By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– At one point in the game on the Capitol City Classic Tundra Bracket on Saturday, the West Salem Girls Basketball team had found themselves in a 34-17 hole to West Albany.
But slowly they, the Titans began to chip away at the deficit that they were facing.
Going into the fourth quarter they trailed 40-31 and wirh 1:03 left in the game, trailed two to the Bulldogs. It was 44-42 at this point.
“We’re showing growth all the time, it’s just not showing up in wins right now because we’re playing some tough team. But down the road, we’re going to be a different group and we got to stay together and all of our goals are still in front of us,” said West Salem Head Coach Justin Duke.
West Albany, faced with the surging West Salem squad in front of time, called timeout to settle the nerves.
And from there, the Bulldogs were able to close out the game with some free throws in the final minute of the game.
“We got a timeout, we talked about cause that’s been kind of our nemesis lately. We get kind of tight, a little emotional and said, ‘hey, quit trying not to lose and let’s play to win’,” said West Albany Head Coach Shawn Stinson. “We kind of calmed down and started to square up the ball more , made some free throws down the stretch.
“Sometimes they forget how good at what they do and we were able to get it.”
Payton Starwald led the Bulldogs with 21 points and Natalie Tidwell added another 15, with four three-pointers. West Albany will play Bingham of Utah on Monday for fourth-place at 11:30am at Chemeketa Community College.
Johanna Diaz led West Salem with 14 points and Samantha Griffin scored eight points as the Titans will play Beaverton on Monday at 1pm at Chemeketa Community College.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
