Taking out their frustrations

Several players left practice Monday night feeling a bit frustrated with the way the previous two hours had gone.

It was not the most productive and fun time over the four-plus weeks the girls had been together.

Coach Joe Williamson had yelled a bit more than usual and wasn't around at the end as the players shot free throws and ran for misses.

They even had a homework assignment for that night from basketball. They had to write down why making excuses wasn't the right thing to do whenever Williamson tried to coach them.

"We just talked about maybe not making excuses for everything that I try to correct and coach them on," Williamson said Tuesday night. "It's not always unplanned to not have a smooth practice before a game, let's put it that way."

The experience proved to turn out positive for most. In fact, many of the notecards turned into much longer papers.

"While you are writing why excuses aren't good, you're like, 'This is what I need to do to be better,' " junior Katie Schrock said. "It's going to be a better season if we all step up and know what we're doing wrong, fix it and play even harder."

The lesson seemed to pay dividends right away.

The Spartans took that frustration out on Wilsonville, a team that finished third in the state tournament a season ago.

Behind Schrock's 26 points, 18 of which came on 3-pointers, the Spartans rolled to a 69-39 road win that makes them 2-0.

The Spartans had plenty of motivation on Tuesday night.

"I think that a lot of us were kind of fired up about having a bad practice," senior Karly Laney said. "It just kind of brings the whole entire team down. I know I was upset, I knew Z was upset and we talked before the game and said, 'Let's just show the coaches that we had an off practice and prove it with the game.' "

The Spartans certainly proved they are a team to be reckoned with. The Wildcats barely had a chance to get started. And after Wilsonville missed two free throws 43 seconds into the game, the Spartans put on the pressure and scored eight points in 50 seconds to seize the advantage they needed.

Four players -- Schrock, Gabe Johnson, McKenzie Redberg and Alaina Adams -- had baskets in that 8-0 run, and when Kayla Laney scored at 4:27, the Spartans had five baskets by five different players and a 10-2 lead.

"They came out very aggressive," Williamson said. "We talked to them about coming out aggressive and taking it to them. Throw the first punch and keep punching."

That's exactly what the Spartans did.

Still, the Wildcats were within striking distance with 4:50 left in the first half, down just 24-17.

But the Spartans used a 14-1 spurt, with Karly Laney scoring six points and Schrock and Redberg each hitting 3s during the stretch to make it a 38-18 lead at the half.

"It was really nice," Schrock said of the run. "When we came in the huddle with like 2:38 left on the clock, Joe was like, "If you step on it right now you could just blow them out and come into the second half and go even harder, and there's no looking back.' That's kind of what we did."

The Spartans remained focused at the half.


"It was good but when we walked into the locker room none of us really knew what the score was or anything," Karly Laney said. "We just kind of knew that we were ahead by more than 10 I guess."

Both teams had a hard time scoring at the start of the third quarter, and Wilsonville managed to cut the deficit to 41-24 with 4:53 left in the third.

But then came another Spartans run, this time it was 13-0 before a 3-pointer at the buzzer ended that streak. Again, five players scored in the run with Adams, Johnson, Schrock, Syree Gerner and Karly Laney scoring.

"Last year we were learning just about competing and learning to win and this year I think we're learning how to put pressure on people and keep the pressure on them and try to extend the lead," Williamson said.

Schrock's 3 with 15 seconds left in the third put CHS up 53-24. She then hit back-to-back 3s to open the fourth quarter, and put CHS up 64-30 with 5:37 left with her sixth 3 of the game.

"I knew she was taking a lot (of shots)," Karly Laney said of Schrock. "Usually I was screening for her so my back was to her and I heard everybody scream and I'm like, 'She made it.' She lit it up second half."

It's the second straight game that Schrock has led the Spartans in scoring. She and Johnson each had 13 in a win over West Salem last week. The uptempo game the Spartans displayed on Tuesday was right up Schrock's alley.

"I don't like slow games at all," she said. "It doesn't take me out, but I just feel like everything is in slow motion, so when it's going faster I feel like I can play without thinking."

While the offensive night was obviously solid, so too was the defense for the most part. Again, the Corvallis posts were undersized with Wilsonville boasting posts that were 6-foot (Kellie Krueger) and 6-3 (Ashley Walters). Throw in 5-11 Megan Arnoldy and the Wildcats definately held the size advantage.

"The big thing was the posts were very good and they could have played better but something was off and they weren't clicking which gave us a step ahead," Karly Laney said. "(Our) wings were playing great D and they couldn't get the ball into the posts. We just worked as a unit on defense.

"The posts were fronting the other posts pretty good. There were a couple points where we could have been in front of the posts better. I think we had good help side but one thing we were having a hard time was the transition of help help side. We had a little problem with that. Also getting back on D a couple of times, the other posts would switch up who would take the ball out and we would get confused and the other post had an easy breakaway.

"For the most part I think we played very good defense."

The Spartans will need to play with that same intensity and passion on Friday when they square off against No. 2-ranked Willamette at 3:30 p.m. in the Sherwood tournament. The teams have had some spirited games over the summer and Willamette has a transfer post that could make a difference.

"I'm pretty pumped for Willamette," Karly Laney said. "Definately think that we can compete with Willamette. I think that it will be a very good game and a tough game. We're just going to have to stick with it and keep our minds in the game and not let fouls or shots or anything get in the way."

However, the outcome won't be a deal-breaker either way.

"I think if we win it doesn't make us any better than we are right now and if we lose it doesn't make us any worse," Williamson said. "I know the girls are competitive and want to win the game. I'm competitive and love a challenge and this is definately a challenge. Win or lose we still have to beat that team maybe at state. It's more a matter that we are getting better. I'm not going to lie, I want to beat them."

Corvallis 69, Wilsonville 39
CORVALLIS 16 22 15 16 -- 69
WILSONVILLE 9 9 9 12 -- 39
Corvallis: Katie Schrock 26, Adams 9, Kar. Laney 8, M. Redberg 8, Gerner 8, Johnson 7, Kay. Laney 2, Clark 1, Hendrickson, McGowan, W. Redberg
Wilsonville: Kellie Krueger 11, Arnoldy 10, Clark 9, Walters 3, Riewald 2, Moore 2, Bullock 2, Cohn, Rhodes, Easterly, Alberts, Britsch
JV: Wilsonville 61, Corvallis 58
Freshman: Corvallis won