SNOHOMISH – Shoot or sit.
Some basketball coaches blow a gasket when their players shoot too much. Snohomish girls coach Ken Roberts isn’t one of them.
Though it took a while for the shots to fall, Snohomish found enough touch Wednesday night to beat Oak Harbor 59-36 in a Western Conference North Division game at Snohomish High School.
“They’ll start falling eventually,” said Roberts, whose team improved to 2-0 in the division and 4-0 overall. “If not this game, next game. That’s the way I look at it.”
Snohomish made only six of its first 29 field-goal attempts, but held a 15-13 lead with 1 1/2 minutes remaining in the first half.
That’s when the Snohomish arsenal began hitting its target. The Panthers outscored Oak Harbor 24-2 – capped by six straight points from post Emily Cassidy – for a 39-15 lead five minutes into the second half.
“I think we relaxed a little when they started missing shots,” Oak Harbor coach Brett McLeod said. “Once we relaxed, they started making them. They are just too good of a team for us to relax.”
The Panthers missed their first 11 3-point shots before gunslingers Tara Angell and Amanda Best began heating up.
Angell, who scored a season-high 18 points, made three of her four 3-pointers during the decisive run. She hit her fourth shortly after Amanda Watts broke up Snohomish’s tear with a pair of free throws.
Best scored 10 of her 14 points during Snohomish’s 11-2 run in the first 2:38 of the fourth quarter. Best, a 5-foot-10 freshman non-starter who leads the team in scoring (12.8 points per game), isn’t shy about shooting.
“If you don’t shoot, you’re not going to make it,” said Best, who also pulled down nine rebounds. ” … Coach just wants us to shoot. And if I don’t shoot, I don’t play.”
When his players aren’t throwing up shots, Roberts expects some tough defense. The Panthers allowed Oak Harbor (1-1, 3-2) to make only 14 of 50 field-goal attempts (28 percent). Heidi McNeill, a 6-foot-3 post, contributed game highs of 18 points and 13 rebounds, but the Wildcats had to scrounge for every point.
“We are really emphasizing defense this year,” said Roberts, whose team won the division title last season but did not make it to the state playoffs. “Last year I felt we weren’t strong enough inside physically and did not block out well enough on defense.”
Cassidy, a 5-foot-10 junior, showed some muscle inside, contributing 11 points, seven rebounds and tough defense on McNeill despite missing large chunks of time with foul trouble.
Both teams suffered through some horrid shooting in the first half. Oak Harbor made six of 27 field goal attempts and missed seven of eight free throws, including three blanks on one-and-one opportunities.
Snohomish made nine of 32 field goals and shot three of eight from the free-throw line. The Panthers held a slim 15-13 lead before getting hot in the final 1:14 of the half. Angell, Snohomish’s all-time 3-point leader, hit two from behind the arc and Best made a jump shot to give Snohomish a 23-13 halftime advantage.
At Snohomish
Oak Harbor-McNeill 18, Smollack 2, Watts 6, Merritt 2, Hill 3, Bratt 5. Snohomish-Best 14, Henderson 1, Moore 5, Angell 18, Marshall 2, Benson 6. Wilde 2, Cassidy 11. 3-point goals-McNeill 1, Hill 1, Best 2, Angell 4. JV score-Snohomish 40, Oak Harbor 14. Records-Oak Harbor 1-1, 3-2. Snohomish 2-0, 4-0. |
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