Girls Basketball 12-14-2009 vs Snohomish

The girls basketball finally got their 2nd home game of the season, facing off against the Snohomish Panthers.

In the field house, the freshman teams were tied at 7 after the first period, but the Wildcats took control and opened a 17-11 halftime lead. The two teams again played even in the 3rd, scoring 5 each. The 4th quarter saw almost half the scoring of the entire game. Snohomish managed to drop in 13 points to up their total to 29, but the Wildcats put up 16 of their own to win 38-29. Jalani Bob and Marissa Lewis both had 9 points to lead the team. Bet Riba and Joem Evangelista scored 6 each, Paula Gass and Emily Saar 2 each and Danielle Teasley 1.

The beginning of the JV game looked good, with OH going up 7-0 before allowing a Snohomish score with 1:32 left in the first. However, the girls scored only one more field goal the rest of the game, a Naomi Walker layin with 3:19 left in the 3rd. All of the other OH points came off free throws, and they were just 4 for 19 from the stripe. The final score was Snohomish 32, OH 12. Dominique Jackson scored 4 to lead the team. Addy Royal had 3, Naomi Walker and Kelsey Rankin 2 each, and Lia Pantoleon hit one free throw. Part of the JV problem was that 4 players were out with injuries, two of them starters.

The varsity game was similar to the JV game, with the team gaining an early 6-2 lead and holding it until there were less than 2 minutes to go in the first period. Snohomish hit a pair of 3-pointers to lead 12-9 at the first break. Clarissa Abadesco scored just 20 seconds into the 2nd to bring OH to within 1, and later a pair of free throws by Jessica Denmon put OH back in the lead 15-14. That was the last lead OH would have as Snohomish went on a 10-0 run to end the first half, leading 24-15. OH fought back in the 3rd, with a buzzer-beating shot by Denmon closing the gap to just 4, then a Nicki Mowbray FT making it a 3-point game. That's as close as it would get as Snohomish won 40-33. Denmon led the team with 19, Mowbray with 4 (all free throws), Abadesco 4, Jessica James 3 and Naomi Walker 2.

The girls play at home again on Wednesday against Everett.

3 video clips are posted here, including a great team effort for a score by Jackson in the JV game.

Girls Basketball Fall League, 9-20

The Oak Harbor girls basketball team kicked off their fall league in Skagit County with two doubleheaders at the Skagit Valley College gym.

First up was the JV team, consisting mostly of freshman girls. Their first game was against a good Burlington-Edison team, who won the low-scoring game 14-12. The coach said you could tell our girls were rusty, as most had not touched a basketball since the end of July.

Most of the kinks were worked out for the second game, which was against the Renegades from up in Canada. That game was all Wildcats, as they ran away for a 36-7 win.

The varsity team was also rusty and faced a very good and fresh Burlington team. The Tigers owned the first half, but the Wildcats got things sorted out in the 2nd half, but it was too little, too late, as the girls lost 48-30.

In the last game of the day, against Mt. Baker, Oak Harbor grabbed an early substantial lead, but fatigue started to affect their play in the 2nd half and Mt. Baker was able to crawl back and tie the game at 40 at the end of regulation play. In this league, in overtime, if one team gets 4 points ahead, the game is over. Halfway through the overtime period, Mt. Baker hit a 3-pointer. Later, with time running low, OH was forced to foul to stop the clock. The Mt. Baker girl went to the line to shoot a 1-and-1, and sank the ball to end the game with a final score of 44-40.

65 images from both the JV and varsity games are posted HERE.

One JV and two varsity video clips are HERE.

GBB youth camp @ NWMS

The OHHS Girls Basketball team held their annual 3-day camp for young girls, this year at North Whidbey Middle School due to the construction at the high school.

Coach McLeod had a lot of his JV and Varsity players helping out, and the girls, both campers and players, seemed to be enjoying themselves.

There are over 150 photos posted HERE, including several group photos.

Girls Basketball vs Snohomish, 1/23/2009

The Snohomish Panthers came to Oak Harbor Friday night for the 2nd of the two meetings between the teams this year. Wildcat TV (Comcast channel 21) was there, going live for the first time. In the first meeting, the Freshmen lost by a 31-9 score, JV 44-34, and Varsity 56-29. While the overall results were similar, the scores all weren’t.

The freshman team, still missing Kate Rossman who is filling in on JV, played a much better game that they did in the first meeting. Kristen Winston scored 4 points in the 1st to keep the ‘Cats in the game, 12-6, but Snohomish opened it up in the 2nd and 3rd to take a 33-16 lead going into the final quarter. In the 4th, Oak Harbor played their best of the game, scoring 10 points, more than they scored in the entire game against the Panthers 2 weeks ago, but Snohomish did win, 39-26. Coach Showalter was very pleased with the way the girls played in this game. Winston was tops in scoring with 7, JD had 5, Lia and Rayan 4 each, and Heavenly, Emily and Liz scored 2 each.

