By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
PERRYDALE, Ore.– The Perrydale defense clutched up when they needed it the most. Especially with their offense off to a slow start in their Casco League game against St Paul on Friday night. Holding the Buckaroos to eight first half points as they led 17-8 at the halftime intermission.
The Pirates didn’t let St. Paul get comfortable on the court. Perrydale was physical, they were aggressive and made sure that the Buckaroos had to outwork them to beat them.
“We just kept going at them and never quit. Even if we had fouls, we just kept going,” said Isabelle Arthur.
In the third quarter, their offense came around and their shots began to fall to back-up their defense. In the third quarter alone, the Pirates doubled up their score to take a 34-14 lead into the fourth quarter.
It was the cushion they were hoping for on their Senior Night and with a game of this magnitude.
Perrydale entered the matchup undefeated in Casco League play, while St. Paul’s only loss of the season came against the Pirates on January 16. A Buckaroo win would pull St. Paul even with Perrydale atop the league standings, while a Pirate victory would give Perrydale the head-to-head tiebreaker for first place.
And with two league games remaining, the Pirates didn’t want to leave anything wonky to chance as they went to work in the fourth quarter. Closing out a 42-23 victory to clinch the number-one seed for the Casco League Playoffs here in a few weeks.
“The third quarter was really stressful because the third quarter sometimes is when our team kind of lose some of our momentum. But we were really able to just keep it up and to make sure we keep them behind us so they won’t make it close,” said Greta Fillible. “We need to play every game like we’re playing St. Paul, that’s when I think we’re at our best. We really can’t sink to anyone else’s level, or get in our heads. We got to keep the constant communication and our constant keeping up with our defense.”
Perrydale showed St. Paul their weak spots as Bucks Head Coach Julie Melcher pointed towards. Playing together and connecting on their free throws will be areas of improvement on moving forward into the final week of the regular season in preparation for the league playoffs ahead.
“Being together as a team and trying to play individually within our skill set and not trying too much individually. Our biggest opportunity is to stay together and play together,” Melcher. “We also missed about 20 free throws tonight, so obviously that’s a big area that we can easily improve on. We just got to be more mentally stronger and ready to go.”
Sienna Meza led St. Paul with 11 points. Kaila Gibson led the Pirates, who will play C.S. Lewis Academy on Monday, with 11 points as well.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
