By JOHN GUNTHER/for OSAAtoday
COOS BAY — There will be a new girls champion in the OSAA/OnPoint Community Credit Union 3A basketball championships.
Vale took down defending champion Banks 40-28 in the quarterfinals Thursday at Marshfield High School, using a stifling defense and some timely buckets to deny the Braves a chance to repeat as champions.
The Vikings held Banks without a field goal over the final 5:37 after the Braves had pulled within four points to advance to the semifinals against top-ranked Corbett at 6:30 p.m. Friday.
“It’s what we’ve been preaching all year,” Vale coach Randy Seals said of his squad’s defense. “We knew if we could just get to Coos Bay, that’s how you win games.”
As could be expected with two stellar defenses, the battle was a low-scoring affair early, with Vale leading 17-15 at the break.
But the Vikings surged out of the gates in the third quarter, scoring seven points in the first two minutes and keeping Banks scoreless for nearly six minutes while going in front 29-19 heading to the fourth.
“We kind of started slow,” said Vale’s Bella Johnson. “We started playing like we normally do in the second half.”
That meant forcing turnovers and converting transition opportunities.
Vale had its biggest lead at 31-19 after the first bucket of the final quarter, but Banks scored eight points in a row, fueled by its own defense.
That’s when Hailey Cleaver came up with a big shot, a 3-pointer from the top of the key to take the air out of the Banks run. The defense did the rest.
And that, Johnson said, is an entire team effort.
“We are all really supportive of each other,” she said. “We have good energy on the bench and that gives us good energy on the court.”
The Vikings also regularly play 10 girls, so they can keep fresh legs on the floor to fuel that pressure defense.
The defense kept Vale in a close game early, Seals said.
“We came out with a lot of nerves,” he said. “We missed a lot of easy shots early.”
He also credited Banks with keeping Vale in check.
“Banks’ defense is great, too,” he said. “We didn’t get many open looks. Everything was contested.”
Cleaver hit a pair of 3-pointers and led Vale with 18 points.
McKenna King had nine points and Nyla Vanthom seven for Banks, which faces Westside Christian in the consolation semifinals Friday morning at North Bend High School.
Vale, meanwhile, now will see if its defense can stymie high-scoring Corbett.
“We’re excited to keep it going,” Seals said.
CORBETT 60, WESTSIDE CHRISTIAN 45: In the tournament’s first game, the top-ranked Cardinals overcame a 14-point first-half deficit to beat the Eagles, who hadn’t been in the tournament in more than 15 years.
In the first half, Westside Christian looked like the tournament veteran.
Corbett scored the first two points but Westside Christian rattled off the next 15 and the Eagles had their biggest lead at 21-7 less than two minutes into the second quarter.
While the Cardinals struggled to get into a groove from outside, the Eagles were scorching the nets, hitting seven 3-pointers in the first half — three by Nyla Cabine.
After their opening hoop, the Cardinals didn’t score again until 1:25 remained in the first quarter, when Ella Holwege was fouled driving to the basket and hit both free throws.
But Corbett surged in the third quarter, outscoring the Eagles 18-5 and tying the game and going ahead late in the quarter on a pair of buckets a little more than a minute apart by Lilly Schimel.
The team talked at halftime about how there was still plenty of time and how much all the teammates have faith in each other to hit shots, she said.
“We literally had this same game at the beginning of the season,” Schimel said.
Corbett rallied behind the shooting of Schimel and her sister, Ally when they finally warmed up.
“We knew they were going to fall (eventually), we’ve just got to keep shooting,” Lilly Schimel said.
Corbett hit five 3-pointers in the second half, including two by each of the Schimel sisters and one by Holwege, and got a number of other baskets on drives to the hoop.
By the end of the game, Ally had 22 points, Lilly had 21 and Holwege had 13.
Lilly Jordan led Westside Christian with 20 points, including four 3-pointers. Cabine also had four 3s and 14 points and Ava Mai added eight points. The Eagles hit 11 3-pointers in all.
But Corbett moved on in the championship bracket in what Lilly Schimel described as the team’s best game yet, and also perhaps the most fun.
“(Because) they had that big of a lead, and the pressure we have, and just playing in this environment — it was so loud,” she said.
AMITY 62, NYSSA 38: The Warriors pulled away from a six-point halftime advantage to beat the Bulldogs and earn a spot in the semifinals.
Ada Nisly had 18 points and three teammates also scored in double figures — Eliza Nisly with 15 and Alyssa McMullen and Saralynn Grove with 10 each — to lead Amity, which faces Sutherlin n the semifinals at 8:15 p.m.
Clarissa Arizmendi had 13 points and London Hartley and Brynlee Hartley added nine each for Nyssa, which meets Creswell in the consolation semifinals.
SUTHERLIN 48, CRESWELL 32: Sutherlin pulled away from a seven-point halftime lead by holding Creswell to just four points (all on free throws) in the third quarter on the way to a semifinal date with Amity.
Madison Wagner had 15 points, Addyson Clark 11 and Madison Huntley 10 for No. 2 seed Sutherlin.
Dakota Carson had 10 points and Lauren Bailey eight for Creswell. But after the team hit four 3-pointers in the first half — two each by Carson and Brooke Moehlmann — the squad missed all its attempts from long-range the rest of the way.
