Sports

LadyHawks survive lackluster effort to advance in district basketball play

The Peninsula girls remained alive in the District 3/4 3A basketball playoffs with a 43-34 loser-out victory over Auburn Riverside Tuesday night in Purdy. Though the 13-7 Seahawks got dumped into the loser’s bracket by the state’s sixth-ranked team, Lincoln, in their opener on Friday, they can still earn a state tournament berth by winning one of their next two games. The first comes Thursday at North Thurston, which took two tight contests from them during South Sound Conference play.

It was a game of runs Tuesday. Peninsula was the more talented team and able to get shots whenever it wanted, but might have looked past the Ravens. The Hawks would force a turnover and then throw it away, or launch the first shot they got. That type of play almost cost them the game, as Riverside  pulled within 35-34 with four minutes left.

“I think our girls overlooked them tonight,” Coach Mike Schick candidly offered. “We seemed to watch their tape and felt like this may be an easier game for us, but like I tell them, hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.”

The Seahawks, sensing that their season could soon be over, answered with timely buckets from Kaylia Heidelberg and Grace Richardson and forced two successive travels to go on an 8-0 run, then ground out the final four minutes for the victory.

Like they say, “a win is a win,” said Schick, and although he was upset with the play for the first 28 minutes, he was happy with the way his girls answered adversity and came out victorious.

“Earlier this year, we lost a couple games like this in the end because of our youth, but we have learned from that and tonight was a different story, when we needed it the most,” he said. “Credit to Auburn Riverside tonight and Coach Dion Moyd whose team never went away, kept hustling and were right there at the four-minute mark with a chance to win.”

Heidelberg led the Seahawks in scoring with 17 points, although the sophomore made just 4 of 12 3-pointers. She did hit a couple clutch threes late to answer Ravens runs and put the game out of reach. Richardson scored 10 points, directed the offense and was un-guardable, seemingly getting to the basket whenever she wanted. Brooke Zimmerman was a huge factor, contributing 12 points and a game-high seven steals, many of them late to seal the win. In the playoffs, it’s about surviving and advancing, and that’s exactly what Peninsula did.

In sports, it’s often difficult for any team to beat an opponent three times in one season. Sometimes it’s the familiarity of play, other times it’s the past victor that is overconfident while a team that’s been defeated twice has the eye of the tiger. Schick doesn’t expect his Seahawks to come out and play the way they did Tuesday. He feels they’ll be ready against conference co-champion North Thurston.

The Rams are led by freshman phenom Soraya Ogladez, who like Richardson can get to the cup at will, and by senior Tay Birdtail, who scored 27 points against the Seahawks in the first game. In the rematch, the Seahawks held Birdtail scoreless, but were hurt by Ogladez, who had 28 points.

The Seahawks will have their hands full with the Rams, but know they can play with and possibly beat them because they’ve dropped two games by a total of only nine points. With a shot at the state tournament on the line, Peninsula will be ready to play.

“Our girls were excited when they saw that we would play them again, and we will definitely be up for the challenge on Thursday night,” Schick said.