By Bob Mortenson
Herald Writer
EVERETT-The Oak Harbor Wildcats come from a town that is known to pop tall for the occasional admiral, but in a pinch a brilliant floor general will suffice quite nicely.
Ball-hawking Valerie Hartman, a flashy senior point guard who perservered through the lean years, propelled the Oak Harbor to a 61-55 victory over the Shorecrest Scots and a berth in the Class 4A state tournament.
Oak Harbor (19-3) will first play Snohomish in the Northwest District championship game at 7:30 Saturday at Cascade High School. Shorecrest (15-7) meets Lake Stevens in a loser-out game at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Cascade.
“It’s exciting and I didn’t expect it at all at the start of the season,” Hartman said. “It’s a big shock.”
“I think this means a lot to our community,” Oak Harbor coach Dwight Lundstrom said of the Wildcats state tournament berth.
With Hartman superbly directing floor traffic the Wildcats jumped to an 8-0 lead in the opening minutes. That lead grew to 11-2 when Marcella Manibusan hit her second 3-point basket of the quarter.
Shorecrest stormed back behind Whitney Michaels and Haley Martin and finally surged ahead 24-23 on a Martin basket with 2:35 remaining in the half.
Hartman and Heidi McNeill scored four points each as Oak Harbor eased into a 31-28 lead at the break.
Hartman was fouled when she scored on a layin and added the free throw to put Oak Harbor up 38-31 with 5:27 left in the third quarter.
Martin answered with a putback basket, drew a foul and converted to get the Scots back within 38-34, but they could never get closer.
Manibusan’s jumper put Oak Harbor ahead 53-44 with 2:41 left in the game and Hartman added four more points inside the final minute.
Lundstrom perhaps felt happiest for the two seniors.
“They smelled it and wanted it,” Lundstrom said. “They deserved it.”
Hartman had five rebounds, four steals and three assists to go along with her 16 points. She and her teammates were able to constantly feed the ball to the agile and athletic McNeill who used a variety of brilliant moves to score 24 points. Shirley Spears added nine and Manibusan, a senior, contributed eight points and also snared four key rebounds.
Martin led Shorecrest with 21 points and had five steals. Michaels had a trio of key 3-pointers and wound up with 13.
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Shorecrest-Dennis 1, Sullivan 3, Michaels 13, Martin 21, Cornejo 7, Lawson 4, O’Suna 6. Oak Harbor-McNeill 24, Hartman 16, Manibusan 8, Kingma 4, Spears 9. 3-point goals-Hartman 1, Manibusan 2, Sullivan 1, Michaels 3. Records-Shorecrest 15-7 overall, Snohomish 17-4.
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