Othello holds off Grandview
Christine Kirkwood of the Othello Lady Huskies (30) drives to the basket past Grandview's Hayley Smasne (42) and Jessica Lopez (20) during the second quarter of Othello's 47-39 district tournament victory. Photo by Derrick Pacheco/Columbia Basin Herald
OTHELLO — The Othello Lady Huskies advanced into the semifinals of the Central Washington Athletic Conference (CWAC) district tournament Thursday night with a 47-39 victory over the visiting Grandview Greyhounds.
The Lady Huskies controlled the game early on, starting the game on an 11-2 run. Othello took an 11-4 lead into the second quarter.
Othello was able to push their lead to 20-10 heading into the break because of Christine Kirkwood.
Kirkwood took control of the Othello offense in the second quarter with senior and CWAC co-Player of the Year Allison Walker on the bench with foul trouble.
Othello head coach Laurie Stickel said her team was able to capitalize on its versatility, especially from Kirkwood.
“We got into some foul trouble in the second quarter,” Stickel said. “(Kirkwood) had to go into the post. She is a good all-around player.”
After the break, the Lady Huskies continued to extend their lead to 33-21 because of a stingy defense. Othello was able to convert 15 Granview turnovers into 18 points Thursday night.
Stickel said her team wanted to run in transition against the Greyhounds in the first half.
“If we could run on them, we wanted to,” she said. “In the second half we wanted to set up the offense and use a little more clock.”
The Lady Huskies and the Greyhounds exchanged baskets to start the fourth quarter before a Grandview technical foul sent Kirkwood to the line. Kirkwood sank both of her free-throw attempts to give the Lady Huskies a 37-23 lead.
The Greyhounds managed to cut the Othello advantage to 41-29 before a Grandview foul sent Kirkwood to the line. Kirkwood sank both of her shots to push the Othello lead back to 14 points. Kirkwood finished the night with 13 points, including a perfect 6-for-6 from the charity stripe.
Grandview managed to cut the Othello lead to 10 with 1:20 left in the game before Kylee Mollotte found Tiffany Martinez down low with 59 seconds left to push the lead back to 12.
With less than a minute remaining, the Greyhounds managed to pull within 47-39 before Kirkwood was able to dribble out the clock for the victory.
Although the Lady Huskies did not finish the game the way she would have liked, Stickel was happy to get the victory.
“We will take it for sure,” she said of the win. “We are going to the next step. (We have) East Valley on Saturday.”
The Lady Huskies return to the court this weekend when they travel to Yakima to take on the Red Devils at 1 p.m.