Woodburn Independent Online

La Salle wears NM down

Huskies’ five-point lead at halftime turns into 12-point loss on Tuesday night at North Marion High School

• By: Garrett Rudolph  
• Published: 1/22/2010 5:53:05 PM

Photo By: Garrett RudolphHalee Pyatt
North Marion junior Halee Pyatt scored eight points in the Huskies' 55-43 loss to La Salle Tuesday.

AURORA — Youth and inexperience got the better of the North Marion girls basketball team on Tuesday night at North Marion High School, as the Huskies lost, 55-43, to La Salle.
 
“(La Salle) wore us down, I think,” said North Marion coach Dennis Melcher. “They’re all juniors, and we’re sophomores and juniors and I think they wore us down physically and mentally.”
 
The Falcons’ roster was made up of eight juniors and one senior, compared to the Huskies’ five juniors, seven sophomores and one freshman.
 
Also, La Salle held a distinct height advantage with a pair of 6-footers and seven players standing 5-foot-7 or taller.
 
La Salle jumped out early in the game with a 7-0 lead, before Melcher called a time out and regrouped his team. From there, the Huskies scored 10 straight points and went on a 22-10 run heading into halftime.
 
“We were defending. We were playing good team defense. We were blocking out. We were getting some good looks on the offensive end,” said Melcher.
 
While North Marion held a 22-17 lead at halftime, the taller, more experienced Falcons worked their way back into the lead midway through the third quarter.
 
By the start of the fourth quarter, La Salle had turned a five-point deficit into an eight-point lead, behind a suffocating full-court press that forced a string of North Marion turnovers.
 
The Huskies began the fourth quarter with a 3-pointer by sophomore Jennifer Nichols and a free throw by Jasmine Flores, to cut La Salle’s lead to four points, before turnovers began to mount against North Marion once again.
 
The Falcons closed out the game on a 16-8 run.
 
“In the fourth quarter, we kind of lost our focus and turned the ball over against their press, and we quit defending and rebounding as well as we did in the first two quarters,” said Melcher. While disappointed by the final outcome, Melcher said there were plenty of positives to take from the way the team played, particularly in the first and second quarter.
 
“I think we played very well in that first half,” he said. “Everybody contributed and did some good things. We keep having bright spots throughout every game.”
 
Junior guard Jamie Melcher led the team with 14 points, followed by nine points from Flores, eight points from junior Halee Pyatt, five points from Briana Martinez, and two points from Hannah Johnson.
 
He said the team’s goal is to improve each and every single game, and try to get in to the league playoffs.
 
“That was our goal from day one with this group, because we’re so young,” he said. “We’re going to have everybody back next year, so we’ll be a much better team next year.”
 
The loss dropped North Marion to 1-3 in league play (7-10 overall). The Huskies had a bye on Friday and will return to action Tuesday with a road game against Stayton, followed by a home game against Gladstone. Both games are scheduled for 5:30 p.m.

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