The Huskies won their first girls basketball game this year against Yamhill-Carlton at home on Dec. 16.
The girls jumped out to a dominating early lead and led by 15 at halftime, said Coach Steve Brown. “That (first quarter) was probably one of our best quarters.”
But things went south in the third as Yamhill-Carlton started holding its own, and then especially late in the fourth when Yamhill-Carlton started closing the gap.
With four minutes left, the Huskies led 31-22. With 56 seconds left, Yamhill-Carlton trailed 33-28, and with just 2 seconds left in the game, the Huskies were leading 34-30.
“They were awesome that first quarter, the second quarter too,” Brown said.
Brown said he’s going to have change his winning-game halftime pep talk in the future. He doesn’t ever want to see that again.
“We don’t have to score when we’re up by 15,” Brown said. “We kind of felt our oats maybe. That made it close, and it shouldn’t have been.”
They tended to push the ball too much and take riskier shots they didn’t need to take, he said.
If the girls had played the same all four quarters, it probably would have been a 30-point win, he said. “But they’re learning. We haven’t been 15 points ahead since I’ve been here.”
They’ll handle situations like this better as they get used to winning, Brown said. They just need to play more patiently, move the ball around and use the clock in that situation.
On the road Friday, the Huskies lost 56-33 to Cascade.
Cascade is a very good team and is well-coached, Brown said, but it was one of the Huskies’ better games.
Led by Jordan Miller scoring 24 points, the Huskies shot 50 percent from the field and 67 percent from the foul line, an impressive performance for a team that has struggled with shooting over the years. Miller shot 5-7 from the field and 6-6 from the free throw line.
“She played an excellent game,” Brown said.
But the Huskies’ other perennial enemy, turnovers, plagued them. The girls had 31 of them.
Cut them in half and shoot them at 50 percent, it would have been another 14 points for the girls, Brown said.
Last week just shows, “we can compete,” Brown said. “We continue to improve.”
Brown cannot say how happy is to have help from Assistant Coach Dave McNeil, who is drilling the team on fundamentals and ball handling constantly, every practice.
“I’m happy,” Brown said. “I’m still excited. I’m looking forward to 2015.”
And he’s looking forward to some competitive games against Westside Christian, North Bend and Crook County on Tuesday and Friday next week. Those are three games where the girls should match up well. He would like to see good performances there turn into league wins against teams like Elmira starting in January.
“It’s a big mountain we’re climbing, but I think we’re at least on the mountain and not in the valley,” Brown said. “We’re getting better. I think we’re beginning to gel.”