Hidden Valley High School cut through an icy Husky defense Thursday night to defeat the girls basketball team 52-39.
The girls faced Hidden Valley after a long ride to the Grants Pass area.
“We came out pretty slow,” Coach Jason Gorham said. “They hit a couple threes, and then we gave up a couple of turnovers that led to layups.”
The Huskies struggled to shut down the Hidden Valley offense most of the night. At the end, Hidden Valley had hit seven threes and a 13-point winning margin.
“I was real happy with the fact that we came back,” Coach Gorham said. The Huskies outscored Hidden Valley in the second quarter 2-1 to close the gap to 24-18.
They cut the Hidden Valley lead to four points and stayed there the first four minutes of the third quarter, but Hidden Valley pumped in two more threes and forced a couple of key turnovers with its press to take a 44-29 lead by the end of the third to put the Huskies away.
“Defensively, we didn’t play a very good game,” Coach Gorham said. “We gave up too many looks. That’s something I wasn’t happy with, and we’re going to work on defending shooters.”
Coach Gorham was happy with the Husky offense. The girls were able to attack successfully with their half-court offense.
Chelsea Hackworth played and shot well, Coach Gorham said. She led the Huskies with 14 points. Schae Pettner came off the bench to spark things and add six points.
Also scoring were Ashlee Flanagan, 11; Nicki Aerni, five; and Tabbi Trahan, three.
The Huskies hold a 3-5 record.
The junior varsity lost 44-27 after trailing 18-17 at halftime.
The freshmen gave up a 23-19 lead at halftime to lose 40-29.