By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

AURORA, Ore.–  When the clock hit zero in their 51-44 epic victory over Klamath Union to break in the Field of 16 for the first time in years, the North Marion Girls Basketball team are back at it at practice Tuesday afternoon as they prep for a tough challenge in Seaside.

The task to get the girls back on track was an easy one said Lady Huskies Head Coach Dennis Melcher.

“It was easy,” he said.  “Cause they’re excited to be in the postseason play.  They’re focus is good, they’re excited to be here.  We had a good practice yesterday, spirits are good today, I anticipant having good practices and getting ready for Seaside.”

That excitement is justifiable, for most of these girls they’ve never really had that playoff experience or playoff success prior to Friday’s win against the Pelicans in recent years.

Sophomore Ally Umbenhower describes that there’s a learning curve here for her and her squad since only a hand full of seniors were part of the team that lost to Gladstone 38-34 in 2012-2013 and no one that has bracket experience.

“It’s exciting, (but) I think it’s going to be kind of hard for us because we never had people to look up to,” started Umbenhower.  “In all the years, no teams, no older girls have been in the bracket so we really don’t have anyone to look up to because we don’t have the role models, so I think it’s hard for us to learn on our own, but I think we’ll be competing.”

The good part to this madness for North Marion, in terms of preparation, in terms of building off the momentum and getting that bracket experience is that they’re facing a team in the Seagulls that they’ve played in the preseason early in the season.

“I think the fact that we played Seaside, it helps a lot,” said Kelsie Henry.  “We know what they are about and we know what we have to do and we’re coming off a good win so we’re prepared, we’re ready.”

Seaside, led by dominate guard player Maddi Utti, are sixth in the state of Oregon in 4A, and are 5-1 against Oregon West Conference teams.  That lone loss came by Cascade on December 11, but were pushed by the Huskies before pulling away late in their January 15 meeting.

From all they’ve seen and witnessed however, the girls from North Marion are ready for the task at hand.

“We know they’re offense, we know how they play,” said Umbenhower. “So we can really use that and film to build off of it and know what to do next time.”

The trick will to break their 1-2-2 zone-trapping defense, something that Melcher is confident that his team will attack and succeed in doing so, but the trick is to limit Utti with her touches and her outstanding rebounding skills.

“She’s very good, she’s very good,” said Melcher on Utti.  “When you have a player like that, our goal is to try to minimize her production.  Trying to keep her off the board, minimize her points and have the rest of the girls on Seaside’s team beat us.”

As Melcher, Umbenhower, Henry and the rest of the Lady Huskie girls take the court for practice; they know the task ahead is huge against the Seagulls.

But they are, and will be, ready for the Friday Night Fight at Seaside High School.  Tipoff is at 6:30pm.

Jeremy McDonald is a professional sports journalist in the Salem/Portland area and is a member of the Society of Professional Journalist in Oregon with B.S. degrees from Southern Oregon University in Journalism (2011) and Health/PE (2013).  Got a story idea? Email him at jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com or on Twitter at @J_McDonald81