By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

MOLALLA, Ore.– Crane quickly tied the game up with Gervais during the second half of their Summer League basketball game Friday afternoon at Country Christian.  It was tied 23-23 after the Cougars built a 23-18 lead moments earlier only to see one of the 1A top team’s pull back even with them.

Without the Boyds Sisters, Gervais only had Ava Sellers, Josie Schultz and Sofia Contreras to lead the young team.  Still a solid core in-house for their morning/early afternoon game.  The veteran trio helped guide the youngsters, each taking questions on the court and on the sidelines to help weather the storm that was going up against the Mustangs.

“It’s a great chance for us to do that now so when we get to the beginning of the season, these girls that we’re helping can bring it into the season,” Schultz said.  “We all communicated.  Whenever we had a question, we broke it down.  We took a timeout, we drew up the plays so we knew what we were doing.  Especially against a good team like Crane.”

“It was definitely huge, especially coming from the game we were coming from earlier.  We took a loss (to Amity), so it definitely boosted us and we were ready to go again..  So we’re definitely glad we took the win and even with Izzy and Liv being gone, we definitely can’t wait to tell them,” smiles Contreras. 

Gervais built a four-point lead midway through the second half that they sustained for the remainder of the game.  But Crane didn’t shy away as the three-ball kept things too close for comfort, the Cougs defense however held strong to close out the 37-34 Summer League win in their second Pool Play game at Country Christian.

” “Communication is huge right now and showing them what communication can do for us.  So it was huge in that if they didn’t do something, so a quick fix and they were on it,” Contreras said.

Photos By Jeremy McDonald