By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

STAYTON, Ore.–  It was a slow start for the Stayton Girls basketball team coming off of their nearly 20-day layoff from their last game to North Marion.

But once the Eagles found their groove, they took off in their 66-29 win over Cottage Grove Tuesday evening to start the SCTC Holiday Classic.  Running away with the game following the game being knotted up at eight apiece in the first quarter.

“Our team has been working really hard in staying together through hard times and I felt like we did that in this game.  There were some tough patches, but they didn’t last long and we pulled each other together,” Karlee Tyler said.  “I’m really proud of the team for sticking together through it the whole time.”

Tyler finished with 19 points in the win, scoring five of them in the opening frame that saw Stayton jump out to a quick 8-2 lead to start the game.  The Lions responded with a 6-0 run to knot the game up at eight, but couldn’t sustain that energy with the Eagles slowly waking up around this time.

Stayton finished the quarter, and the half, with a blazing pace.  Outscoring Cottage Grove 28-10 to gain a 36-18 halftime advantage that they continued into the second half where they pushed it to 52-24 going into the fourth quarter as they’ll look to continue this trek Wednesday against Sweet Home at 4:30pm.

“It was fun to compete and it was fun to come back from the last game with a win.  We all came together as a team, we need to bring the same intensity (tomorrow), a little more aggression and unity.  Play as a team,” Kenzi Hollenbeck said.

Hollenbeck finished with 12 points for the Eagles.  Maddy Mitzel contributed nine and Tori Nyquist added another eight in the win.

Photos By Jeremy McDonald