Girls Basketball 12-30 and 30, 2009 - Santa Slam Tournament

The Oak Harbor girls basketball teams hosted their 4th annual Santa Slam tournament at OHHS on December 30th and 31st. The tournament featured Anacortes, Eatonville, Kentridge and Archbishop Murphy in addition to OHHS.

On Dec 30th the freshman team took on a good Murphy team. ABM opened a 17-6 1st period lead, but OH fought hard, closing to within 3 points, 21-18 at halftime. Murphy took control in the 2nd half, adding 5 points to their lead to win 43-35. The girls spread the ball around, with 7 players getting points. Leading the Cats was Bet Riba with 8, followed by Taru Ahonen with 7. Ciera Wiser hit 6, Jalani Bobo 5, Joem Evangelista 4, Morgan young 3 and Marissa Lewis 2. Riba and Ahonen are both exchange students - Bet from Spain and Taru from Finland. It's the first home game that either of the girls were high scorers.

In JV action on the first day, the OH girls played Anacortes. The game started a bit slow, with OH holding a 6-2 lead midway through the first period and holding on to lead 8-4 at the first horn. The Anacortes defense got tough in the 2nd period, holding OH to just 3 points. Lia Pantoleon scored early and hit for one free throw with 1:47 left in the half. The OH defense did a good job, but Anacortes was able to take a 13-11 lead into the locker room at the half. The Wildcat offense had more trouble in the 3rd. They Kelsey Rankin scored less than 30 seconds into the 3rd period, but the Wildcats would not score again until the 3:22 mark. They scored 3 times late but still trailed by 1 at the horn. The game was tied 4 different times in the 4th, but a shot by Erika Flores with just 12 seconds left won the game for OH 29-27. Lia Pantoleon was the top scorer for the Wildcat JV with 11 points, Rankin scored 10, DJ Jackson 4, Flores 2 and Heavenly Cooper 2. The team is still struggling at the line, earning just 2 points on 11 attempts.

The varsity team opened the tournament against Eatonville, a Nisqually League 2A team with a strong girls basketball program. Oak Harbor started the game on a tear, holding Eatonville scoreless for almost half of the first period and led 15-2 at end of the first. OH opened the lead to 19-2 with just under 2 minutes into the second period, but that's when Eatonville woke up and started to play offensive basketball. They went on a 12-5 run to trail by 10, 24-14 at the half. In the 3rd, Eatonville continued to pick away at the OH lead and took it away with 3:24 left in the 3rd in the middle of a 16-2 run and led 40-35 at the end of the 3rd. Eatonville's lead was a big as 9 in the 4th but never lower than 4 as OH lost 58-47. Even though she fouled out with 3 minutes left in the game, Jessica Denmon was the high scorer with 16. Nicki Mowbray scored 13, Shantae Young 7, Emilie Renninger 5, Naomi Walker 4 and Clarissa Abadesco 2.

On day 2 the freshman team took on Anacortes, handling them easily. The Wildcats led 8-3 at the first buzzer and 15-9 at the half. The defense held Anacortes to just 4 points in each of the final two periods and won 31-17 to take 3rd place. Ciera Wiser took scoring honors with 10, Marissa Lewis and Jalani Bobo scored 5 each, Morgan Young and Taru Ahonen 4 each and Joem Evangelista 3.

Since the varsity team was in the consolation bracket, they played before the JV team on day 2, taking on Kentridge from the South Puget Sound League. The girls were not about to make the same mistake they made against Eatonville. They opened up a 19-8 first period lead behind 15 points by Jessica Denmon and led 40-16 at the half. Both teams were a bit flat in the 3rd, but Oh was able to increase their lead to 16 points and cruised home in the 4th to win 57-26 and earn 3rd place. Denmon was dialed in for the game, scoring 37 points, just 3 points shy of the school records and placing her on the top 10 list for single game scoring. Nicki Mowbray scored 8, Jessica James and Naomi Walker 4 each, and Clarissa Abadesco and Shantae Young 2 each.

The JV championship game features the Wildcats against Eatonville. OH spotted Eatonville a 5-0 lead, but a 3-pointer by Erika Flores with a minute to go in the first gave OH a 9-8 lead. The 2nd period was slow with little scoring, ending in a 14-14 score. The 3rd was a little better, but OH still had problems getting well-shot balls to go through the hoop and trailed 21-19 to start the 4th. There was no scoring for the first two minutes, when Eatonville sank one to lead 23-19, and the next basket was another Eatonville shot with 3:48 left. OH didn't get any 4th-period points until Lia Pantoleon scored with 2:22 left. Lia hit for 3 just 30 seconds later then hit a free throw with 48 seconds left to cut the Eatonville lead to just two, 27-25. Eatonville scored with 10 seconds left then Heavenly Cooper scored with 1.2 seconds left, but it just wasn't enough time to steal the inbounds pass and score. 29-27 was the final with the JV girls taking home 2nd place in the tournament.

The girls jump back into league play with a trip to Arlington on January 5th and are at home on Thursday the 7th against Stanwood.

93 photos from the tournament are posted HERE. All of the action photos are of the freshman games, and there are team photos of each of the 3 teams and individual photos of most of the players. There were a few missing and they will be added as the season progresses.

A single, 3-minute clip of highlights from both days is posted HERE.