TOLEDO — Despite some serious foul trouble and playing without a pair of regular starters in senior Airyanna Paden and sophomore Payshentz Herron, the Waldport girls basketball team managed to grind out a 21-20 victory on the home court of 2A-3 Valley Coast Conference-rival Toledo on Feb. 8 in the regular season finale for both schools.
It was far from the most attractive game of basketball played — not even close — but with the win, the Irish locked down a share of sixth place in the final Valley Coast Conference standings, as well as a Tuesday night home playoff game at Irish Pavilion in Waldport against Central Linn. Both schools closed the regular season with 8-8 league marks.
Junior wing Savannah Martin led the Irish (12-11 overall) with 11 points, including five in the fourth quarter, when Waldport was down to just five eligible players after sophomore guard Mildred Ervin, senior post Harper Browne and freshman post Cheyenne Corliss fouled out. Martin’s back-to-back buckets early in the final frame gave the Irish a 17-13 advantage.
Toledo, which closed the season 3-13 in league and 5-18 overall in dropping back-to-back games Feb. 6 and 7 to Central Linn prior to the Waldport loss, put itself in prime position to pull off the upset. However, the Boomers struggled mightily at the charity stripe during the final five minutes of play.
After junior Lindsey Otis went coast-to-coast to bring Toledo within 17-15 with 5:37 to play, the Boomers missed 14 consecutive foul shots. They managed to take a 19-18 lead with 2:01 to play on consecutive successful drives by sophomore guards Tenaya Cordova and Kaylie Warfield.
The Irish responded with a bucket in the paint from freshman wing Kendi Ritchey with 1:15 left, and sophomore guard Kiana McNeil added a 1-of-2 effort at the line with 25.6 seconds to play. Toledo made just one of its last four free-throw attempts during the course of the final 13.6 seconds as Waldport closed out the win and snapped its own four-game losing streak.
ELSEWHERE:
Cubs earn second OWC win
After dropping their fourth straight 4A-3 Oregon West Conference game in a 64-15 loss Feb. 5 to third-ranked Philomath at Spangler Court in Newport, the Cubs halted their slide Feb. 8 with a 39-36 victory at Sweet Home.
Against the Huskies, winless in league play, Newport’s defense proved stingy in allowing in just four Sweet Home baskets from the field the entire evening, while forcing 27 Sweet Home turnovers.
The Cubs hosted a Monday night conference contest against No. 7 Stayton, then travel Wednesday, Feb.14, to Estacada for a non-league game before capping the home portion of the regular season with a 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 15, battle against No. 4 Cascade.
Newport, which began this week 2-5 in conference, 4-14 overall, finishing the regular season Tuesday, Feb. 20, with a conference game at North Marion.
Taft splits, awaits
playoff fate
The Tigers finished the campaign in third place in the 3A-3 PacWest Conference standings after splitting their final two regular season games last week.
On Feb. 6 at Jefferson, the regular season league co-champion Lions edged Taft 42-38 in a hotly-contested conference tussle before the Tigers sent seniors Aliviah Mode and Ali Tolan out on top in their final regular season home game in Lincoln City, a 64-28 blowout of Scio. Taft closed the regular campaign 8-4 in league, 14-10 overall.
The winner of a Wednesday, Feb. 18, PacWest playoff game that has fifth-place Dayton playing at fourth-place Santiam Christian, is scheduled to face Taft on Saturday, Feb. 17, with the conference’s third and final automatic bid to the 20-school OSAA 3A state playoffs on the line.
The 3A state playoffs are scheduled to begin Wednesday, Feb. 21, with first round games.
ECS stumbles
The Eagles’ winning streak reached five 1A-3 Mountain West League games following Eddyville’s 37-29 defeat of league-leading Mohawk on Feb. 6 in Eddyville and its forfeit victory over Siletz Valley two days later. However, after the Eagles fell 44-37 last Saturday at Alsea, their hopes for a regular season league championship took a major hit.
Eddyville Charter was 10-3 in league, 13-8 overall, entering its Monday night regular season finale at league-leading Mohawk (11-1, 15-7). The Eagles will play in the Mountain West League playoffs Saturday, Feb. 17, at Junction City. The top-three finishers there earn automatic bids to the 32-team OSAA 1A state playoffs, which begin Wednesday, Feb. 21.
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