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Tigers proves who's best in the west
Buckaroos use fourth quarters in
tourney win
Sports Calendar
Class
1A St. Paul High School Football State Championship Photos
| Tigers
ring in Christmas win |
NHS gets off to a quick start but hold off Forest Grove Friday to move to
4-0 in the Pac-9 |
By B. Scott Anderson, Newberg
Graphic Sports Editor
Email Scott at banderson@eaglenewspapers.com
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 The Newberg High School girls basketball team could not have asked for a
better Christmas gift — a 4-0 record in the Pac-9 Conference.
On Friday, the Tigers got out to an early lead and then hit their free throws
down the stretch to preserve a 51-42 triumph over the Forest Grove Vikings.
“We were going into a five-day break and we needed this,” said
junior post Vanessa Schmitz, who scored 13 points. “...It’s a great Christmas
present to go 4-0.”
The Vikings scored the first bucket of the game but Newberg reeled off
12-straight points to seize a lead it would never relinquish. With the Tigers up 27-14 at
halftime, the Vikings cut the lead to 39-30 to start the fourth quarter.
It even got a little scary for the Tigers. The Vikings scored the first four
points of the fourth quarter to cut the Newberg lead to five points. But the Tigers
persevered despite hitting just two field goals the entire quarter — a fastbreak
layin by junior guard Alli Jensen with 3:32 remaining and a layin by junior post Holly
Winter with 1:09 left off a pass from junior guard Meghan Leonard.
The Tigers managed to hit 8-of-12 from the free-throw line in the final 2:12,
though. With 45 seconds left, Schmitz hit the front end of a one-and-one, but missed the
second, only to have Leonard snag the offensive rebound. She was fouled and hit two free
throws with 39 seconds left to put the Tigers up 49-40. Senior Joede Leavitt, who scored
10 points, hit a pair of free throws with 12 seconds left to put the capper on the win.
Newberg coach Marianne Funderhide said the game seemed as if it would never
end.
“It seemed like the last three or four minutes of the game took
forever,” she said. “I kept on looking up at the clock and it just seemed to go
really slow.”
It’s the first time in Funderhide’s five years at the helm of the
Tigers that Newberg has started the season 4-0 in the Pac-9.
“That’s a pretty good feeling, a really good feeling,” she
said.
Normally after a Newberg win, the Tigers are a happy, but not jubilant bunch. After
Friday’s win, the Tigers not only jumped around on the court, but screams of joy
could be heard from their locker room for minutes after their game.
“I think it’s partly because of who it is,” Funderhide said of
the celebration. “Forest Grove is always a tough team to play because of the style
they play. They put on that full court pressure, they get you into a double team and
sometimes they’ll triple team you and if you can’t get the ball to the open
person, they’re going to get a steal or you’re going to get a 10-second call.
There’s just a lot of pressure and I think the kids knew going in that they were a
difficult team to play. Secondly, they’re playing for a tie (for) first-place.”
Had the Tigers lost, Forest Grove, Newberg and Tualatin would have all sat
behind Tigard (4-0) at 3-1. Instead, the Tigers won and share the top spot with Tigard and
have a key victory over the Vikings that could come into play later in the season when
playoff seeds are on the line.
“All of those things add up later on in the season and so every game is
a big game ...,” Funderhide said. “The league is pretty competitive and pretty
balanced and so every night you have to be ready to play. I think that’s what I
admire most about these kids is that they’ve come out and been ready every time
they’ve stepped on the court. They’re not on a roller coaster or up and down and
waiting to see how things are going to work and what’s going to happen. They’re
just ready to play and take care of business.”
Funderhide said she started to get worried after the Vikings scored the first
four points of the fourth quarter to cut Newberg’s lead to 39-34. But it wasn’t
just that the Vikings scored, it was the way they scored the buckets.
“They’re a team that even if you’re up by 15 or 20 points,
they’re never going to go away,” she said. “They have some kids who are
really good basketball players who can do some things. They can catch you really quickly
and with that full-court pressure where they come and distract you, they can catch you so
I was a little concerned. It was important that we kept our composure.”
Schmitz said she was not worried when the Vikings began to threaten a
comeback.
“I thought we could stick it out,” she said. “I thought that
we were OK because we had a timeout and we talked about it and got it squared away.”
Jensen said she was a little less convinced that the win was a sure thing.
“I was a little worried, but we just came together and started to
believe,” she said. “We just knew we had to slow the game down; it got really
sloppy.”
Winter, who scored 13 points for the Tigers, said she was glad to see the
team was able to come away with a win after having a large lead slip away.
“I think we kept our heads,” she said. “It’s a big focus
thing. We definitely kept our focus and we kept our heads and it’s a big deal,
especially in games like this when it’s close.”
Newberg had a decisive advantage at the free-throw line. The Tigers hit
22-of-34; the Vikings converted 4-of-11. Schmitz hit 7-of-8 from the line for the Tigers.
“I thought that was critical because you’ve got to take advantage
of all of those opportunities,” Funderhide said.
It was not only Newberg’s offense that guided them to the win, it was
their defense. Funderhide pointed to the defense Leonard and junior Maria Acosta played on
Forest Grove’s Rachel Aina, a sophomore guard. Aina averages 19.6 points per game,
but scored 15 Tuesday, six in the first half.
I thought Meghan and Maria did a great job,” Funderhide said. “We
talk about offense and those numbers a lot and defense you don’t ever hear about, but
if it wasn’t for their defense on her, it could have been a totally different
game.”
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From Dec. 25,
2002, Newberg Graphic
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