By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

MILL CITY, Ore.–  Santiam’s Maizy Downey’s three at the buzzer seemed to be the thing that sparked the Wolverines in their 40-27 win over Kennedy.

The three came with the Santiam team leading 22-21 and had give rhe Wolverines some breathing room for their press to work in the final frame as the frosh proved to be Santiam’s spark plug in the game.  Scoring 19 points as the home team led 25-21 going into the final eight.

“I felt like that really helped because it brought up the energy.  I wasn’t shooting the best at the beginning, all of our team was struggling at the beginning and when we came out in the second half I feel like we really tried  and finished because we knew it was going to be hard,” Downey said.  “I feel like our press, getting steals over-and-over again and we moved the ball really well in their zone.  We had good energy the whole time and good effort.”

The Wolverines press proved to be tough for Kennedy, who grew accustomed to the heat during the middle quarters to keep pace with the squad.  But the Trojans couldn’t play a clean quarter to possibly pull off the win.

Turnovers caused the press hurt and Kennedy couldn’t capitalize the few shots they had as the Wolverines pulled away in the win.

“We really held down in the second half as much as we could.  They got on a run and it seemed like we couldn’t get back from that.  That first half was a helluva half,” Kennedy’s Sailor Hill said.  “I think pressure is a little hard for us since we’re a smaller team…we got to keep working on our shooting because that seems to be something holding us back a little bit tonight.  We got a lot of shots up tonight, it seemed like we couldn’t get much in.”  

Hill and Audrey Brendan each had eight points for the Trojans, who host Colton on Friday.  Averie Peterson added another seven for the Wolverines, who host Culver on Friday.  Both games are at 5:30pm.

Photos By Jeremy McDonald