Wildcats win tie-breaker, earn spot in play-in game | Girls basketball

Published 8:36 am Thursday, February 11, 2016

After defeating Everett for the second time in two days, the Oak Harbor High School girls basketball team earned a spot in the district tournament play-in game at 7 p.m. at Edmonds-Woodway High School Thursday, Feb. 11.

The Wildcats won 39-38 at Everett Tuesday in the last conference game to finish in a tie for fourth place in the Wesco North with the Seagulls, then stopped visiting Everett again 43-33 Wednesday in the tie-breaker.

The Western Conference’s two fourth-place teams, Oak Harbor (8-13) from the North and Edmonds-Woodway (11-9) from the South, now play to determine the final seed into the district tournament.

Because of a mistake in the bracket listing, it was originally announced that the game would be played at the home of the North Division team. However, it’s the South’s turn to host after the North did last winter.

The winner of the play-in game will travel to Lynnwood (20-0) for the first round of the district tournament at 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 13. The Royals are ranked second in the state 3A poll and are the No. 1 seed in the tournament.

Oak Harbor took advantage of a poor shooting night by Everett to win the tie-breaker. The Seagulls repeated passed inside the Wildcat zone but couldn’t convert.

This wasn’t a flaw in the Oak Harbor defense but by design, coach Jon Atkins said. Based upon two earlier games with Everett, the Wildcats wanted to make the Seagulls prove they could score against the interior of the Oak Harbor zone. They couldn’t, and the Wildcats pulled out the win.

Three balls by Bryn Langrock and Julie Jansen gave Oak Harbor a 6-4 first quarter lead.

Seven points by Janae Payne and a three-pointer by Deja Bunch helped Oak Harbor go up 22-11 at halftime.

The margin grew to 15, 26-11, when AnnaBelle Whitefoot sank a free throw and Langrock connected on another three to start the second half. The Wildcats led 32-21 at the end of the quarter.

The Seagulls went on 7-0 run that bridged the third and fourth periods that cut the deficit to seven, 32-25, with 6:24 left in the game.

Two hoops by Payne stopped the Seagull surge, and Everett could get no closer than eight to rest of the way.

The victory was Oak Harbor’s third straight in must-win games.

“The kids wanted to keep play,” Atkins said. “The seniors aren’t ready for the season to end.”

He liked how his team overcame a slow offense start: “A lot of our shots didn’t go in, but it didn’t faze us. I thought we played well as a team, making the extra pass to get good looks.”

Payne came off the bench to lead Oak Harbor with 11 points. Langrock scored 10, Jansen nine, Bunch six, Rashanna Graham four and Whitefoot three.

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Top: Janae Payne takes aim. She led the Wildcats with 11 points.

Bottom: The Oak Harbor High School student sections shows its support for the Wildcats.

Photos by John Fisken.