It took the Oak Harbor girls basketball team one quarter to get warmed up in Friday’s WesCo North game against Everett.

After falling behind 14-11 after the first eight minutes of action, the Wildcats stepped things up on defense and held the Seagulls to single digit scoring in the second and third quarters to win their first league game of the 2006/07 season, 58-42.

The victory evened the Wildcats’ league record at 1-1, and upped the overall season mark to 5-1.

“I thought what really got us into it was our energy on the boards,” coach Brett McLeod said. ”We finally started to box out and we started to use our height to our advantage.”

Lauren Hope scored the first basket of the second period for Everett but after that, the Wildcats went to work.

Mietra Smollack scored a basket at the 5:55 mark and Janaey Baeyen cut the Seagulls’ lead to a single point, 16-15, with a basket 25 seconds later.

Everett went up by three points when Maureen Frauenholtz scored, but then Jessica Denmon scored six straight points to put Oak Harbor in front to stay, 23-19.

Denmon provided a big lift for the Wildcats scoring 11 of her 16 points in the second quarter.

“It was really intense and I thought we all did a good job tonight,” she said.

Oak Harbor put a lot of pressure on Everett’s ball handlers and held the Seagulls scoreless after the 5:17 mark, and finished the quarter with an 11-0 run to take a 28-19 halftime lead.

Everett seemed determined to score from the outside and took a number of shots from beyond the arc, but was able to score only three 3-point goals in the game.

With their superior height, this gave the Wildcats a big advantage under the boards with 6-foot, 2-inch junior Clair Thiel and 5-foot, 10-inch sophomore Jasmine Chong pulling down many defensive rebounds.

“We got some rebounds on the offensive end and then we started getting some defensive rebounds that got us out on our breaks. That’s when we really got things turned around,” McLeod said.

Coming in off the bench, Chong also contributed to the offense, scoring eight points.

“I think that everybody got some good rebounds and our point guards got us some fast breaks off steals,” she said.

Playing steady basketball the entire game, Smollack scored a game-high 17 points and was a perfect 6-for-6 from the free throw line.

“We just tried stay consistent and work the ball around so everyone could get a nice shot,” she said. “We really wanted come out and win this one, and we did it. We were really aggressive and we got a league win, and now we are going to try and get the rest of them.”

Overall, the Wildcats had a big game from the charity stripe, hitting on 21 of 32 attempts.

In the third quarter, the Wildcats held a 13-9 scoring advantage and put the game in the book by hitting for 17 additional points in the final eight minutes.

Baeyen scored eight points for Oak Harbor and Cori Hendricksen had five.

Everett had three players in double figures led by Erika Hornyak with 14 points. Frauenholtz had 13 and Hope hit for 12.

Oak Harbor hosts a holiday tournament Dec. 28 and 29, with the Wildcats playing Lynden in the opening round at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

Oak Harbor 58, Everett 42

Everett 14 5 9 14 — 42

Oak Harbor 11 17 13 17 — 58

Everett (42) — Hornyak 5 3-3 14, Frauneholtz 5 3-6 13, L. Hope 5 0-0 12, Taleu 1 1-2 3, A. Hope 0 0-0 0, Pabisz 0 0-0 0, Fingarson 0 0-0 0, Bell 0 0-0 0. Totals 16 7-11 42.

Oak Harbor (58) — Smollack 5 6-6 17, Denmon 5 5-6 16, Baeyen 2 3-4 8, Chong 3 2-4 8, Russell 0 3-4 3, Smith 0 1-6 1, Hendricksen 2 1-2 5, Thiel 0 0-0 0. Totals 17 21-32 58.

Three-point goals — Everett 3 (L. Hope 2, Hornyak); Oak Harbor 3 (Baeyen, Denmon, Smollack).