Othello earns CWAC second-seed at state

by Derrick Pacheco<br
| March 9, 2009 9:00 PM

SUNNYSIDE, Wash. — The Othello Lady Huskies will make their second consecutive trip to the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) 2A girls state tournament this week at the Yakima SunDome.

The Lady Huskies earned the school’s second-ever trip to the state tournament Feb. 28 by knocking off East Valley 55-47 to advance to the Central Washington Athletic Conference (CWAC) district tournament championship game Saturday.

Othello squared off with regular season champion Prosser with the CWAC’s No. 1 seed to the WIAA state tournament at stake.

The Lady Huskies managed to build a 14-13 first-quarter lead and Othello pushed the first-half advantage to 26-22 heading into the break.

The Mustangs rallied in the third quarter, pressuring the Othello offense, Othello head coach Laurie Stickel said.

“We didn’t handle the pressure as well as we wanted to,” she said.

Prosser forced 14 Othello turnovers and the Mustangs scored 20 second-chance points.

Prosser was able to keep the Othello offense off balance all night and the Mustangs took a 40-38 lead into the final quarter.

With the CWAC tournament championship on the line, the Mustangs pushed a two-point lead to start the fourth quarter into a 10-point victory and Prosser held on for the 63-53 win.

Christine Kirkwood and Justine Villarreal kept the Lady Huskies in Saturday’s CWAC championship game while the Mustangs managed to keep senior and CWAC co-Player of the Year Allison Walker to just two points.

Stickel said her team didn’t execute the offense to help Walker offensively.

“We didn’t get her the ball,” she said. “We didn’t set up the offense to give her a chance.”

Kirkwood led the Lady Huskies with 18 points while Villarreal scored 12, all coming from behind the 3-point arc.

Although the Mustangs kept Walker off the scoreboard until there was less than a minute remaining, Prosser couldn’t keep her off of the glass. Walker grabbed 20 rebounds in the loss.

The Lady Huskies open the WIAA 2A girls tournament at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday afternoon at the Yakima SunDome against the Hockinson Hawks and Stickel said her team is ready.

“They are excited, we are excited,” she said. “We start all over. Everybody is at 0-0 and we get a fresh start. (It’s time) to get after it.”