By Jeremy Mcdonald

Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

INDEPENDENCE, Ore.– Central came out aggressive and were hitting their shots to start the game against South Albany.  Using the first 4:06 of the contest to jump out to a 17-4 lead in their 56-21 victory Thursday night.

Hadley Craig scored eight of 12 points in the first quarter that saw the Panthers lead 23-8 as Sadie Wendring paced the offense throughout with her 22 points with Central leading 36-14 at halftime.  Their defense, aggressive as they held the Redhawks to seven second half points in the Mid-Willamette Conference win.  The squads third such victory and sixth overall.

“We were expected to fast break on them, get on them quick and not really let off of them,” Craig starts.  “We really wanted to get a head start…It was good that we were playing aggressively.  We were passing really well and a lot of us scored more instead of one or two people really scoring.  I think it was awesome we were passing more and looking to score, we were working more as a team tonight which was good.”

With the Panthers sitting fifth in the league standings at 3-3, in a two-way tie with Lebanon, the next two games against Dallas and the Warriors will be huge for Central in building some momentum entering the second half of the league as they try to keep up with the top half of the league ahead of them. 

Building from this win in practice the next couple of days leading into Wednesday’s game with the Dragons before next Friday’s game with Lebanon.

“Just working hard in practice and keeping the intensity, especially on defense because defense is the most important and just putting in the work,” Wendring said.  

Peyton Foreman was the third Panther to score in double-figures with 11 points for the senior post player.  Karsen Angel led South Albany with eight points in the game.

Photos By Jeremy McDonald