The JV game was eerily similar to the first meeting, even to the final score. Oak Harbor grabbed an early lead and added to it throughout the first half, leading 21-13 at the buzzer. The 2nd half was all Snoho, going 14-5 in the 3rd and 17-8 in the fourth to end the game with the exact same score, 44-34. Molly scored two 3-pointers on her way to a total of 10 to lead the team, Yoshi and Tatiana scored 7 each, Shantae had 4, while Addy and Kate scored a field goal each.

The varsity team jumped to a 10-6 1st period lead, but allowed 16 while scoring only 9 in the 2nd to go into the locker room at the half down 22-19 – not bad considering what it was like the last time the two teams met. In the 3rd, though, Snohomish again showed why they are at the top of the WESCO North and in the top 10 in the state. Oak Harbor was only able to score 3 points while Snohomish doubled their score, ending the 3rd leading 44-22. Clarissa Abadesco scored 5 of the teams’ 17 4th quarter points, but it was too little, too late, and Snohomish ran away with another win, 53-39. Jessica Denmon scored 16, Jen Jansen 8, Nikki Mowbray 6, Clarissa 6, and Cori & Chey had a pair each.

The girls have two away games next week, Monday at Stanwood and Friday at Lake Stevens, and are at home Wednesday, looking to avenge a loss to Everett.

No video clips yet, but they are coming. They can all be found HERE.

83 pictures from the JV and Varsity games, including Kate Rossman playing on JV and Mariah Ferguson and Justine Bortolameotti playing in the varsity game are all posted HERE.

Girls Basketball spring league

There were a total of 3 games this past Monday, 4/7. The JV and Varsity squads both played at 6:15pm, at different sites (great scheduling!), and the varsity team played a second game.

I went to the JV game and the 2nd varsity game.

The JV game was at Skagit Valley College, and by the end of the game, there were 5 really tired girls, as there were ONLY five girls at the game. Coached by Keely Smollack in place of Gary Brundidge, who was at the varsity game, the JV players were Janelle Yoshimoto, Jodi Jackson, Sheena Corey, Jessica James and Ariel Brothers. It was a tight game against Lakewood all the way, with OH leading for most of the game, including a 14-11 halftime lead. After the half, though, Lakewood took advantage of the depleted Wildcat team, establishing a lead not long after halftime. The 'Cats closed, with James tying the game at 20 and Corey swishing a trey to give the Wildcats a lead they would not give up again. Jessica's score was particularly satisfying, as it came after a long possession with several attempts, but the Cats were able to keep getting the rebound and shot until they scored. Another exciting play was a nice block by Ariel Brothers with Sheena grabbing the ball and going all the way for the score. The final score was 28-23 for OH.

The result was much better than last Monday's game, when Coach Gary had only a single OH player. That's right - due to spring break travel and other sports commitments, only Sheena Corey was at the JV game that night, and the varsity team was also short players.


The varsity team played at Mt. Vernon HS, in the field house for both games. They also played with a small team, with only 7 players suited up for the first game, which was against Mt. Baker HS. I arrived near the end of the game, but the girls ran out to a 30-13 halftime lead, and held on for a 55-38 victory. Suited up for the first game were Molly DeLeon, Cheyenne Tubo, Cori Henricksen, Jessica Denmon, Jasmine Chong, Tiffany Earnhart and Roshaunda Smith. Apparently it was a fairly physical game, as Smith fouled out with over 6 minutes to play in the 2nd half.

The second game was against Arlington, and in addition to the players listed above, Brothers, James, and Corey saw significant playing time. Starters were Tubo, Henricksen, Chong, Denmon, and Smith. In this game the Wildcats built a 3-0 lead when the Eagles started a full-court press. This hobbled the OH offense for a short while, but long enough for Arlington to tie the game at 3-3 and force the OH timeout. Coming out of the timeout, Jessica Denmon hit three 3-pointers, taking the 'Cats to a 12-3 lead and an Arlington timeout. Arlington came out of their timeout and hit back to back threes, but that was at close as it got, including a halftime shore of 27-24 in favor of OH. The final was 52-39. One humorous play of note was Roshaunda Smith giving a loose ball a hard smack, sending it right at the crowd, where it hit the wall right in between Yoshi's mom and Sheena's mom!

Our girls looked good, displaying a lot of offensive speed and tenacious defense. If this team is any indication of what the team will look like next winter, look forward to another trip deep in the WESCO tournament.

The league is run by the Skagit County Parks and Rec dept, with schedules and standings online at:
http://www.skagitcounty.net/Common/asp/default.asp?d=ParksAndRecreation&c=General&p=youthbasketball/main.htm