By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– For the first 11 minutes of the South Salem-Central Girls Basketball game to kick off the Capitol City Classic Girls Bracket, it was shaping up to be one of those close battles between two local teams from around the area.
It was a 14-13 game with 5:06 left in the first half when the Saxons made their move.
They closed out the first half in a 12-3 run to take a 26-16 lead. That lead grew to 46-20 after three as South Salem controlled the game from both sides of the ball that started with their defense.
“We all came together and decided the only way out for us was to come together a team and work hard on defense. We know what we’re capable of on defense, we had a big defensive game against Sunset. Just talking through it together,” said Leah Ioane.
“Before the game we highlighted high-fives a lot and hype each up a lot. Our bench helped us a lot stay in the game.”
For the Panthers, it was a tough way to end the game after the way they started. But with how young they are, returning only two from last year’s squad, it was something they can build upon as they await the loser of Grants Pass-McNary Saturday morning at 10am at Chemeketa Community College.
“We started off really strong, then we got timid coming back when they started scoring a lot, and it was frantic i guess,” said Central’s Bella Names. “We came out strong and kept on fighting and we didn’t give up. “
Names led the Panthers with 12 points in Central’s 57-31 defeat to the Saxons and Molly Henderson contributed six points.
Emma Burlison led the Saxons with 16 points with Ioane and Brezlyn Schwalm each scoring ten each for South Salem. The Saxons play the winner of Grants Pass-McNary Saturday afternoon at 4pm.
