By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
STAYTON, Ore.– The Stayton Girls Basketball team made their presence known late in the first quarter against 5A’s Lebanon.
Trailing 1-0 towards the midway point of the first quarter in an otherwise very defensive game, the Eagles tore the game open by hitting five three-pointers and hitting a free throw in the process to take a 16-1 lead into the second quarter. Brecci Hampton hit the first three three-pointers as the Junior finished with 13 points.
And yeah. The Stayton defense held a Warrior team just outside of the Top 10 in 5A to a single free throw.
“It definitely ups our motor and just keeps our energy going,” said Hampton. “That was huge for us. We’ve had a really good game defensively, but we’re still going to work on it for us.”
The Eagle offense and defense continued to build off of that first quarter burst into the remainder of the game. And it was something they needed as the Warriors began to settle into a groove.
Outside of the 15–1 start, Lebanon kept pace with the Eagles, but Stayton prevented the Warriors from going on a major run as the Eagles closed out a 55–45 victory. With a week off before their game with Cascade to start the second half of Oregon West Conference play, it was a good confidence booster going into that game.
“Once we lost to Cascade, it was kind of a low and we just kind of realized that we needed to step it up with the big games like against Philomath and Lebanon. We know we can beat them and I think we’re ready and this was a good game to prove ourselves,” said Kathryn Samek.
Samek led Stayton with 15 points, Ruby VandenBos led Lebanon with 10 points.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
