No trap game here

Playing three games in four days is tough for any basketball team.

With that thought in mind, Corvallis High girls basketball coach Joe Williamson had every right to be a little bit concerned with how his team would play on Saturday night.

The Spartans had already disposed of Lebanon on Wednesday night in Williamson’s return to his former school so emotions were high for everyone.

Then they had an easy time at Woodburn on Friday night.

And with rival Crescent Valley, the only team to beat them in first half of Mid-Willamette Conference play, up next on Tuesday, the Spartans appeared ripe for an upset.

Oh, and the girls were having a team sleepover after the game so maybe thoughts could be on painting their shirts and whatever else happens at a sleepover.

Williamson never should have been concerned, although he probably wasn’t all that happy with just a 13-7 lead after the first quarter.

But the Spartans cranked up the defense, got some easy transition layups and pulled away to hand the Dragons a 65-30 defeat that probably ended any thoughts the young team had of competing for a playoff berth this season.

“They got the first two and played really hard but I thought you know what the third game and with the week coming up, this could be one of those games that they fall into a trap, but they came out and played hard,” Williamson said. “They didn’t shoot particularly well or rebound but they played well together.”

That is true. Not many shots fell from the outside, even though the Spartans did hit five 3-pointers. But fastbreak layups, including a couple by Katie Schrock off feeds from Gabe Johnson, pushed the Spartans to a big lead at the half.

“I think our team is really understanding when to be unselfish,” Schrock said. “Gabe gave it up to me a lot tonight and she also took a lot of good shots as did a lot of other girls.”

Added Williamson: “We just kept the pressure on, kept pushing the ball forward and we got some easy buckets in the second quarter to blow it open.”

Schrock and Alaina Adams, who hit two threes, each finished with 11 points while Johnson, who had three 3s, and Karly Laney each added 10 points. It was the second straight night that four players scored in double figures.

Johnson, Adams and Laney made it back-to-back nights in double figures. And against Lebanon, six players had eight points or more.

“I think everyone is pretty confident and they believe in everyone that they’re going to make all the shots that they put up,” Schrock said.

While the offense has been there, so has the defense. The Spartans gave up just 73 points in three games this week.

“We work pretty hard on it at practice and it’s just one of the things we really focus on,” Schrock said. “Defense is what wins the game.”

What also helps win is an unselfishness that puts the team first, and Schrock and Laney showed that this week. Both were willing to play a quarter of JV to allow some JV players an extra quarter to play on varsity if they were needed.

Their time at JV was needed because the JV team doesn’t have big numbers and two members of the varsity were out with injuries.

“I think our team worked really well between JV and varsity that we had enough people swingwise that we could have everyone playing a good amount of minutes that no one really was tired,” Schrock said. “We got to give our starters a break in the Woodburn game so they could come out hard in the Dallas game.”

It seems to working. So will that be the plan from now on?

“I don’t know, I guess maybe,” Williamson said with a laugh. “I’ll probably talk to them and find out. If they like it, we’ll keep doing it.”

Corvallis 65, Dallas 30
DALLAS 7 9 6 8 – 30
CORVALLIS 13 22 16 14 – 65
Dallas: Marissa Angulo 8, M. Stewart 6, Postma 4, Frederick 3, S. Stewart 3, Prince 2, Havig 2, Pola 2, Kutzer
Corvallis: Katie Schrock 11, Alaina Adams 11, Johnson 10, Kar. Laney 10, Gerner 7, Kay. Laney 7, M. Redberg 4, Westly 2, McGowan 1, Hendrickson, Seitz
JV: Corvallis 55, Dallas 46
Frosh: Corvallis 56, Dallas 5