In need of a little confidence

For as far as the Corvallis High girls basketball team has come over the past 18 months, there are still moments where doubt can creep in.

Being told you are a good team and believing it can be two different things when you are on the basketball court, especially when you face an equally talented team.

While the No. 3-ranked Spartans made a statement to themselves in some ways with Tuesday night's 69-39 blowout of Wilsonville, doubt may still have been lingering as they headed into Friday afternoon's showdown with No. 2 Willamette at the Sherwood Yuletide tournament.

That lack of confidence was evident during stretches of Friday's game. And when the dust had settled, the Spartans were on the short end of a 46-44 score.

"I don't think anyone will admit it, but I think we are still mentally thinking it's Willamette," senior Kayla Laney said. "Obvioulsy we can beat them; I know we can beat them."

Senior point guard Gabe Johnson agreed.

"I just think sometimes we might doubt ourselves," she said. "We've never really become like a team before, like a top state team. It's the first time for us and we're all getting used to it."

Corvallis and Willamette played a number of close games during summer league action.

Friday was no different.

Corvallis led 14-13 after the first quarter and 20-19 at the half, despite missing all six free-throw attempts, including the front end of two one-and-ones. As coach Joe Williamson said at the half, you hit six of those and you lead by seven, instead of one, at the half.

The Spartans were just 5 of 13 from the line for the game.

"Free throws made the difference," Laney said. "If we would have made our free throws we would have beat them by at least 10 or more."

Despite the apparent lack of confidence at times during the game, the Spartans still had a chance to win the game.

Willamette held a 44-35 lead with 5:06 to play but the Spartans managed to fight back. Alaina Adams had a basket and McKenzie Redberg followed with a steal and layup. Redberg then scored off a steal by Katie Schrock to make it 44-41 with 3:04 left.

After Willamette hit two free throws to make it 46-41, Johnson hit a 3 from the corner with 9 seconds left. Another missed free throw by Willamette gave CHS a chance to tie the game.

Laney grabbed the rebound of the missed free throw and got the ball to Johnson, who drove the lane but saw her layup attempt miss allowing Willamette to escape with the win.

"We shouldn't have been down nine," WIlliamson said. "But it happens. We called timeout and talked about what we had to do to get back in it and the girls really worked hard that last (five) minutes to make it a game where we could have won it."

Added Johnson: "It shows that we don't give up. We work as hard as we can until the buzzer rings and the game is over."

Corvallis led 20-19 at the half but had a hard time containing Willamette's Sunny Greinacher in the third as the Wolverines took a 35-32 lead. The Wolverines' 6-foot-4 post scored 11 of her game-high 20 points in the quarter. She had nine in the first half but missed some time after picking up her third foul.

"Mentally, what coach would say is we had a brain fart, if you will," Laney said. "We didn't have helpside a couple of times. We let the ball in too deep a couple of times. The little things are what made the big things enough (and why) we lost by two."

Johnson said the score is one indicator of how the game went, but not the only thing that the players should take away from the game.

"The score doesn't matter," she said. "I think a score should be how hard you play and if you can stay in it and (if you can) stay in it and win it then it just shows how much passion (you have) for the game."

Laney had a similar thought and tried to put the game and late comeback in perspective.

"I think we've grown a lot as a team and just to be able to do that especially since in the past few games we've blown teams out of the water," she said. "I'm glad we were able to physically and mentally be able to come back like that. It shows a lot of growth."

But it still has to be frustrating to know you are so close to winning but to come up short again.

"We had a toughshooting night," Williamson said. "If we could have shot the ball even remotely to what we're capable of, things would have been different.

"They're a good team, we're a good team and it was a good game."

So what happens next?

The Spartans will be able to answer that question on Saturday when they take on Hermiston.

"We're definately going to take it out on the other team," Johnson said.

Willamette 46, Corvallis 44
WILLAMETTE 13 6 16 11 -- 46
CORVALLIS 14 6 12 12 -- 44
Willamette: Sunny Greinacher 20, Bruns 14, Smith 6, Mahaffie 4, Collins 2, Garner, Harper, Crane, Munson, Robertson
Corvallis: Gabe Johnson 15, Adams 8, M. Redberg 8, Schrock 7, Kay. Laney 4, Kar. Laney 2, Gerner, W. Redberg