By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
AMITY, Ore.– The Amity Girls Basketball team needed the offensive and defensive burst that they got to start the first and second halves against Regis on Wednesday night.
That was because, the Rams were persistent. They just kept coming after the Warriors. Recovering after getting socked in the mouth to pull Amity back within reach. And by game’s end, they, Regis, showed a weakness that the Warriors were hoping to find to improve on if they hope to defend their title here in March:
Their endurance.
“We looked really good at the beginning of the first and beginning of the third and we looked really tired at other times. That’s going to have to get corrected,” said Amity Head Coach Jed McMullen. “At the third day of the State Tournament in Coos Bay, you got to be conditioned. You’re sleeping away from home, it’s three intense and brutal days playing physical and a lot of emotion in there. We need to be physically ready for that run.”
Amity jumped out to a 22-9 lead going into the second quarter. They hit three-straight three’s to start the game and within 90 seconds, led Regis 11-1 en route to building that eleven-point lead.
Then. Regis came around.
Things became more sharper for the Rams. Their defense got stops and got rebounds, their offense worked around Amity’s defense with their size and length advantage over Regis to hit some shots. Clara Persons scored 11 of the Rams 23 points in the second frame, outscoring the Warriors 23-13 in the second eight minutes as they trailed Amity 35-32 by halftime.
The game that was a recent add in the last three-ish weeks had became the game that it hoped to become entering the second half.
“I was really happy with the girls in being able to come back after the run that they had at the beginning of the game. To be able to come back and get it within three at half, that was awesome,” said Regis Head Coach Tim Manning. “We talked at half about, they’re going to come out guns-a-blazing at the start of the third quarter and try to do the same thing and try to get some points on us right away.
“If we could hold that off, we’ll have a chance at the end of the game. Unfortunately they came out at the start of the third quarter and got to us a little bit and got a little too far ahead and we couldn’t quite making it back.”
Amity opened the third quarter with a 7-0 run and pushed their lead back to double-digits. The lead reached about 14 or so before Regis could get a rebuttal going to the Warriors run.
The Rams turned up the intensity with their speed and quickness and pushed that tempo that resulted them in coming back into the contest once more. With 2:24 left in the contest, Regis trailed Amity 57-53. The pressure was on the Warriors to close out the game, and it was something that they did as they were able to close out the 64-56 home victory and hand Regis their first defeat of the season.
“They’re a very fast team and we haven’t gotten used to that, so we were really tired. We really had to dig deep and hang on to secure the win,” said Amity’s Kylie Wilson. “It was really good for us…We learned that we’re really out of shape and we need to run. We’re going to have to get into better shape for the upcoming games.”
Wilson and Alyssa McMullen each scored nine points each. Eliza Nisly scored ten points, Adie Nisly led the Warriors with 22 points as they will host Scio on Friday.
Persons led the Rams with 24 points, Lexi Lulay contributed another 14 points and Frankie Koehnke scored ten points for Regis, who will travel to play Sheridan on Friday.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
