By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SILVERTON, Ore.– The Silverton Girls Basketball team and South Albany were set up to be a classic battle between two of the best teams in the 5A Classification Friday night It was going to come down to execution and coming through on the little things for someone to win this game. On this night, the first meeting between the two Mid-Willamette Conference opponents, it was the Redhawks who executed a little more when they needed to.
The difference came in the opening five minutes of the game when South Albany turned to their defense to help. Behind aggressive and physical play, staying alert on their surroundings, the Redhawks held Silverton scoreless over those five minutes to build a 10-0 lead on the Foxes.
“We had two really good practices this week, and we were sticking to what we’re used to. We didn’t overcompensate anything. The five overtimes before us, we were ready, we were anticipating, and we were playing as a team,” said South Albany’s Taylor Donaldson.
Over the next three minutes to close out the quarter, Silverton began to piece it together as they pulled back to within eight going into the second quarter. A 15-7 deficit at that point. Over the course of the next three quarters, it was pretty even between the two squads, South Albany having the slight advantage at 27-26 over the final three quarters that would’ve made this game a lot more interesting down the stretch had it not been for that five minute stretch to start the game.
Silverton will take this eye-opening game and turn it into motivation. They still have the second loop through league to get back on track and set up February 25’s game at South Albany as a redemption game and possibly an opportunity to decide the MWC Title when the two team’s meet again.
“We’re going to use this loss to make us work harder in practice. Come every day and work harder to go beat them at their place,” said Silverton’s Brooklynn Pfeifer. “We need to be more disciplined, and we need to work as a team. We do a great job working as a team, but showing up at practice every day, working harder and going out there and playing together.”
Donaldson led the Redhawks, who will host Corvallis on Tuesday, with 17 points. Hadley Craig led Silverton, who will host McKay on Tuesday with 15 points.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
