Othello basketball girls score win in final week
OTHELLO — It was one of those years for the Othello girls basketball team. They spent most of the season on the learning curve, but they did wrap up the season winning one of three games for a 2-18 final record.
Macy Hampton scored 20 points in a 44-24 loss to Prosser Saturday night in the season finale. Friday night, the Huskies beat Quincy, 40-36, for the second time this season. The week started off with a 53-30 loss to Selah.
The Huskies, 2-16 CWAC, go into the offseason with a better idea of what it takes to compete at the varsity level and some things to work on.
“What we learned is that the girls have to spend some time in the gym if they want to be competitive,” coach Josh Tovar said. “We’re definitely going to start summer ball. We’re not even going to wait until summer. We’ll probably start again at the end of the month. We’ll play some games in Yakima. Our plans are to hit a couple of basketball camps as well.”
Othello 40, Quincy 36
Hampton was not only the leading scorer this season, she did most of the heavy lifting for a team with just two seniors.
Hampton scored 22 points and the Huskies held Quincy to just five points in the third quarter to win their second game of the season.
The two young teams combined have just four wins this season. So it was a chance for two teams with similar capabilities to play one more time before the season ended.
“Ignacia Lopez is a senior that doesn’t get a chance to play a whole lot. She hit a 3-pointer from the corner that kind of woke us up after a slow start,” Tovar said. “The momentum changed with that shot.”
The Huskies trailed 8-5 after the first quarter, but Hampton started going to the basket and sparked a 13-point second quarter. Othello held the Jacks (2-18, 0-18 CWAC) to just five points in the third quarter and held on to win the Central Washington Athletic Conference game.
“We continue to struggle with only one shooter. We have one girl with 22 points and everybody else has four points or below that,” Tovar said. “I need another offensive power and somebody to step up and start shooting the ball.”
Audisey Sauceda and Tanya Anderson had four points apiece for the Huskies.
Selah 53, Othello 30
Hampton scored eight of her team-high 20 points in the fourth quarter for the Huskies, who have six sophomores on the roster. The Vikings (10-10, 10-8 CWAC) pressed all night long, it produced turnovers in the second and third quarters,
“I think we handled the press OK. We got stuck a couple of times. But we brought it up the floor pretty good,” said Hampton, who finished with four 3-point goals, including a couple from the top of the circle in the fourth quarter.
“I feel like I have to shoot a lot for us to score well,” she said. “That’s my main job is to shoot. We’ve been working a lot on our defense and it’s opened up a lot steals, which helps us on offense too.”
Othello played the Vikings even through the first eight minutes, but went into a scoring funk in the second and third quarters, in which they produced just seven and four points, respectively. They picked it up in the fourth quarter, but the Vikings pulled away in the third quarter with a 17-4 run.
“I tried to stand my ground in the paint and not let them push me around. I tried to play as physical as I could against them tonight,” said senior Tanaya Anderson, who finished with six rebounds and five points. “We’ve been working on our defense and I think it showed tonight.”