Woodburn Independent Online

Woodburn splits pair of league games at home

Avgi's 29-point performance not enough for Bulldogs against Corvallis

• By: Garrett Rudolph  
• Published: 2/9/2010 2:04:23 PM

WOODBURN — Things are beginning to look up for the Woodburn boys basketball team.
 
After suffering a heartbreaking one-point loss to South Albany on Jan. 29, the Bulldogs rebounded with a 67-63 win over West Albany last Tuesday.
 
The Bulldogs jumped out to a 14-7 lead after the first quarter, in what coach Joel Dunn called the team’s best first-quarter performance of the season.
 
Although the Bulldogs eventually trailed by one point heading into the fourth quarter, Woodburn outscored West Albany 25-20 in the final period to secure the win.
 
Dunn said after the game, the win seemed to ease the pressure off of the Woodburn players, especially considering the number of close games the team has been in and come out on the losing end.
 
“It’s also reaffirming,” said Dunn, “in showing that their hard work is being rewarded in some way. … I hope this will validate some of what we’ve been preaching, and what we’ve been practicing. Our kids, to their credit, have had really good attitudes in practice. That’s not always easy when you’ve had some disappointments.”
 
Woodburn’s performance was by no means perfect, Dunn added, but he said the team showed important strides in playing aggressive and showing more faith and confidence in each other.
 
“I think the boys appeared to have fun playing together on (Tuesday),” said Dunn.
The Bulldogs were led by 22 points from Andy Avgi. He and Seth Gregoire tied for the team lead with seven rebounds apiece, while Gregoire was the team’s second-leading scorer with 14.
 
But Dunn also pointed to the smaller contributions that were important in becoming a winning team, that not only he noticed, but also the rest of the team noticed, as well. Dunn said Martin Ray did a fantastic job getting the team into an early rhythm, a difficult task for a freshman point guard at the varsity level.
 
Dunn also pointed to a play by Sergey Inzhirov, who, despite limited opportunities this season, made a key tip-in during a sequence where he was only in the game for about 45 seconds.
 
“I was happy to see our guys notice a teammate’s contribution can be big, even if it’s only for a few seconds,” said Dunn. “As a coach, that’s a good sign, that they’re sort of picking up on the things that teams need to be good.”
 
However, on Friday night, Woodburn fell victim to another frustrating loss at home against Corvallis.
“It actually was a lot like we’ve been playing,” said Dunn. “When we’ve played good teams, we’ve played well enough to be competitive, but not well enough to sort of get over the hump.”
 
The Bulldogs were led by Avgi’s 29 points, but the rest of the team shot just 5 of 24 from the field and scored a combined 15 points. As a team, Woodburn made just 2 of 13 attempts from beyond the 3-point line.
 
“It wasn’t a night where we shot very well at all,” said Dunn. “Basketball’s kind of a simple game. If you don’t put the ball in the hoop with some consistency, you’re probably not going to win.”

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