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Tigers fall to Pendleton in finals,
take home second at Best of the West
Knights cruise past Bucks in fourth
quarter
Canby squads down Tigers
Bucks sprint past Knights
Tigers
can't get past
No. 4 Pacers |
The NHS girls basketball team stays within striking
distance of Lakeridge, but falls 88-69 |
By B. Scott Anderson, Newberg
Graphic sports editor
E-mail Scott at banderson@eaglenewspapers.com
|
 The Newberg High School girls
basketball team got an up-close-and-personal look Monday at why Lakeridge is the
state’s No. 4-ranked team — Jillian Harmon.
Harmon, a junior, and last year’s state player of the year, didn’t
play due to disciplinary reasons in the first quarter but still managed 33 points in three
quarters to guide the Pacers past the Tigers, 88-69.
Newberg (3-4 overall, 1-3 Pac-9 Conference) fell behind early but bounced
back to take a 15-14 lead after senior Joede Leavitt hit a 3-pointer from the corner with
nine seconds remaining in the first quarter.
Lakeridge canned a 3-pointer of its own as the buzzer sounded to take a 17-15
lead into the second quarter. Then Harmon entered the game and the Pacers outscored the
Tigers 28-19 in the quarter; Newberg found itself in a 45-34 halftime deficit.
“She just changes the whole dynamics of the game,” said Newberg
coach Marianne Funderhide.
The Tigers were lucky not to be down by more points at the half. With 56
seconds remaining Leavitt drilled a 3-pointer; senior Allison Jensen scored a layin with
24 seconds left. Newberg got the ball back with 10 seconds left when Jensen heaved up a
shot from halfcourt. The shot fell short, right into senior teammate Maria Acosta’s
hands. Acosta put up a shot and was fouled. She hit two free throws with no time remaining
on the clock.
Lakeridge outscored Newberg 19-13 in the third quarter but the Tigers cut the
Pacer lead to 47-39 with 6:07 remaining when Jensen canned a long jumper.
The Tigers couldn’t get any closer, though. NHS senior post Vanessa
Schmitz picked up her fourth foul before two Newberg turnovers led to five quick Lakeridge
points. Suddenly, the Pacers assumed a 52-39 lead with 4:41 to go in the quarter.
The Tigers, who connected on eight 3-pointers in the game, constructed
one of their best offensive quarters of the season, scoring 22 points in the third. The
only problem was that Lakeridge scored 24.
Jensen led the Tigers with 15 points. Schmitz added 13, 10 in the first
quarter. Seniors Meghan Leonard and Holly Winter added seven points apiece.
“We’ve got the balanced scoring we want and that just makes it
harder for teams to defend,” Funderhide said.
For the majority of the game, the contest seemed to be closer than the score
indicated.
“I would have liked to have the deficit cut down a little bit,”
Funderhide said of Lakeridge’s margin of victory.
The Tigers came into Monday’s contest off of a 67-63 victory over
Tualatin Friday.
Leonard led the Tigers with 15 points; Jensen chipped in 13. Leavitt scored
11 for the Tigers and sophomore Celeste Campbell added eight. Both Schmitz and Acosta
chipped in seven points apiece for the Tigers.
Funderhide said the key in the game was to stop Tualatin’s Lindsay
Mengis, last year’s Pac-9 Conference player of the year. Funderhide used a
combination of Leonard and Acosta to shadow Mengis all night. Mengis was held to 11
points, nine in the first half.
“You’ve got to stop her to be successful,” Funderhide said.
The Tigers utilized a critical fourth quarter performance to capture the win.
Newberg went 9-of-10 from the free-throw line in the quarter to outscore Tualatin 24-18 in
the stanza.
In the fourth, Newberg found itself down by six but back-to-back 3-pointers
by Jensen and Leavitt tied the game before the Tigers eventually took the lead. Jensen
went 4-of-4 from the line in the final minutes. Leavitt went 2-of-2 from the line in the
closing minutes.
“It was a real team effort defensively,” Funderhide said.
“Everybody stuck to the game plan. The kids did a good job of executing and we took
what they gave us.”
Tualatin, a team that was 3-0 in the conference before the loss, came into
the game having beat Tigard, one of the league favorites, earlier in the week.
“It was a big win and it was nice going into the (Christmas) break and
we just need to build on it,” Funderhide said. “I’m happy with our
preseason. I think we’ve done what we need to do to prepare for league.”
The Tigers, who’ve suffered two of its four losses to ranked teams,
return to action Monday at a tournament at South Eugene High School. In a 10:30 a.m.
contest, Newberg will take on Corvallis. |
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From Dec. 24,
2003, Newberg Graphic
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