Jacks hold on, Tigers' seesaw rises to victory

QUINCY — Now it’s gravy time.

Coming off a 4-16 season in 2008-2009 the Quincy Jacks girls basketball team entered the new year with a lineup full of seasoned veterans with 12 months more experience.

What does it mean so far?

Well, after Quincy’s 56-55 win over visiting Grandview last night, the Jacks are now 4-2 overall and 2-2 in Central Washington Athletic Conference play.

They also equalled last year’s win total with 70 percent of their schedule remaining.

“We have experience with the whole team back,” Quincy coach Cully Donovan said. “They are playing with confidence and that 3-0 start helped. The seniors are also seeing the writing on the wall that they don’t have a next year.”

The two teams battled back and forth and Grandview (2-4, 1-3) managed to lead 31-29 at the intermission.

But some tweaks to their second half approach carried the day for the Jacks who slowly pulled away.

“In the second half we did a good job of limiting them to one shot and we took care of the ball,” Donovan said. “We also were hitting our shots and that always helps.”

Quincy held on late by hitting four straight free throws down the stretch as Jaclyn Lerma hit two and then Kayla Horning put in a pair to give the Jacks a 56-52 lead before an inconsequential three by Grandview went in as time expired.

Quincy was led by Dayanna Lopez’s 19 points, 10 rebounds, four steals, and four assists.

Marisol Lopez pitched  in with a double-double of her own with 11 points and 10 rebounds, while Jaclyn Lerma added eight points.

“It was back and forth as one team would make a run and then the other team would go on a run,” Donovan said “We really held on for our lives..”

Ephrata 58, Toppenish 37

EPHRATA — If the game of basketball came in the form of a see-saw the Ephrata Lady Tigers might have won the early season awards for best impersonation of playground equipment.

Ephrata followed up a big road loss Saturday at Prosser with another big home win on Tuesday by beating visiting Toppenish 58-37.

The Lady Tigers (3-3, 2-2) won their last home game on Friday by 40 points against Selah.

“Some of the ups-and-down is because of youth and some of it is really trying to mesh the whole group,” Ephrata coach Aaron Ross said. “We need to learn still to play better together and we hope to work on that over the Christmas break.”

The Lady Tigers trailed Toppenish (2-4, 1-3) 13-10 after one quarter but soon smoothed out some wrinkles in the full court game.

“We started off slow and we turned it over against their press,”  Ross said. “Once we got organized, we started scoring against it.”

The adjustments paid off to the tune of a 22-6 quarter and Ephrata marched into the intermission with a 32-19 lead.

“We beat their press and got some easy shots and lay-ins and that was the key,” Ross said. “We also turned up our defensive pressure and created some easy baskets that way. Then Toppenish couldn’t get much going.”

Ephrata padded their lead with a 13-6 third quarter and led 45-25 with eight minutes to go and the win was in hand.

Kelsey Yenney led Ephrata with 16 points while Mallory Lotz chipped in with 11 points and seven rebounds.

Abby Smith contributed eight points and Heidi Buchert cleaned house on the boards, yanking down 11.

Stephanie Lutz helped control the floor game, picking up five assists and three steals.

“I am pretty happy with where we are at,” Ross said. “We got to keep improving and getting better. Hopefully as the season goes on we can close the gap with those couple teams we struggled with earlier in the season.”

East Valley 55, Othello 42

OTHELLO — Falling behind 12-7 early the Othello Huskies could never get over the hump in a 55-42 home loss to East Valley last night.

East Valley (5-1, 4-0) maintained its perch atop the CWAC by creeping its lead up a little more after each quarter before finally securing the win.

Kylee Mollotte scored 14 points, Tiffany Martinez put in 11 points and Christine Kirkwood ended with eight points, six rebounds, and five blocked shots for Othello (1-3, 1-3).

“East Valley are a good team and we shoot poorly in the first half,” Othello coach Laurie Sickel said. “They took control in the first half and we helped them with poor shot selection. We did do better in the second half but it wasn’t enough.”