By Jeremy McDonald
jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
AURORA, Ore.– North Marion found themselves in a slow start versus the JV squad from Oregon City Thursday night and the Lady Pioneers took full advantage of it with leads of 16-8 and 19-14 in the first half.
But, the Lady Huskies began to chip away at the deficit thanks for fouls against Oregon City that turned that deficit into a 31-24 lead with 2:45 left in the opening half as they extended the lead to 40-26 at the halftime buzzer.
“I think we all realize at first, it was like rough and we just had to pull it together if we really wanted to win,” starts Katie Ensign who had 14 of her 18 points in the first half. “And so we just focused and put our mind to it.”
And though they sailed somewhat comfortably to the 62-42 win to start the Abby’s Pizza Holiday Classic, they too know they’ll need to finish games better as their intensity cooled off for a bit during the second half of the game.
“I think we were trying to slow down and just run through our plays and work more together and stop being so frazzled,” said Makenzie Ulven as the Pioneers cut it to under 20 points during the fourth quarter.
“We just have to keep up the intensity strong and keep, have our energy stay consistent throughout the whole game so we can finish strong as we did at the beginning,” adds Ensign.
Ally Umbenhower had a team-high 23 points, Mya Hammack had 9 points, Mar Verastegui and Raymee Boese both added four apiece and Hannah Kinniburgh and Juana Aguilera had two apiece in the win.
Now it’s onto Hidden Valley (4-0) as the Mustangs defeated Corbett 57-29 Thursday to set up the 8pm showdown at North Marion Middle School in the tournament semi-final round.
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Photos By Jeremy McDonald
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