By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

SALEM, Ore.–  You can sense that the Sprague Girls Basketball program is the right direction wrapping up non-league play this week.

They’re aggressive, working on their reads and getting more and more confident every time they step onto the court for practice and games.  Tuesday night especially in their 33-25 win over Lake Oswego, their third of the season.

“We’re making strides in practice every single day.  We’re seeing light bulbs going off a little bit and we’re starting to execute.  We’re starting to make reads which wasn’t an easy thing to do for us to do last year or earlier this year,” said Head Coach Trevor Bodine.  “We weren’t seeing that second-level defender and third-level defender, but now we’re starting to see that and we’re not worrying so much about who’s right in front of us. 

“We know where they are, we want to look at the next level defender and the help side defense and all that stuff.  So, we’re starting to see that in practice and they’re picking it up.  It’s good stuff.”

Bodine may have raised his blood pressure a few times along the course of the game with the Lakers making it close at a few crucial moments that challenged his team.  But the Olympians responded to the adversity, avoiding giving any kind of stroke-like aneurysm for their second-year Head Coach in-game.

From going down 12-11 down in the second quarter to seeing their 21-15 margin close to one in the third quarter, Sprague stayed with it.

McKenna Trussell and Alyssa Meza helped the Olys push their lead to 29-20 off a basket and two three-pointers.

Lake Oswego would answer, but we’re halted four points shy at 29-25 as Summer Melena pushed Sprague ahead as the Olympians were finding ways to stay ahead going into their non-league finale at Parkrose Friday and Mountain Valley Conference play starting Tuesday against Bend.

“We still have to work on it,” Trussell said of staying strong through the in-game adversity.  “But we’re definitely getting better as a team and being able to play through the hard defense and the intensity.  Pressing hard and going our hardest, I think going up (29-20) really gave us confidence.  We were able to take that and run with it.

“We got to play hard in practice and practice hard because what we do in practice is going to translate into the game.  Especially for us and our growing program, we got to practice harder than other teams to get better.”

Trusell finished with 13 points, leading Sprague in the category.  Meza contributed another 12 in the win. 

The Lakers Riley Ha had a game-high 14 points as Lake Oswego host Century Friday at 6:30pm.

Photos By Jeremy McDonald