Mark James could only sit on the bench and think about the statement he had made at halftime as the final minutes ticked off the clock on Wednesday night.
An assistant coach for the Corvallis High girls basketball team, James told the players at the break that if they could hold Dallas to 15 points or under for the game, he would buy them pizza.
The Spartans led 37-6 and had played one of their best halves of the season. They hit shots, made solid passes, played great defense and rebounded as well as they had all season.
James wanted to see that continue so he asked coach Joe Williamson if he could make that stipulation.
Williamson had no problem with it and James told the team.
The players were ready to rise to the challenge.
Dallas scored four points in third quarter and Lily Prince scored five quick points for the Dragons to open the fourth quarter and all of a sudden they had 15 points. And there was still nearly seven minutes to play.
It looked like James would be off the hook for pizza.
Or so everyone thought.
The Spartans kept the defensive pressure up and shut out the Dragons the rest of the way in what turned out to be a 70-15 Mid-Willamette Conference win that keeps the Spartans (15-3, 8-1) tied with Silverton for first place.
West Albany improved to 7-2 with a 39-37 win over Crescent Valley and South Albany knocked off Lebanon 52-41. No score was available for the Silverton-Woodburn game.
With around three minutes left, the Spartans had possession and began to run their stall offense to keep the ball away from Dallas. Eventually, Karly Laney scored with 1:12 left and Dallas had a chance to let James off the hook.
But Kayla Laney, who was big all game with 11 points and 18 rebounds, blocked a shot with 45 seconds left, grabbed the rebound and CHS ran out the clock, causing James to second-guess his decision.
The challenge seemed to keep the players in the game despite the blowout.
"We all wanted pizza," McKenzie Redberg said. "It was good to all come together and say, 'No, this is not going to happen. We're not going to let you past 15.' We all put our foot down and stepped up and it shows we are a very mature team."
While the end of the game came down to seeing if the Spartans could keep the Dragons to 15 points, the rest was a rebirthing of sorts.
Corvallis had struggled in a close home wins against West Albany and Barlow, and a 63-55 loss at Silverton. They did have an easy win against Woodburn, but that was to be expected.
But on this night, the Spartans looked like the team that many expected them to be -- a dominating squad that wants to challenge for a state title.
The shots that didn't fall in those three games, fell. The defense that wasn't as solid, shut down the Dragons. The rebounding that vanished from time to time, was back in full force.
It was 17-0 with all five starters scoring after Kayla Laney's jumper from the elbow ith 1:57 left in the opening quarter and the Dragons were never a threat.
"Coach gave us a pep talk before the game and said, 'You need to go out there on your home floor and you need to own it and take pride in the fact that you shoot on these hoops every day,' " Laney said. "Continue to shoot with confidence and play like we did like this summer and how we know we can play as a state team."
One of the differences, according to Redberg, was the Spartans ran the floor better, which got them back into a flow.
"When we run the floor, that's when everything is clicking," she said. "We haven't been running and so now that we were running we were able to shoot confidently and that is our game."
Added Laney: "We were hitting our outside shots which is what we weren't used to and we just started playing like we can play."
The performance didn't come against a bad opponent either. The Dragons had just lost by three at home to Silverton two days after Silverton handed the Spartans a setback.
Dallas hadn't scored less than 39 points before Wednesday night and was averaging close to 50 points a game.
Dallas' close loss to Silverton wasn't lost on Redberg.
"I know before the game that was in a lot of our heads," she said. "Like we lost to Silvertion by ... more than they lost to them so like what the heck. That shows that was a fluke and that will not happen again. We will not allow that to happen again."
Katie Schrock led the Spartans with 16 points, outscoring the entire Dallas team. She had a good all-around game with some good drives, two 3s, excellent passes that led to easy baskets and was solid rebounding.
Gabe Johnson, who scored the first four points to set the tone, added 14 for the game and Syree Gerner came off the bench to score 10.
And then there was Kayla Laney's 11 points and 18 rebounds. Oh and of course the block that preserved a pizza party for her teammates.
Corvallis 70, Dallas 15
DALLAS 1 5 4 5 -- 15
CORVALLIS 19 18 18 15 -- 70
Dallas: Lily Prince 7, Phelps 2, Bridges 2, Pola 2, Angulo 1, Kutzer 1, Frederick, Reimer, Mitchell
Corvallis: Katie Schrock 16, Johnson 14, Kay. Laney 11, Gerner 10, M. Redberg 7, Adams 6, Kar. Laney 4, Hendrickson 2, McGowan, W. Redberg
JV: Corvallis 47, Dallas 21; Frosh: Corvallis won
No comments:
Post a Comment