Good things happened Friday night for the McMinnville High School girls basketball team but, unfortunately, they weren’t on the scoreboard, as the Grizzlies fell 46-25 at Forest Grove.

Mac High was again plagued by good shots ringing in and out, and managed to put up just one point in the first quarter. Forest Grove, meanwhile, was hot at the start, scoring 18 in the first 8 minutes of play.

“Really, in the first quarter we got good shots,” coach Sean Coste said. “We ended up rushing our shots a bit and missed some free throws, but we had a lot of really good opportunities around the basket and just didn’t get it done.

“They scored most of their points in the first quarter and, after that, it was pretty even.”

The good news for the Grizzlies is that the team cut down on turnovers — something it had struggled with so far this season.

“There were a lot of things the girls went away with that we were pretty happy about, and the biggest thing was the fact that we cut down our turnovers immensely from the last few games,” Coste said. “That was a goal for them tonight was to slow down and take care of the ball, and they did that. And that’s a big step for us.”

Erin Grinich led the team with 12 points while Bailee Niehus scored 8. Forest Grove got 11 from Liz Gulacy and Valerie Bongiorno.

GIRLS
Y-C 53, Seaside 39

With four players in double-digits Friday, the Yamhill-Carlton girls moved to 2-0 in league play with a 53-39 win over Seaside. Carrie Skuzeski led the team with 14 points while Skye Larson, Alexis Findley and Elle Anderson each scored 11.

“We talked yesterday about putting stock in our defense,” coach Daron Hernandez said. “We knew if we came out and played defense from the beginning, the offense would come. It did. And this was a Seaside team that’s been averaging around 50 points a game, and we held them to four in the first quarter. That really set the tone for us tonight.”

The Tigers have struggled to make their defense pay off at times this season, often getting a turnover or defensive rebound, only to give it back at the other end with no damage done. That wasn’t the case tonight, Hernandez said.

“Our goal was to work on finishing plays,” he said. “We’d been playing good defense, but then we’d give up defensive rebounds. We’ve really worked on boxing out and those sorts of things, and we played great team defense today. It was awesome.”

More good news for the Tigers: the team surrendered a season-low seven turnovers in the win.

Willamina 36, Horizon Christian 21

Behind strong games from Stephanie Johnson and Caley Burdon, Willamina earned a 36-21 win over Horizon Christian on Friday. Johnson finished with 10 points and six rebounds, while Burdon added nine points. Caralyn Chewning scored seven.

The first half was all Willamina, with the Bulldogs holding a 20-4 edge at the half. The team let itself relax in the third quarter and Horizon went on a bit of a run, but Willamina quickly got things back under control and finished out the victory.

“To be able to get back in control of the game and get a lead was good,” coach Tom Anderson said. “We were able to get a lot of kids in there in the fourth quarter and, while we only scored four points, it was good for them to take care of the ball and not give up a whole bunch of points.”

If there was one struggle in the win it was at the free throw line. Normally a strong shooting team at the line — 75 percent in the last two games — the Bulldogs hit just eight of 35.

“We’ve gotten better at shooting as the season has gone on and that kind of surprised me,” Anderson said. “But, thankfully, it wasn’t the difference in the game for us.”

Sheridan 47, Westside Christian 30

With Alyssa Ogle and Amber Moser hitting for 29 combined Friday, Sheridan eased past Westside Christian 47-30. Ogle finished the night with a game-high 15 while Moser scored 14. Hanna Ellis added eight.

Emma Buchholz scored six but did her most impressive work on the boards, where she pulled down 11.

BOYS

Horizon Christian 55, Willamina 45

Adrian Peterson hit for a team-high 23 points Friday but it wasn’t enough to get past the No. 4-ranked team in the state, as Horizon Christian responded to a Thursday loss to Dayton by handing Willamina a 55-45 defeat.

“We were never really out of the game, and truly the only reason we weren’t within five at the half was we just couldn’t put the ball in the basket,” coach Cliff Toney said. “I told them at half that we didn’t take one bad shot in the first half. Everything was good possession, good shots, but we just couldn’t get the shots to fall.

“Yet, we were only down 11, which is attainable.”

The Bulldogs got a basket at the third-quarter buzzer from Kenna Cumberland to cut their deficit to seven and, with four minutes to play, were within five. They just couldn’t quite get past that point, however, and Horizon hit 9 of 13 free throws in the fourth quarter to put the game away.

“It’s tough to come back when they’re hitting free throws, but we made a game of it,” Toney said. “I was proud of the kids. They certainly could have rolled over and laid an egg and let Horizon come in and thump us. But they didn’t, and I was just real pleased.”

Sheridan 64, Westside Christian 45

After starting the game with a technical foul for dunking during warmups, Sheridan trailed Westside Christian until the fourth quarter Friday, but eventually pulled ahead and took a 64-45 road win.

Niko Rentsch finished with 20 to lead the Spartans, while Steven Grauer had 15 and Jessie Ayala added 14.

“The tone was set (with the technical),” coach Bob Bennett said. “We started behind and we stayed behind until the fourth. Jessie, Greg (Butler), Steven and Brock (Ingram) stepped up the defense and caused several turnovers to go from a 42-38 deficit to a 52-42 lead with 4:30 to go.

“It was a good win over a good team on their home court.”