Wildcats still alive in district

We aren’t done yet. Depleted by injuries, Oak Harbor High School basketball coach Brett McLeod had a patch-work group of determined players on the floor in Wednesday evening’s loser-out game of the Northwest District One 4A tournament at Marysville-Pilchuck against Edmonds-Woodway.

We aren’t done yet.

Depleted by injuries, Oak Harbor High School basketball coach Brett McLeod had a patch-work group of determined players on the floor in Wednesday evening’s loser-out game of the Northwest District One 4A tournament at Marysville-Pilchuck against Edmonds-Woodway.

Nicole Mowbray was out of action with a dislocated jaw and other players were missing from the lineup due to hand, back and knee injuries, so it was up to Jessica Denmon, Cori Henricksen, Kathryn Fisken, Jennifer Jansen and Cheyenne Tubo to start the game with Clarissa Abadesco, Molly DeLeon and Shantae Young filling in off the bench.

And all the young ladies came through — big time.

Oak Harbor scored the first basket of the game and never surrendered the lead.

Edmonds-Woodway tied the score twice in the third period but in the end, it was all Oak Harbor as the Wildcats came through with a 52-46 victory.

“We’re still alive,” McLeod said. “I like what we did out there tonight. We took care of the ball defensively and made some shots.”

Denmon scored nine points in the first quarter to get the Wildcats off to a flying start, but it was Jansen who played probably the best game of her high school career.

The senior scored a game-high 25 points and battled the Warrior players for rebounds at both ends of the court.

“We really had to step up tonight because Nikki was out, so I was pretty much playing for two people out there,” Jansen said. “I didn’t want it to be my last game, so I gave it my all.”

Scrappy play under the boards and gaining control of a lot of loose balls was one of the keys to the Wildcat victory, along with hitting 21-of-25 attempts from the free throw line.

Jansen was 7-for-9 from the charity stripe, Fisken and Denmon both went 5-for-6 and Tubo along with Abadesco were perfect at 2-for-2.

“It was a big win for us tonight, obviously,” McLeod said. “We got a lot of contributions from a lot of people. A couple of them never played varsity before and they got in there and gave us some quality minutes.”

Oak Harbor took a 17-10 lead after the first quarter and were ahead 25-19 at halftime.

Edmonds-Woodway trimmed the margin to three points, 33-30, heading into the final eight minutes of action, but 19 Oak Harbor points in the fourth quarter, including 11 from the charity stripe, put the game away.

Sydney Donaldson scored 19 points for the Warriors and teammate Angela Woods had 10.

Oak Harbor 52, Edmonds-Woodway 46

Oak Harbor 17 8 8 19 — 52

Ed-Woodway 10 9 11 16 — 46

Oak Harbor (52) —Jennifer Jansen 9 7-9 25, Jessica Denmon 4 5-6 14, Cheyenne Tubo 1 2-2 4, Cori Henricksen 0 0-0 0, Kathryn Fisken 0 5-6 5, Clarissa Abadesco 1 2-2 4, Shantae Young 0 0-0 0, Molly DeLeon 0 0-0 0. Totals 15 21-25 52.

Edmonds-Woodway (46) — Sydney Donaldson 9 0-0 19, Angela Woods 3 3-4 10, Madeline Kasper 1 0-0 3, Abby Butler 4 0-0 9, Alex Kennedy 1 0-0 3, Amia Nash 0 2-2 2, Ashley Albertson 0 0-0 0. Totals 18 5-6 46.

Three-point goals — Oak Harbor 1 (Denmon), Edmonds-Woodway 5 (Kasper, Kenney, Butler, Donaldson, Woods. Total fouls — Oak Harbor 9, Edmonds-Woodway 18. Fouled out — none.