Lady Outlaws lose final game of season

Seven Outlaws seniors took honors prior to the Lady Outlaws’ final game of the season: Ashlynn Moffat, Haleigh Froehlich, Ellie Mayes, Delaney McAfee, Hadley Schar, Sage Wyland, and Josie Patton.

“This senior class has been through a lot in the last four years, including three coaching changes, a COVID-altered season, and the various misfortunes which seemed to plague us this year,” Coach Paul Patton said. “As a group, these girls were just a joy to coach and I appreciate the way they always gave their best effort in practices and games. I’ve been coaching these girls since they were in eighth grade and I’m really going to miss them.”

Individually, each player brought something unique and special to the team.

Patton said, “Ellie just loved playing basketball with her friends and always shouted out exuberant encouragement for her teammates.

Hadley stuck with it through some tough times, including missing a year due to a shoulder injury and took on the tough job as our point guard.

Ashlynn made steady improvement all four years and was one of our most consistent contributors.

She was also a unanimous choice as one of our team captains.

Delaney was our toughest on-ball defender and a quiet but determined competitor.

Haleigh led us in scoring for the season and was also a team captain who always had an encouraging word for her teammates.

Josie was a team captain as well and a four-year varsity starter who brought energy and toughness to the team.

Sage, in just her second year of basketball, improved to the point where she was giving us key minutes in almost every quarter.”

The Outlaws were as close to full strength as they’ve been all season, missing only Haleigh Froehlich. Ila Reid was cleared to play from a back injury that kept her out of action all season, and she gave the Outlaws a glimpse of how much better the team would have been this season had she been able to play, as she was the Outlaws’ high-scorer for the game against La Pine, with 13 points.

The first quarter was evenly played. Sisters got a long ball from Jenna Lake and buckets from Moffat and Shae Wyland. The second period stayed close with another three-pointer from Lake, and baskets from both Reid and Patton. In the third the Outlaws struggled to get their offense going and La Pine stretched their lead to four points. Sisters did go on a little spurt at the start of the fourth, sparked by a long ball from behind the arc from Moffat, which gave the Outlaws a 30-28 lead.

Sisters had their best scoring quarter of the game in the final period with 17 points, including seven from Moffat and six from Reid, but unfortunately gave up 19 points, which allowed La Pine to hold on for the win.

Reid led the Outlaws with 13 points, followed by Moffat, who had a strong performance with hustle plays on both ends of the court and 11 points in the game. Patton had a good all-around game and gave the Outlaws six points, as well as rebounds and tough defense, before she fouled out with 90 seconds left on the clock. Lake contributed six points and Shae Wyland added four.

Patton said, “There were two deciding factors in the game, and the first was our shooting woes. We out-shot them 58-39, but made only 33 percent. The other thing was them outscoring us at the foul line, hitting 14-of-20 to our 5-of-13.”

“The victory earned La Pine a fifth-place finish in league and dropped us to sixth,” added Patton. “Despite coming up short on the scoreboard I thought the girls represented themselves well, played with energy, and showed improvement overall from where we were as a team a few weeks ago.”

The Lady Outlaws finished the season 5-18. Considering the challenges they faced this season, with key players out the entire season due to injury and several others that missed significant chunks due to illness and injury, they felt they did about as well as could be expected.