Nighthawk girls advance to state

DAYTON - After beating Garfield-Palouse on Feb. 15 to advance to the girls 1B District 9 consolation final, the Oakesdale Nighthawks punched their ticket to state with a 30-29 win against the Sunnyside Christian Knights.

Oakesdale had won its previous meeting with Sunnyside Christian 54-35, but the Knights had a game plan to isolate the Nighthawks on the defensive end, making it harder for Oakesdale to employ the fast-break offense that had won the team so many games this season.

"That's what you'd expect from a loser-out game for sure," Oakesdale head coach Heidi Perry said. "The big thing is when you get down in a low-scoring game like that – we were having such a hard time scoring – is just to tell (the players) 'Hey, there's no reason to panic. Let's just keep after it, we're getting good shots something eventually is going to drop.'"

The Nighthawks would have to get those drops over the course of the whole game.

It took almost 11 minutes of regulation for a team to break double-digit points and that team was Sunnyside Christian, who had a 10-4 lead with 5:08 to go in the first half.

Two-and-a-half minutes later, the Nighthawks still had failed to break double-digits and the Knights led 15-8 with 2:34 to go in the first half.

Oakesdale would end the first half with a 5-0 run and would begin the third quarter within two, with Sunnyside Christian leading 15-13.

Both teams would spend much of the third quarter taking one-shot leads, then the other would tie it. This pattern would continue until the third frame ended with Oakesdale owning a 24-22 lead going into the final eight minutes of regulation.

Oakesdale would have the lead throughout the fourth quarter, but by no more than four points. With 4:18 left in the game, Sunnyside Christian found itself in the bonus with the Nighthawks leading 29-28.

Both squads could only muster one point each in the remaining four minutes, and the game came down to one last possession by the Knights, who couldn't get a shot up through two defenders nor get the rebound for the potential second-chance score, giving the Nighthawks the one-point win and a 1B state tournament berth.

The last play was a physical one from the shot contest to the rebound, indicative of the defensive nature of the game throughout.

"Sunnyside just had an excellent defensive game plan," Perry said. "So, they deserve tons of credit for that. I thought they might box-and-one somebody, because I had seen them do it before, but it's not something we've played against before, so it's hard to really replicate that in practice. But somehow we found a way to get it done."

Marilla Hockett led the Nighthawks with 10 points in the low-scoring affair.

Haile Van Wieringen led the Knights with nine total points.

The Oakesdale girls basketball team will open the WIAA 1B State Tournament with Regional round competition at 6 p.m., Feb. 25, against Mossyrock at W.F. West High School in Chehalis.

SUNNYSIDE CHRISTIAN (18-6, 9-2)

Violet Bosma 2 2-4 7, Devan Harrington 2 3-5 8, Sadie Akseth 0 0-1 0, Breya Faber 1 2-4 5, Addie Smeenk 0 0-0 0, Taylor Andringa 0 0-0 0, Hailee Van Wieringen 4 0-0 9. Totals 9 7-14 29.

OAKESDALE (20-3, 14-3)

Emily Dingman 0 1-4 1, Jessie Reed 1 1-2 3, Marilla Hockett 3 4-6 10, Bradyn Henley 1 1-2 3, Lucy Hockett 3 0-2 8, Grace Perry 0 0-0 0, Samantha Holling 2 0-1 5. Totals 10 7-17 30.

3-point goals – Bosma, Harrington, Faber, Van Wieringen, L. Hockett 2, Holling.