schrage’s hoop, coupled with a pair of free throws
and a basket by Courtney Santoro in the final 1:18 proved too much
for the Tigers to overcome.
“I think it got a little ragged and we let ourselves get a little
bit out of control,” Funderhide said. “I think there was pushing
both ways, but our kids didn’t have any help and didn’t respond with
the composure we needed to respond with, in terms of being strong
with the ball and making sure we were taking it to the hole strong.”
Funderhide said sometimes teams have to go through the process of
holding a lead throughout the game and then figure out a way to hold
off the opposition’s comeback attempt.
“We’ve not put ourselves in that position a lot,” she said. “If we
can just regroup and refocus, we can learn from this. I think with
each game they’re getting better.
“Sunset’s a good team, too. They beat West Salem by one (Tuesday)
and West Salem lost to Oregon City by seven. So what does that say?”
On Tuesday, the Tigers fell 51-38 to Gresham in the opening-round
of the tournament. Funderhide said Gresham had a 6-foot-3 post
player and a few solid outside shooters. When the Tigers would
double-team the post player, she would pass it to the hot shooter
who would then knock down the shot.
“They also hurt us on the offensive boards because we were a little
outsized and we also didn’t shoot the ball nearly as well as we did
(Wednesday),” Funderhide said. “That kind of dug us a hole.”
Newberg went 16 of 24 from the line; Gresham had 10 attempts from
the line.
Zahler led the Tigers with 11 points against Gresham and Melinda
Lee chipped in nine points. Kirstin Lee added eight for the Tigers.
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From
Jan. 1, 2005, Newberg Graphic
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