Monroe too much in the end
Published 10:00 am Saturday, February 21, 2004
A huge sigh of relief emanated from the Oak Harbor High School gym Tuesday night.
Put aside the fact the Oak Harbor girls basketball team lost its third game in a row, 84-68, to Monroe.
So what if the Wildcats (8-8, 11-9) finished the final 10 games of the season with a 3-7 record?
Oak Harbor finally appeared to right its ship, playing arguably its three strongest quarters of the season against the state’s seventh ranked team.
“This gives us a little bit of confidence going into districts and I think if we play like that we have a chance,” head coach Brett McLeod said.
For the first three quarters, OHHS battled blow-for-blow with the WesCo North leading Bearcats.
Senior Felicia Hill got things rolling for Oak Harbor in the opening quarter. The 5-foot-8 guard sparked the Cats in the first minute, stealing the ball and scoring a lay up with a foul. Hill erupted for 12 points in the first period, while going 3-for-3 from behind the three-point line to help Oak Harbor to a 22-21 advantage at the end of one.
“I was just so pumped up tonight,” she said.
Hill’s ability to knock down the long shot is something the Cats need as they enter the playoffs.
“When we’ve got that one person to loosen up the defense that just changes the whole complexion of the game,” McLeod said.
The Wildcats continued to hang close to the Bearcats over the next two quarters, trailing just 43-39 at the half and 63-59 after three.
Cold shooting, however, throughout the fourth quarter prevented Oak Harbor from prevailing in its final regular season game. The Wildcats shot a frigid 2-for-16 from the field. Monroe on the other hand knocked down its first three shots of the fourth quarter, building a 10 point lead they would not relinquish. The Bearcats hit a hot 27-for-55 (49-percent) for the game.
“You just give them a little bit of an inch and they’re putting shots in,” McLeod said.
Chelsey Zimmerman had a game-high 25 points for Monroe.
Hill led Oak Harbor with 22, followed by 20 points from junior Heidi McNeill.
Regardless of the rough fourth quarter, McLeod couldn’t be happier with the way the Wildcats recovered after suffering some tough defeats in the second half of the season.
“I feel real good about what we did considering how we’ve been playing,” he said. “I really like all the confidence everybody had.”
With a Lake Stevens loss to Marysville-Pilchuck on Thursday, the Cats clinched a guaranteed spot in the district tournament. Both teams wrapped up the season with 8-8 league records, but the Wildcats swept the Vikings this season, earning the tie-breaker. Lake Stevens now must play a loser-out “pigtail” match with Mountlake Terrace.
Oak Harbor begins the district tournament at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 25 at WesCo South number one, Edmonds-Woodway. The district tournament continues on Feb. 28 at Marysville-Pilchuck High School. Only two teams from WesCo will earn the right to go to this year’s state tournament.
Monroe 21 22 20 21—84
Oak Harbor 22 17 20 9—68
Scoring—OH: Hill 22, McNeill 20, Watts 11, Bratt 5, Smollack 4, White 3, Erickson 2, Merritt 1.
M: Zimmerman 25, Moriarity 17, Thompson 11, Heilman 9, Kolrud 8, Morton 6, D. Drivstuen 3, C. Drivstuen 2, Lotzgessel 2, Muhammad 1.
