By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
PORTLAND, Ore.– After being shocked in the first quarter against West Linn on Saturday afternoon to open the POA Emerald Bracket, the West Salem Girls Basketball team settled in.
Down 15-2 after the first quarter, the Titans were competitive over the course of the final three quarters of the game in what became a 63-39 defeat to the Lions on this day. Take away that one quarter, and it was a 48-37 ballgame.
And depending on your rankings of choice, the OSAA having West Linn ranked number one in 6A and the Lions are second ranked in the Coaches Poll, it was a promising finish to the game outside of the rough start to it.
“It was super big. I’m just glad that my team, we were able to talk it through and work through problems together. That’s the big thing with our team, we’re able to talk through things and figure out solutions for problems that could be really big for other teams,” said West Salem’s Emma Zuniga.
Zuniga led the Titans with 11 points and had five rebounds in the defeat. Four other West Salem Titans scored five points each as West opened up another tough tournament on the heels of the Capitol City Classic earlier this week. The Lions were just another measuring stick to see where they are at right now, to challenge themselves to see how they’ll react come Central Valley Conference play and hopefully a 6A State Playoff run here in a few weeks. And with Camas of Washington on the horizon for them on Monday, it’s just another opportunity for them to bridge what they’ve done so far and to continue to string them together for the positive for the second half of the season.
“It’s really good for us playing all of these great teams. We don’t see it as much right now, but once we get into our league games, I think we’ll see the progress that we made and I’m excited for what’s to come,” said Zuniga. “Just having confidence in knowing that this is how our season is laid out for us. They are all top teams in different States, so just coming together and playing like we do and like we know we can play and we’ll compete with all of these teams. We just have to have confidence that we can do so.”
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
