By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

HARRISBURG, Ore.– The length of the Blanchet Catholic Girls Basketball defense created headaches for the Jefferson offense to adjust to in Saturday night’s Championship game at the Harrisburg Tournament.  

It was one of those strong starts for the Cavaliers that showed promise for the season ahead coming out of their third game as they held the Lions to 11 first quarter points, trailing Jefferson 11-9 going into the second quarter.  But were faced with a challenge of their own in the second quarter when the Lions worked around their length with their three-point shooting coming out of the first.

“That was honestly one of our best games in the first quarter that we played,” Blanchet’s Lindsey Arritola said.   “Definitely work on our defense and calming down and settling into our offense more.  We’re  a good team, we just got to settle down and trust each other.  That’s something we’ve been trying to work on is trusting each other.”

For Jefferson, it started slow.  Genevieve Orton and Gretchen Orton each connected on a basket to push the lead to 15-9 before the Lions hit on five-straight three-pointers between the 6:17 mark and the 3:23 mark of the second quarter.

Amira Saad hit on three of the three’s while Aziza Saad and Gretchen Orton each had one three-pointer each.  Mixing in their defense stepping up on the other end, what was a 15-9 game quickly turned into a 30-9 lead before Blanchet Catholic scored their first points of the quarter at the 2:52 mark.  

It gave the Lions momentum as they rode it to a 31-14 lead by the halftime break and they didn’t relinquish the momentum into the second half.  Leading 42-18 going into the fourth quarter.

“It was big because we were having a tough time getting things to go in, getting rebounds.  But then everyone started hitting, it got everyone hyped up.  Which we hit more, we hit more.  We rebound more and our defense is so hyped because we’re hyped all over the place and we just wanted to keep going,” Gretchen Orton said.  “I think that’s what won us the game honestly, everyone supporting each other and wanting everyone to do good, not being selfish and passing the ball to the open player.”

Orton led the Lions with 19 points in the win.  Bella Kunkel contributed another 10 and Amira Saad finished with nine coming from those three three-pointers.  Interestingly, Jefferson hit on nine three’s in the game as the Lions took the game 50-20 to win the Harrisburg Tournament Championship Title and to improve to 4-1 on the year heading into Tuesday’s home game with Oregon Episcopal.

Paola Diaz-Hermosillo led Blanchet with eight points, Arritola contributed six in the defeat.  The Cavs will look to rebound Monday when they host Regis in a non-league game at home at 7pm 

Photos By Jeremy McDonald