Sealing a playoff berth

It's official: The Corvallis High girls basketball team is in the playoffs.

With Tuesday night's 60-30 Mid-Willamette Conference victory over Dallas, the Spartans assured themselves one of the four berths from the conference.

Even more important to the Spartans, they have a chance to finish as conference champions. That's because they received the help they needed from Silverton, which routed West Albany 71-39 on Tuesday to forge a three-way tie atop the standings.

Corvallis (17-6, 10-3), Silverton (13-11, 10-3) and West Albany (19-5, 10-3) each have one more game on Thursday. Silverton faces Dallas, West Albany takes on rival South Albany, and Corvallis is home against Lebanon.

For senior Taylor Westly, Tuesday's win was special.

"It's great," she said. "This is the first time I've been on a varsity basektball team and made it to the playoffs and its great to be here, especially having the chance to be first in league my senior year. I really like it."

For first-year coach Joe Williamson, who should earn coach of the year honors in the conference, Tuesday's win solidified what he already knew about his team: That it is a playoff-caliber group.

"That makes me happy," he said of wrapping up a playoff berth.

It wasn't an easy start for the Spartans, who led just 9-7 after the first quarter. They were still in a dogfight with the Dragons until Katie Schrock and McKenzie Redberg hit back-to-back threes late in the first half to put the Spartans up 21-9 at intermission.

Williamson and the coaching staff wanted the rest of the team to bring the same kind of energy on both ends of the floor that Redberg did in the first half. She had nine points and was all over the court defensively.

"I didn't feel like we played awful, I felt like Dallas played very competitive for a quarter and we didn't lose our heads," Williamson said. "Even though it seemed like a slow start, I thought they played well and we still kept our heads and played consistent. As soon as we got them reeling back a little bit we broke it open."

Break it open they did. Alaina Adams buried a three, hit a layup off a pass from Redberg, Redberg had a steal and layup and Adams scored again on a layup off a pass from Gabe Johnson and just like that it was 30-11.

"I think we're always slow starting off, especially against rough teams," Westly said. But after half the Spartans "took it from there and ran with it."

Schrock connected on five 3-pointers, Redberg two and Adams one as the Spartans used eight 3s to break the game open. It was a far different result than Friday night, when the Spartans were just 3-for-15 in a 42-39 loss to Silverton on the road.

Redberg finished with 24, Schrock 16 and Adams nine to lead the Spartans.

"We had a great shooting night," Williamson said.

The Spartans could use another strong shooting night on Thursday. They used a 20-1 advantage in the first quarter to jump on Lebanon the first meeting. They know it won't be as easy come Thursday as the Warriors need a win to earn a trip to the playoffs for the second straight season.

Corvallis 60, Dallas 30
CORVALLIS 9 12 18 21 -- 60
DALLAS 7 2 9 12 -- 30
Corvallis: McKenzie Redberg 24, Schrock 16, Adams 9, Gerner 6, Kar.Laney 3, Johnson 2, Seitz, McGowan, Westly, W. Redberg, Kay. Laney
Dallas: Prince 7, Havig 6, Bridges 5, Kutzer 4, Frederick 2, S. Stewart 2, Pola 2, Angelo 1, Postma 1, M. Stewart, Bitzer
JV: Corvallis 46, Dallas 33
Frosh: Corvallis 52, Dallas 14