Girls Basketball vs Bellingham, December 6th

The OHHS Girls Basketball Team had their first home game of the season Saturday night, with all 3 teams in action.
After losing earlier in the week to Mountlake Terrace, the freshman team took out some of their frustration on the Red Raider, racing to a 10-0 first period lead and never looking back. Five different girls scored in the first period, and four other girls got on the board in the 2nd as they built a 17-9 halftime lead. Coming out of halftime, the Oak Harbor girls really started to play some basketball, scoring 22 points in the 3rd period and holding Bellingham to just 5. The onslaught continued to the end of the game which our girls on 46-17. Kaitlynn Rossman led the scoring with 11, followed by Erika Flores with 7. Rayan Russell and DJ each had 6 points, Lia Pantoleon 5, Kaileen Burleson, Heavenly Cooper and Kristen Winston each had 3, and Liz Hedderman scored 2. It was a great win for the freshman girls.
The JV squad won as well, but a very similar score. They sprinted out to an 11-2 first period lead, and continued the defensive pressure, letting the Bellingham team score only twice in the entire first half, while pouring in 23 points of their own for a 23-4 halftime lead. In the 3rd period, the Wildcat defense allowed Bellingham to score 3 points, one on a free throw while scoring another 10 to increase the lead to 38-7. In the final period, the Wildcats scored another 13 points, and allowed 11 as they cruised to a 51-18 win. They key to the game was the lightning-quick speed of Janelle Yoshimoto and Molly Deleon, who usually made first contact with the Bellingham ball handler, and as often as not got the steal. However, the girls only went 5 for 19 from the line, which is an area for improvement. The JV girls had 3 players in double figures – Shantae Young with 12, Molly Deleon with 11 and Mariah Ferguson with 10. Others scoring were Janelle Yoshimoto 9, Tatiana Cumming 3 and Jessica James 6. Four 3-pointers were recorded by 3 different girls.
The varsity game was not a blowout. In the first period, Cheyenne Tubo scored 5 points to help the Wildcats to a 12-10 first period lead, and Denmon added 8 points in the 2nd to give the ‘Cats a 25-21 halftime lead. In the 3rd period, even though Cori Henricksen got hot with her shooting with 6 points, the Oak Harbor defense started to break down, allowing Bellingham to score 24 points in the 3rd to take the lead 45-39 at the end of the 3rd. Late in the game the girls were able to close the gap, but just couldn’t get the shots in, and had to resort to fouling the Red Raiders to stop the clock, and wound up on the short end of a 54-49 score. Jessica Denmon led the Wildcat scoring with 18, followed by Nicole Mowbray with 13, including 3-for-3 from the line. Tubo had 5, Henricksen 6, Clarissa Abadesco 2, Jennifer Jansen 4, and Tiffany Earnhart 1. As a team, the girls went 4-for-6 from the free throw line and scored a total of 5 3-pointers, 4 of them by Denmon.
The girls get a week off from games, getting into action again next Friday, December 12th at home against Cascade to start their conference schedule.

Photos from the games can be found HERE.

A few video highlight clips are HERE.