By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

GERVAIS, Ore.–  For about the first five-and-a-half minutes, the Santiam Girls Basketball team held the Gervais basketball team in check trailing 6-3 to the Top 5 2A squad Friday evening on the road.  Taking advantage of the Cougars slow start to the game to keep things interesting before Gervais began to pull away in their 53-19 home victory on Friday.

Known more as a second half team, it was a good start for the Cougars knowing who’s on the horizon with Salem Academy on Tuesday at home.

“We’ve been definitely working on coming out and box-out, box-out, box-out.  That’s what we’ve been working on since the start of the season, so when we go up against Salem Academy we definitely want to focus on the small things,” Gervais’ Sofia Contreas said.  “We need to work on all the small details and working our way up to Salem Academy, I’m excited to play them.”

Gervais ended the game on a 47-16 run with Olivia Boyd scoring 18 points, Izzy Boyd contributed eight and Angela Villegas had seven.

Santiam, who were led by six points by Reis Longfellow and another four by Maizy Downey, this last three game stretch has been a good learning experience for them as they head to play Blanchet Catholic Tuesday at home in Mill City.

“I feel like they started to make us go fast, especially in the press.  They gave us a lot of pressure and we just weren’t ready for it.  We didn’t get back on defense very well this game and most of their baskets were transition,” Downey said of the game Friday.  “If we move the ball really well then it’ll help a lot.  When you move the ball, like the last part of the game we started moving it well and got some good shots off of it.  We just need to reset.  If we don’t get the shots we wanted, then we need to calm down because we were going fast with our plays.

Photos by Jeremy McDonald