A learning experience

If anything, the Corvallis High girls basketball team got a bit of a wake-up call on Friday night.

The third-ranked Spartans ran into a West Albany team that went toe-to-toe with them for the first 24 minutes, before they were finally able to pull away for a 45-36 win that kept them in first place in the Mid-Willamette Conference.

With the exception of the Crescent Valley game, the Spartans hadn’t really been tested in conference for more than a quarter or so, and were coming off a 52-point thrashing of Lebanon.

But when you are on top, you better be ready to go from the start, especially against teams that feel they have a chance to beat you.

And when you are on top, sometimes you can feel a little bit like you are entitled to close calls or that you will win even if you don’t play your best. That by simply showing up the other team will roll over and let you win.

The Spartans shared the MWC title last year with West Albany and Wednesday night’s opponent, Silverton.

This year, the Spartans want that title all to themselves.

“We have the mentally that we are going to be first in league and we are going to win,” senior Karly Laney said after Friday’s game. “And what our coach said is we have to win it (emphasis on win). We don’t deserve it, we have to work for it and that’s totally true and we need to step it up and this game was a great game going in hopefully to state that we will be able to pull through in the close games.”

Pulling through in close games has been difficult for the Spartans the past two years.

Last year, the Spartans lost six games by a combined 21 points.

So far this season, the Spartans have lost two games by nine points, including one in double overtime in California.

They did manage to hang on in the fourth quarter against Hermiston back in December, a day after losing by two to Willamette.

But until that game, the Spartans had struggled down the stretch of close games.

Friday night’s win may have done more than just keep the Spartans in first, it may have given them that belief that down the stretch they can execute and win.

Like when Whitney Redberg found Katie Schrock open with a nice pass for a layup to put the Spartans back up eight with just over three minutes to play.

Or by running more than 1:30 off the clock the next trip down and all but causing West Albany to call off the dogs (pardon the pun) and accept the loss.

“We finally just calmed down,” McKenzie Redberg said. “It took a while but we got it done when we needed to.”

As coach Joe Williamson said afterward, it was good for the Spartans to be challenged, but more important that they were challenged and won.

Now the Spartans just need to continue to build off that win on Wednesday.

A win and the Spartans hold a two-game lead over Silverton and West Albany entering the second half of the conference season.

“After coming off a really close game and a tough game, we’ll be more prepared than just killing everybody,” McKenzie Redberg said. “This builds up to that.”