West Salem girls fall in 4th/6th place hoops game 60-45
West Salem girls fall in 4th/6th place hoops game 60-45
Lady Titans nab first hoops trophy for girls in school history
In what could be the first of many such games, the West Salem Lady Titans and Willamette Wolverines did battle in a trophy game at the OSAA 6A basketball championships in Portland. Sadly for West, the first showdown went to Willamette.
Willamette raced out to a 20-11 lead after the first quarter and never relinquished the lead. While both teams had similar shot percentages for the game, the Wolverines put up nine more shots for the game. Willamette’s Isabella Harms led all scorers with 22 points, while Maddy Warberg and Brynn Smith added 13 and 10 points respectively.
West Salem was paced by the its two conference co-players of the year—Lizzy Bennett and Mady Diaz—who tallied 16 and 14 points. Willamette managed to limit Titan freshman phenom Emma Zuniga to just nine points in the contest.
After falling behind 30-21 at halftime, West did cut the Willamette lead to just two points at 36-34 with 49 seconds left in the third quarter following a layup by Bennett, but the Wolverines rattled off five straight to end the period, to give them a 41-34 advantage.
In a low scoring fourth quarter, Willamette slowly built the lead to 10 points by the midway point, and took advantage of three-point misses by the Titans to seal the victory.
Despite to the loss, West Salem (22-6) brought home the first girls basketball trophy with a sixth place finish. Willamette (19-8) finished in fourth place.
Lizzy Bennett was the player of the game for West Salem, collecting seven rebounds in addition to her sixteen points.
Coach Katie Singleton was philosophical about the loss.
“Willamette is a tough team and we weren’t able to get the outcome that we wanted,” Singleton lamented.
“They are a fantastic group and I look forward to seeing all that the seniors do moving forward and I am also excited about the future of our program as well.”