Vikings' season ends against Nighthawks

DAYTON - Two familiar Whitman County foes in the Garfield-Palouse Vikings and Oakesdale Nighthawks girls basketball teams faced off on Feb. 15 to determine who would face Sunnyside Christian in the 1B District 9 consolation bracket final.

The win would go to Oakesdale, who beat Garfield-Palouse 54-23 in a dominant showing.

The Lady Vikings opened the game with a 4-0 advantage, keeping the Nighthawks offense to the perimeter and limiting opportunities for points from inside the paint.

Oakesdale started to get more and more rebounds and, as a result, opened the full-court offense that had won the team so many games this past season.

After starting the game trailing, the Nighthawks closed out the first quarter with an 18-5 run to go into the second frame up by nine.

Garfield-Palouse wouldn't score a point for the rest of the first half as Oakesdale increased its tally by 15 to go into halftime up by 24.

"I think all the coaches were really pleased with our defensive effort tonight," Oakesdale head coach Heidi Perry said. "Holding them to nine in the first half – we knew we would have to really pick up our defensive intensity against these guys because they have some players that can really score and really shoot the ball. And you just never know when it's going to be someone's night to be on. We were really proud of how we responded defensively. And offensively, they really made us work with what we got."

Kennedy Cook would score with 6:33 to go in the third quarter to give the Vikings their first points in over 18 minutes, but the team could only muster one more bucket for the rest of the frame and Oakesdale was the owner of a 40-13 advantage going into the final quarter.

The Vikings almost-doubled their point total in the fourth quarter alone, but it would avail them not and the Nighthawks ended the game with a 31-point win over their inter-county rival.

"This year, everyone on our team had a new role," Garfield-Palouse coach Garrett Parrish said. "We lost so many girls from last year that even the girls who played last year had to step up into new roles, and then the injuries started coming. We had girls step up and play really well, and I thought we battled all year. It seemed like we could never get a rotation settled for more than a couple weeks, and then it would change. But that's life.

"I thought our girls did a great job. I thought we got better as the year went on. Losing like this, it's hard to see, but I thought our girls really did well throughout the year. So, I'm excited going forward. We got a good group of younger girls and should be some good years ahead."

Kyra Brantner led the Garfield-Palouse girls with nine points in the loss.

Oakesdale was paced with 20 points from Jessie Reed. Marilla Hockett also recorded 16 points for the Nighthawks in the win, 12 of them coming in the second quarter.

GARFIELD-Palouse (8-12, 5-7)

Kara Blomgren 0 0-0 0, Zoe Laugary 1 0-0 2, Kennedy Cook 2 1-6 5, Elena Flansburg 1 0-0 3, HettyLee Laughary 0 0-0 0, Krya Brantner 4 0-0 9, Kadence Kivi 1 0-0 2, Kinsley Kelnhofer 1 0-0 2. Totals 10 1-6 23.

OAKESDALE (19-3, 13-3)

Emily Dingman 2 0-0 5, Jessie Reed 10 0-1 20, Marilla Hockett 6 1-2 16, Bradyn Henley 2 0-2 4, Lucy Hockett 2 0-0 4, Grace Perry 1 0-0 3, Samantha Holling 1 0-0 2. Totals 24 1-5 54.

3-point goals – Flansburg, Brantner, M. Hockett 3, Dingman, Perry.