By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– The Western Christian Girls Basketball team finally got some shots to fall in the fourth quarter of Wednesday’s non-league game with Harrisburg.
The Eagles defense were aggressive. They held the Pioneer offense to 18 points going into the fourth quarter, but it was a game of defense to that point as Harrisburg led 22-18 going into the final eight minutes of the game.
The Western defense has been their calling card the last few games as their offense has been slowly coming around after the graduation of several key offensive threats from last year’s 2A State Runner-Up team. Hustle. Defense. Attitude. That’s what Ben Brown is expecting of his players to get on the court and it’s helped them so far five games into the young season.
“If you look at Kali (Ellis), she had to guard some of the best players on every team in man-to-man. Tonight that number three (Maycie Dame), she’s a good player. She can go left-right, she can finish with either hand, she’s downhill fast, I thought Kali did a great job,” starts Pio’s Head Coach Ben Brown. “The rest of them, in the zone they’ll move around, in man they play great helpside defense. I’m just super thankful that we have that to fall back on and that’s going to come every night and we’ll see what opportunities that we get on offense and see if we can convert.”
In the fourth quarter, they began to convert offensively. Lola Brown and Kinsey Wark each hit big three-pointers to help pull Western Christian ahead early on, giving the Pioneers the confidence to keep pushing to score. More so since Harrisburg kept answering and keeping Western true to their offensive responsibilities knowing the big roles they are filling.
“It’s definitely huge and big. Big roles to pick on and we’ve been trying our best in practice, working hard,” said Wark, who led the squad with 15 points. “We worked together, we found out all what we needed to do and just keep working.”
Western Christian made 10 of 15 free throw attempts in the final quarter that helped ice their fifth-straight win to start the season. Brown said that this Harrisburg game was a good measuring stick for his young squad, and that fourth quarter, with the pressure on, showed them what it’s like to close out a close game as they did on Wednesday 37-33.
“Those are big moments, especially for an inexperienced team for some of them that we can hit those in pressure situations,” said Brown. “The girls are doing a good job of adjusting and understanding possession the ball is super important. Every pass has to be the easy one, not the one-in-a-million. We’re trying to control the ball and limit turnovers and we’re figuring that out right now.
“It’s been building up to this Harrisburg game, so it’s been great. It keeps us in a good spot in rankings and then come in and prepare for the hard teams that we have coming up.”
Western Christian are off until New Year’s Day when they take part in the Crusader Classic before closing out their non-league schedule January 6 against Oakland at home.
Dame led the Eagles with 20 points, Dylan Hayworth contributed another six points for Harrisburg, who will head to Douglas on Friday to play in the Douglas Cross Over Tournament.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
