Girls Basketball vs Lake Stevens, 1-19-09

The Oak Harbor Wildcat girls basketball team rebounded from an unexpected loss at Everett on Saturday to defeat the Lake Stevens Vikings 49-44 Monday night in the Oak Harbor gym.

Over in the field house, the freshman team was up against the Cavelero Colts. Cavelero is the new Lake Stevens mid-high, hosting 8th & 9th grade students. Behind 4 points by Lia Pantoleon, the Wildcats held a 9-6 1st period lead, and at the half were down by only 1, 15-14. Both teams scored 9 in the 3rd period as Cavelero held onto their lead. Late in the 4th, Oak Harbor tied the game at 27, then the Colts scored to take the lead. Our girls weren’t able to get a shot to go in the hoop, and were forced to foul to stop the clock. Cavelero was able to get their free throws in, and the game ended with a 34-27 Cavelero win. Pantoleon was the lead scorer with 8, then Kaitlynn Rossman with 7. Rayan Russell and Emily Hunt had 4 each, Erika Flores 3, and Kristen Winston 1. Free throws continue to be an issue with the freshmen, again hitting less than 50% from the line.

The JV girls took quite a while to get into the game, not scoring until almost 5 minutes into the 1st quarter. Fortunately the Wildcat defense wasn’t completely absent and the period ended with a 12-6 Viking lead. The 1st period scored were reversed in the 2nd, as Oak Harbor, behind post play by Mariah Ferguson, scored 15 points and held Lake to just 8, and went into the locker room at the half leading 21-20. In the 3rd, it seemed like our girls forgot how to play basketball. Tatiana Cumming scored 2 halfway through the period and Mariah scored with 15 seconds left, and that was it. Lake Stevens doubled their score from the 1st half, hitting for 21 points and leading 41-25 going into the 4th. The Oak Harbor girls just couldn’t get things going, even with eight 4th-quarter points by Molly DeLeon, and lost 54-35. Mariah led scoring with 12 and Molly finished with 10. Yoshi and Tatiana had 4 each, Shantae Young 3 and Adrianna Royal 2. The JV had an unusually poor day at the line, completing only 5 of 13 attempts.

Jessica Denmon scored a free throw only 15 seconds into the game, to start the Wildcats early 6-0 lead, and the defense prevented Lake from scoring for half of the 1st period. The Vikings chipped away at the early Wildcat lead and took an 11-10 lead with 2 minutes left in the period. They held that lead until the final second, when Denmon let loose from the top of the key and gave OH a 15-13 1st period lead. The 2nd went back and forth, with Lake Stevens leading by 1 or 2 points for most of the period, but late scores by Denmon and Jen Jansen, along with a pair of free throws by Nikki Mowbray let Oak Harbor take a 24-20 lead into the half. Mowbray hit another pair of free throws to start the 3rd period scoring and the Wildcats outscored the Vikings 12-9, and held a 12-point lead at the 5:40 mark. The Vikings crept back in the 4th, closing to within 2 with 6:25 remaining, but the Wildcats were able to pull back away and finished with a 49-44 win. Denmon was tops in scoring with 19, while Jansen and Mowbray had 11 each. Cori hit for 4, Cheyenne for 2, and Clarissa and Tiff sank one free throw each.

The girls are away on Wednesday, at Cascade, then play league-leading Snohomish on Friday. Come out and make some noise to support our girls!

Just 17 photos, all of the freshman game, are posted HERE.

A few video highlight clips are HERE.