By Jeremy McDonald
jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– The McNary Girls Basketball team has been close this season to that first victory entering their fifth game of the season against Central. But on Saturday morning, they found a way to get it done against Central to advance to the Capitol City Classic Camry Bracket Consolation Bracket Finals following their 51-40 victory.
Early in the second half, the game tied at 20 apiece, the Celtics used a 16-6 run to close out the third quarter, taking a 36-26 lead into the final frame of the contest. The McNary defense had held the Panthers to six total points in the third quarter to help put them in a position to hand first-year Head Coach Brittany Dunn her first Varsity win in the program.
“That was really beneficial for us. Everything just clicked, and it worked well for us,” said McNary’s Ella Kellar. “It taught us that when we all play together, play our hardest, we can do some good things. We just got to build off of it, play together, and play as a team. ”
Kellar finished with 12 points in the game to lead McNary, Patricia Mike finished with nine points, and Hailey Carbajal contributed another eight in the win for the Celtics.
Central, coming off of their tough defeat to South Salem on Thursday, kept fighting and taking the next step forward. They kept the game around that ten point mark for much of the final eight minutes of the game, not letting that McNary run affect them as the Panthers were pretty much even with the Celtics 15-14 in the fourth quarter in terms of scoring.
B.Lushenko led the Panthers with nine points in the defeat as Central will play Sunday against Sprague at 2 pm.
“A lot of it was attacking the basket more, just attacking it more and making sure we’re doing the little things. We’re getting killed on rebounds, so we got to work on that, but they don’t give up. They fight, fight, fight,” said Head Coach Marc Burelson. “If we can focus on the little things, we can be ok. We came out a little slow on South, but we came out fighting today swinging, and it is what it is. As long as they’re playing aggressive and communicating on defense, then I think we’ll be ok. Just continue to get better everyday, that’s what we’re trying to do, and get better every day.”
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
