GBB Mt. Vernon tournament 6-21 & 22

There was a lot of basketball played this weekend at various Mt. Vernon sites. JV Gold and Purple, along with varsity, played in a large tournament. Varsity and JV Purple both came away with 3rd place finishes.

First, the JV Gold -

I have to be frank here - the JV Gold is made up of all incoming freshmen while most other teams in the JV division had incoming sophomores and juniors. I don't think Coach Showalter was looking for a lot of wins, but wanted to see improvement as the tournament progressed. He did. The first game, against Ferndale had a final of 33-9 for Ferndale. They also lost to teams from Lake Stevens and Archbishop Murphy on Saturday. They had one game early on Sunday at Skagit Valley college which I don't have a result for, and a final 5th game, for 7th place, in the MV field house. This game was against an experienced and fast Mt. Baker HS team. Our girls didn't do well on offense, but listening in on Coach Showalter's postgame talk with the players, he was very pleased with their defensive performance. As he said "the points will come". With more experience playing at the high school level in the remaining summer league games and during camp next week, these girls should perform well come winter.

JV Purple

Lost their first game by just a single point to Ferndale. I don't know if we missed a last second shot or Ferndale made one. If someone will let me know, I'll post how it ended.

The next game was against Burlington-Edison Gold, and this was also a close game, but this time our girls prevailed, coming away with a 35-31 win.

The 3rd game on Saturday was all Oak Harbor. Our obviously superior team pounded the Arlington JV 44-19.

Sunday there was just one game, against a team called the "Sparks", sponsored by some jewelry company. This was just one of those game that doesn't go your way. Your carefully planned shots bounce in and out of the hoop while the opponents wild shot always seem to go in. It was just one of those days. As a result of the loss, the JV Purple came away from the tournament tied for 3rd with Lake Stevens. There was no final playoff for 3rd in the JV brackets.

Varsity

The first game, a seeding game, was against Lynden. Oak Harbor scored 54 points, but Lynden scored 61. Lead scorer was Jessica Denmon with 28, then Cheyenne Tubo with 10, 4 of which were free throws. Lynden did a good job keeping Jen Jansen away from the hoop, allowing her only a single free throw for scoring. Other players that got on the scoreboard were Nicki Mowbray 6, Kathryn Fisken 2 (both free throws), Becca Moeai 4, Clarissa Abadesco 1, and Cory Henricksen 2.

Next up was Arlington. 3 Oak Harbor players scored in double digits on the way to a 53-29 win. Denmon was again lead scorer with 21. Nicki Mowbray came alive in this game to score 15, and Jansen was a force in the paint with 11. Others scoring were Tubo 2, Fisken 2, and Abadesco 2.

Game three on Saturday was a closely fought battle against Archbishop Murphy. Although the 'Cats won 51-47, it was close, and it was a good thing Denmon was dialed in, as she scored over half the team points by herself with 28. The only other scoring of note was Clarissa Abadesco with 10 and Becca Moeai with 7. Tubo, Jansen and Mariah Ferguson scored 2 each.

There were two games on Sunday, the first against Ferndale with the winner moving on to the championship game. From the opening tip, Ferndale had complete control of the game. Again, this was one of those games where nothing you do seems to work and anything the other team does works perfectly. Ferndale kept Denmon scoreless, and nobody else stepped up to fill the void. No Wildcat players were in double digits - the high scorer being Cheyenne Tubo with 6. Others on the board were Mowbary 5, Jansen 2, Fisken 4, Moeai 2, Abadesco 4.

Finally, for third place in the tournment and a neat trophy, the OH Wildcats beat Burlington-Edison. The 'Cats jumped out to an early lead with their patented "Spread 2" opening play. Jansen tips the ball right down to Mowbray who passes sideways to Denmon for an easy layup. This was a play that work at least four times during the regular season and worked again Sunday. The Wildcat had a lead built as high as 9-10 at times, but let the Tigers back in late in the game. The game went all the way to the wire. OH scored with 10 seconds left to take a 58-57 lead. As B-E inbounded the ball, they called a timeout with only 7 seconds left. The were able to get the ball in and down court, but although the last shot went in the basket, the refs ruled that the shot was after the horn, so OH came away with the 58-57 win.

The varsity team finishes up the summer league tonight, Monday, with two games at Sedro-Woolley HS.

Photos of all three teams in action can be found here:
http://www.shutterfly.com/pro/OakHarborSports/highschool