Viking girls stake claim over Nighthawks with win

PALOUSE - In a highly anticipated Whitman County girls basketball showdown, the Garfield-Palouse Vikings evened their regular season record against the Oakesdale Nighthawks with a 38-31 victory on Saturday, Jan. 20. The game was played in Palouse.

With the win, Garfield-Palouse are riding a three-game winning streak heading into the home stretch of games.

The Nighthawks lost their second district game on the year.

Earlier in the season, these two Whitman County teams met in Oakesdale, with the Nighthawks coming away with the 38-36 victory. This time, Garfield-Palouse scored 38 points, earning their victory over Oakesdale.

Both Oakesdale and Garfield-Palouse are stellar on defense, which shows, as both meetings between the two teams saw 38 points as the winning tally needed.

In the game Saturday, Jan. 20, both teams were tied at the end of the first quarter with five points.

Garfield-Palouse would put the game away in the second quarter, out-scoring Oakesdale 12-9 as they took a three-point lead heading into halftime.

After the break, the Vikings controlled the game, doubling up the Nighthawks 8-4 in the third to take a seven-point lead into the final quarter.

Oakesdale threatened early in the fourth, producing baskets and getting stops, but the Vikings stood their ground, made their free-throws when needed, and earned the 38-31 victory.

Freshman Kyra Brantner led the Vikings with 11 points. She went 3/11 from the field and 1/1 from three.

Elena Flansburg had seven points on two made baskets, and both Morgan Lentz and Zoe Laughary had five points.

Defensively, Garfield-Palouse grabbed 23 rebounds, stole the ball 12 times, and had 15 turnovers. Laughary had four rebounds in the game, and Brantner had four steals.

For the Nigthawks, they were led by Samantha Holling, who had herself a double-double with 10 points and 15 rebounds. She went 5/7 from the field for a shooting percentage of 71%.

Payton Davis had seven points and seven rebounds for Oakesdale, and Lucy Hockett had five points.

The Nighthawk team grabbed 46 rebounds, 19 of them coming on the offensive end. The struggles for Oakesdale were their 21 turnovers and 15 fouls.

"We had some struggles on the offensive side of things last week, but we'll get that figured out and be back on track. One of the most admirable qualities of this team is our ability to stay positive and use adversity to bring us together. Last week was exactly the test we needed and I'm certain we'll be stronger because of it," said Oakesdale head coach Heidi Perry.

Oakesdale played two other games this week, going 1-1. Their lone victory was against the Pomeroy Pirates, where Holling had 15 points and 10 rebounds, and Grace Perry had 14 points, four rebounds and five steals in a 52-15 victory.

The loss was a 44-40 defeat against Wilbur-Creston-Keller. Perry finished with 14 points, nine rebounds and four assists. Bradyn Henley, Hockett and Davis each had seven points in the game as well.

For Garfield-Palouse, the game against Oakesdale was their only one of the week. Their next match is Friday, Jan. 26, when the Vikings take on the Colton Wildcats in another crucial match in the 1B district standings. The game will be senior night for the Vikings, taking place in Palouse, with tip-off set for 6 p.m.

Oakesdale will play Friday, Jan. 26, with a home match against the Dayton Bulldogs, in Oakesdale at 6 p.m.