Bouncing back with a win

McKenzie Redberg freely admits she is a sore loser. She hates to lose at anything, probably even tiddlywinks.

So when she and her Corvallis High girls basketball teammates lost a 58-54 decision to West Albany last Friday night, Redberg was one of the most frustrated players.

The loss cost the Spartans a chance to take a two-game lead in the Mid-Willamette Conference standings with four games to play, and dropped them into a tie with West Albany at 8-2.

So it wasn't surprising Redberg would not only be ready to play Wednesday night against South Albany, but that she would be ready to dominate the 1-20 Rebels.

And dominate she did.

So did her teammates.

Redberg hit four 3-pointers in the first quarter and had more points (19) at the half than the Rebels would score in four quarters (17) as the Spartans rebounded with a 58-17 thumping at Spartan Gym.

"It stuck with me a lot," Redberg said of the West Albany loss. "Everybody was like that's not going to happen ever again."

Redberg finished with a game-high 21 and the starters got to take the fourth quarter off with a big game at third-place Silverton looming on Friday.

"When she gets confident, watch out," CHS coach Joe Williamson said of Redberg.

While the offensive output was solid, Williamson was pleased with the way the Spartans played defensively on Wednesday.

South Albany went scoreless the first 9:33 and scored just six points in the first half.

"I can't complain about it," Williamson said of the scoreless first quarter.

Williamson said he no concerns about a sluggish performance against the Rebels, especially after the tough loss last Friday.

"It was good to get a bad taste out of our mouth," he said."Now we are really looking to Friday. The team is pretty motivated and I think we'll have a good game on Friday night."

Added Redberg: "It was a huge win, coming out showing that we were just off Friday, coming out and showing we're not done yet, we're not finished yet, we're not going to go out without a fight. We're going to come back and take the league back."

Redberg said the Spartans are confident, especially after going through a tough week last week.

"Against CV we showed what we can do as a team," she said of the 55-39 win to end an 11-game losing streak against their crosstown rivals. "Against West we showed what we shouldn't do as a team. We know how we have to play in order to win."

Another performance like Wednesday night and the Spartans could take a leg up in the race for first place, and put the pressure on West Albany, which travels to Silverton next Tuesday.

Corvallis 58, South Albany 17
SOUTH ALBANY 0 6 9 2 -- 17
CORVALLIS 18 16 18 6 -- 58
South Albany: Sharayah Lehman 6, Halie Bethards 6, A. Trower 2, Sherman 2, Edmiston 1, Swartzendruber, Weber, Bartlett, Mitchell, Brown, Dixon, Prince, Schneider, C. Trower
Corvallis: McKenzie Redberg 21, Adams 11, Johnson 7, Westly 6, Seitz 5, Kay. Laney 4, Schrock 2, Hendrickson 2, Gerner, Kar. Laney
JV: Corvallis 41, South Albany 30