By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
ALBANY, Ore.– It came down to one stretch of the game to decide the victor in Tuesday night’s Mid-Willamette Conference game between West Albany and Central High School.
The game itself lived up to the hype. Both entered the game undefeated in league play, both were 7-0 entering the game, and both were looking to be tested as the first loop through league play is wrapping up this week.
Through the first two-and-a-half quarters, the Bulldogs and Panthers each traded runs, but no one could find that one run that could’ve given themselves a moment to breathe in-game as they would have hoped. But moments like how this game started will serve for the better for the two squads moving forward.
“It was really encouraging. Hostile environment like this, an away game against a top team. Top 3 team in the State, the top team in our league. To come in with confidence…we tell our guys all year long, bend, but don’t break. We’re disappointed that we didn’t win this game, but the cool thing about league play is that you get to face a team twice and we have a lot to take care of between now and the next time we play them if we want that to be another relevant game,” said Central Head Coach Tyler Allen.
“It wasn’t a perfect game by any means, but I’m pretty satisfied with how we came out.”
With 2:21 left in the third quarter, the Panthers led West Albany 41-40 following a made basket by Tyler Olafson. But then, that’s when the Bulldogs caught fire.
Their offense found their shot. Their defense created nightmares for the Central’s offense, they were doing those little things that worked and it paid off. By quarter’s end, West Albany led 50-43. A 10-2 run to swing momentum into their favor.
And they weren’t done yet. It was just the foundation for them to build from in the fourth quarter as next thing either team knew, it was a 62-44 lead midway through the fourth quarter. The Bulldogs didn’t look back as they picked up their eighth-straight victory, defeating Central 66-50 while handing the Panthers their first league defeat of the season.
“Just the energy that we built off that, we carried that into the fourth quarter and we played defense, making sure we were getting stops on D and scoring on offense,” said West Albany’s Jonah Lasselle. “This was our first test in a minute. But having that is really good for the playoffs, being able to have that kind of atmosphere where there’s a big crowd on the other side, a good team on the other side and to go out there and handle business.”
Lasselle led the Bulldogs with 25 points, Tyson Walker added another 15 points and Grey Nieman contributed another ten points in the victory over West Albany, who will be at Dallas on Friday.
Ryan Burgett led the Panthers with 15 points, Olfason and Jack Holestine each contributed another ten in the defeat as Central will look to rebound Friday against Crescent Valley at home.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
