OAK HARBOR — The Oak Harbor Wildcats did almost everything right Wednesday night.
They dove for loose balls. They ran their half-court trap, resulting in sloppy ball-handling by the Snohomish Panthers. They turned the ball over just 14 times to Snohomish’s 20.
The Wildcats did everything right but win.
Snohomish post Shante Scott scored the winning basket with an eight-foot runner in the lane, shooting over several Wildcat defenders with 4.8 seconds to play.
Scott’s shot gave Snohomish a 41-40 victory and negated a tremendous effort by Oak Harbor.
“(Oak Harbor) battled — they outplayed us,” Snohomish coach Ken Roberts said. “Oak Harbor outworked us. They outworked us on the boards, outworked us all over the floor. They played harder than we did tonight. They deserve a lot of credit.”
Though the season is still young, there were ramifications at the top of the Wesco North standings. Snohomish, which entered the contest in first place, a half-game ahead of Lake Stevens and Oak Harbor, moves to 4-0 in league play and 5-1 overall.
The loss was Oak Harbor’s first of the season, and drops the Wildcats to 2-1 in league play and 4-1 overall.
“That was tough to take,” Oak Harbor coach Brett McLeod said. “I felt like we played hard (and) we played tough. There’s one possession — anywhere in the game that could’ve made the difference. You got to hand it to (Snohomish) for coming through in the end.”
Utilizing its half-court trap on-and-off throughout the first quarter, Oak Harbor jumped to an early 6-4 lead. But when Snohomish did solve the trap, the Wildcats couldn’t answer 6-foot-1 Panther Katie Benson, who scored Snohomish’s first seven points.
Keyed by Benson’s dominating presence in the post, the Panthers closed out on a 7-1 run over the final 3:30 of the first quarter to lead 11-7.
Jessica Denmon’s 3-pointer with 5:10 left in the second period put Oak Harbor up 14-13, giving them their first lead since midway through the first quarter.
After entering the intermission tied at 20, Denmon scored the first four points of the third quarter as the Wildcats built a 26-20 lead while holding Snohomish scoreless for the first 4:30 of the third quarter.
But a 3-pointer by the Panthers’ Allison Burns tied it at 28 and the teams entered the fourth quarter knotted at 30.
Oak Harbor again jumped ahead in the fourth quarter behind a free throw and 3-pointer from Mietra Smollack. But Snohomish battled back, climbing to within one at 40-39 with 33 seconds to play on a 3-pointer by Emily Guthrie.
Snohomish fouled Smollack with 17 seconds left and Smollack missed the front end of a one-and-one, setting up Snohomish’s final possession.
Scott took the inbounds pass and her shot with less than five seconds to play proved to be the difference in a tough win for the Panthers.
“I was hoping we’d come out with a little more intensity,” Scott said. “I knew it was going to be a tough win and we were going to have to fight for it and it was. I think the last few seconds proved we wanted it.”
Despite the outcome, Roberts wasn’t exactly enamored with his team’s performance.
“We just didn’t execute,” he said. “They ran a press back into a zone and we did not execute our offense once we broke the press.”
Smollack led all scorers with 18 points. Benson led the Panthers with 11, all but two coming in the first half.
At Oak Harbor H.S.
Snohomish1191011—41
Oak Harbor7131010—40
Snohomish—Guthrie 3, Lampman 7, Burns 3, Benson 11, Heard 6, Scott 6, Desmarais 3, Miller 2, Fairbanks, OH—Tubo, Denmon 9, Baeyen 2, Smollack 18, Thiel 2, Jansen 7, Henricksen, R. Smith, Chong 2, T. Smith, Russell. 3 point goals—Denmon 1, Lampman 1, Burns 1, Smollack 1, Guthrie 1. Records—Snohomish 4-0 league, 5-1 overall. OH 2-1, 4-1.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
