Lady Outlaws win two on hardwood

The Lady Outlaws basketball team defeated Philomath 57-53 at home on Tuesday, January 10. The following Saturday, January 14, they earned a 63-52 victory over Crook County.

Sisters took an early 6-2 lead in Tuesday’s game with Philomath and then lost their momentum.

Coach Bill Blevins said, “We had the lead and from there we didn’t play very hard or smart.”

The Outlaws found themselves down by double digits for most of the second quarter and then had a two-minute flurry to cut the Lady Warriors’ lead to six. Sisters finished the second quarter outscoring Philomath by one point and entered the half down by six, 35-29.

Sisters played the third quarter much the same as the first and the second, neither hard or smart. The Lady Warriors outscored Sisters 12-9 to take a 47-38 advantage.

The Outlaws picked up their intensity and attacked the basket in the fourth quarter and held the Warriors to just six points. Jenny Boswell had a great quarter and scored nine of her 15 points. The Outlaws finished with a 57-53 victory.

“We were much more aggressive in going to the basket in the final quarter,” said Blevins, “and we began to block out, which really helped us.”

The Outlaws were 45 percent from both the field and the free throw line.

Katie Hughes led the Outlaws with 23 points, including four “threes.” Hughes also pulled down four boards, had two assists and three steals.

Jenny Boswell finished with 15 points, four rebounds and fours steals and Emily VanBlaricum added five points and five rebounds.

Cortney Metcalf had five points for the night and Cammy Jacobson had four points and eight rebounds.

Blevins noted the play of Jacobson and Metcalf.

“Cammy came in and did a very nice job getting offensive rebounds,” said Blevins, “and Cortney played some solid minutes as well.”

Blevins feels his team is improving but hasn’t yet played well for an entire game.

“We are getting better,” said Blevins, “but we still haven’t put together a full game. I think we played good 10 of the 24 minutes of the game. We have to put a full game together if we’re going to compete for the League Championship.”

Senior Jenny Boswell said, “We always seem to do better toward the end of the game. We don’t come out of the locker room ready to play at the beginning. If we do that in league we’re going down. I think we’re physically there but we’re not there mentally yet. We turn the ball over a lot and take shots that aren’t needed. I honestly think our coach needs to be harder on us in practice when we make mistakes like we did tonight on the court. We need to pay a consequence for making stupid mistakes. If we pay a price for it in practice I think we’ll be a better team.”

On Saturday the Lady Outlaws recorded their third consecutive win when they earned a victory at Crook County.

Sisters once again had a slow first-quarter start and found themselves down 18-7 at the end of the first quarter.

In the second period the Lady Outlaws were able to turn things around due to their defensive play.

“We righted the ship on the type of effort we were giving defensively,” said Blevins. “Everybody was contributing and we did a nice job of finding Cindy (Harp) who was working hard in the low post. Once she (Harp) got the ball she scored.”

Sisters outscored Crook County 22-10 in the second quarter to take a 29-28 lead at the half.

Blevins told The Nugget that the third quarter represented the best basketball he’s ever been a part of in his entire coaching career.

“We really did a great job of forcing a lot of turnovers in the full court press and the half court trap. Once we got the ball we passed the ball well to each other. We set up our teammates for wide open shots and shot the ball extraordinarily well.”

Sisters outscored Crook County 28-7 in the third period to take a 57-35 lead.

The fourth quarter found the Outlaws short players and in a bit of a bind. Brandy Palmer sprained her ankle in the third quarter and was unable to return to the game. Cammy Jacobson and Katie Hughes had both fouled out with four minutes still left in the final period. Sisters played without Emily VanBlaricum the entire game who was still out nursing an ankle injury.

“We just protected our lead in the fourth quarter and didn’t play as aggressively offensively. We got our third win in a row and they’ve all been games against some pretty good teams. We’re entering league playing our best basketball of the season.”

Jenny Boswell led Sisters with 22 points, 10 rebounds and three steals. Katie Hughes scored 12 points and had five steals. Cindy Harp contributed 11 points and pulled down five boards and Jennifer Friend added 10 points and four steals.

The Outlaws shot 40 percent from the field and were 62 percent from the line.

The Outlaws will face Molalla at home on Friday, January 20. The game is set to start at 5:30 pm.