Ephrata girls use a 16-0 run to run away from Othello
EPHRATA — Ephrata went on a 16-0 run to end the third quarter and held Othello to just one fourth-quarter field goal to win Saturday night’s Central Washington Athletic Conference (CWAC) girls basketball game 52-30.
Wapato (14-2, 14-1 CWAC) and Prosser (14-3, 13-2) will slug it out for the top seed at the District 6 tournament. The Tigers (11-7, 9-7) have a chance to host a district game if they can hang on to that fourth seed. They probably won’t catch East Valley (11-5, 10-4). But it is critical to stay ahead of fifth seed Selah (10-8, 8-8) if they want to play a postseason game at home and they took care of business against the young Othello (1-16, 1-14) squad.
“We’re very young with limited experience. We have just two seniors, so it’s a rebuilding year and you just accept the fact that we’re still learning,” Othello coach Josh Tovar said. “We’re a very tight-knit group; they’ve been together for awhile. We just haven’t played a lot of basketball at this level.”
Ephrata led 27-17 at the half. Othello closed to 27-21 with 6:43 remaining in the third quarter, but the Tigers upped the pace and ran away with a 16-0 run that gave them a 22-point lead going into the final eight minutes.
“We just started playing harder and had some kids step up. Kendall Kemp did a great job tonight defensively. With four games this week, we needed some kids that haven’t been playing a ton of minutes to come in and play well,” Ephrata coach Aaron Ross said. “So it was nice to see Kendall and Sydnee (Pixlee) make some plays tonight.”
Kemp finished with nine points. Ephrata guard Katelyn Ostrowski led the team in scoring with 12.
“We knew tonight would be tough just because of how many games we’ve played this week. We told ourselves we had to push through the pain and fight for everything,” Ostrowski said. “The press was really good, I thought, and we really pushed hard in the second half because we needed the win.”
Macy Hampton led the Huskies with 12 points. Cassandra Gonzalez and Tanaya Andersen added six points apiece.
“We played with a lot of confidence to start the second half, but we weren’t executing our offense very well and they pulled away after the first couple of minutes,” said Hampton, who is one of six sophomores on the roster. “It felt really good that we were able to close the gap a little bit. We’re still learning how to play at this level and play together.”
Score by quarters
Othello 2 15 7 6 — 30
Ephrata 16 11 16 9 — 52
Othello — Janissa Garza 2, Cassandra Gonzalez 6, Macy Hampton 12, Tanya Anderson 6, Rilee Heist 2, Alexis Coronado 2. Totals — Field goals: 11. 3-point goals: 3. Free throws: 5-8. Score: 30
Ephrata — Kendall Kemp 9, Avery Mickelsen 3, Mya Buchert 5, Maggie Buchert 2, Isabel Buchert 4, Kendee Peters 7, Katelyn Ostrowski 12, Sydney Pixlee 4, Madison Martin 6. Totals — Field goals: 20. 3-point goals: 3. Free throws: 9-11. Score: 52
Toppenish 65, Othello 35
OTHELLO — Macy Hampton scored a team-high 14 points, but Othello dropped a home game to Toppenish 65-35.
Alexis Coronado also reached double figures with 10 points.