By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SILVERTON, Ore.– Brooke Wood had built a special bond with her three seniors she had the honor coaching. It felt like a family bond as the squad finished the year with nine wins, eight more than they had last year.
Their strong start to the year, 5-1 start going into Mid-Willamette Conference play and then winning four games really picked up morale during the season and kept it going.
“There’s not a day that I don’t want to see those faces, even though they’re graduating, I know I’m gonna hear from them again. They got my number, it’s open communication,” Wood said of her seniors. “(This year) was great. We had a lot of girls on the fence about coming back this year, so to have all those seniors come back and be big leaders on the court and off the court and some new girls come in and get morale going.”
Tuesday’s night game was a tough one against Silverton, with the Foxes taking the game 66-29.Aubryana Ramirez led the Bulldogs with seven points as Woodburn finished the year 9-15 and 4-14 in league play, who will return with a solid core of returners coming back next year.
The Foxes, coming off of their tough defeat to South Albany, wheeled off back-to-back wins to enter the playoffs on a high note coming off of February 25’s game.
Hadley Criag led Silverton with 15 points, Alli Mansur (14) and Grace Hayashida (11) scored in double-figures for the Foxes, who enter the postseason 22-3 overall and 16-2 in league play with the mindset of taking it one game at a time and treating each like the State Championship Game.
“This game had been very big for us because we need to learn that the team that played South Albany wasn’t our team, and we’re all team that never gives up. That’s what we’re going to do whenever it’s a big game,” said Mansur. “(Friday) we got toolay as a team and show who we are. Our coaches do a good job preparing us and watching film and compete with each game like it’s the State Championship Game.”
Photos by Jeremy McDonald
