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No.
6-ranked Bucks
falter against Eagles |
The St. Paul girls basketball team suffers a 45-36 loss
to Damascus Christian Tuesday |
By B. Scott Anderson, Newberg
Graphic sports editor
E-mail Scott at banderson@eaglenewspapers.com
|
ST. PAUL — The St. Paul High School girls basketball team defeated
Damascus Christian during the regular season last year. However, the Bucks lost to
Damascus at districts.
Coach Dave Wakefield hopes this year the opposite will happen. Damascus went
into St. Paul Tuesday and beat the No. 6-ranked Bucks 45-36 in a game that was close until
the fourth quarter.
Jenna Schneider’s three-pointer near the end of the third quarter tied
the game at 30-30, but that would be the last points St. Paul would score until Megan Wolf
hit one of two free throws with 1:24 left in the game. During that span Damascus
methodically increased its lead to 39-30, consistently breaking down the Bucks’
defense.
“We just didn’t play with any confidence offensively,” said
coach Mike Murphy. “And defensively, they’re well-coached and I knew they were
going to do exactly what (Wakefield) wanted them to do and they broke down our defense a
couple times and (our) kids lost a lot of confidence. We gotta get over that.”
The biggest problem for St. Paul is when they had a decent shot, it seemed
rushed. Whereas Damascus would make three or four passes before taking a shot.
“They were patient offensively, much more than we were,” Murphy
said, “and they were able to score when we struggled offensively.”
St. Paul attempted a last-minute comeback. Vanessa Holsberry nailed a three
with 1:10 remaining, and Wolf hit two free throws with 46 seconds left to get the score to
42-36, but that’s as close as the game would get. Damascus hit three free throws to
seal the nonleague victory.
“I wanted them to be patient and take the best shot they could,”
Wakefield said. “They’re free to take outside shots, but take what the defense
gives them. I also realize this is just one game. I know how good St. Paul is and you have
to come back and beat them again at the end of the year.”
Damascus is on the other side of the Casco League and regular season games
are not counted as league games; however, the teams will meet at districts.
Early in the game Damascus took a 5-0 lead, but a Holsberry jumper, a Jordan
Murphy trey and a Sophie Krier bucket tied the game at 7-7. The teams traded 4-0 runs to
start the second quarter and the Bucks got their first lead of the game, 17-15, on a
Crystal Krahmer bucket with 3:44 left in the half. It was the their only lead.
It stayed close throughout the third period. Damascus took a 23-17 lead, but
Holsberry’s two free throws and bucket along with a Wolf steal and layup brought the
Bucks to within one at 24-23. A Damascus three gave the visitors a 27-23 lead, but
back-to-back buckets by Murphy and Krier capped an 8-3 run to tie the game at 27-27. St.
Paul, however, went into an offensive funk, including going one of 17 from the field in
the fourth quarter.
“Mentally, we got to understand that one game is one game and you
improve and move one,” Murphy said. “We’ll fine-tune our defense a little
so we don’t give up those little inside shots and make teams beat us from the
outside.”
Holsberry paced St. Paul with 11 points and Murphy scored seven. Amanda
McCluskey was nearly unstoppable, scoring 20 points for the Eagles.
St. Paul 42, Banks 23: The St. Paul girls stepped up not one, but two
classifications last Friday and took on Class 3A Banks last Friday at Banks and came away
with a 42-23 nonleague victory.
“We shot the ball pretty well,” said coach Mike Murphy. “We
still have a long way to go. We turn the ball over way too much, but the kids played
well.”
The Bucks ran out to a 19-9 lead after the first period on 9-of-13 shooting.
They led 27-13 at half-time on 12 of 18 shooting.
“That’s a pretty good half, especially for us,” Murphy said.
St. Paul led 30-15 after three quarters before putting the game completely
out of reach with a 12-7 fourth quarter advantage.
“We got some good things out of it,” Murphy said of playing Banks.
“They were much bigger than us, which is not uncommon and we had a hard time
rebounding the ball.”
Megan Wolf led the Bucks in scoring for the third straight game with 15
points. She was 6-of-6 shooting in the first quarter and had five steals and two assists.
Jordan Murphy had 11 points and Jenna Schneider had eight. St. Paul forced Banks into 36
turnovers, including 11 in the first quarter, and limited the Braves to six buckets from
the field. |
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From Dec. 20,
2003, Newberg Graphic
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