WESTPORT — Saturday’s 2B Pacific League girls basketball showdown between the Ocosta Wildcats and Willapa Valley Vikings sure did live up to its billing.
The game — featuring two teams boasting undefeated league records — was a close, defensive struggle throughout.
Tied at 31-31 late in the fourth quarter, Ocosta’s size and talent became too much for Willapa Valley to handle as the Wildcats picked up a 42-36 victory in Westport.
“Coming into the game we knew it was going to be a dogfight,” said Ocosta head coach Jason Barnum, whose team outscored the Vikings 11-5 over the final four minutes of the game. “We just had to make plays when the plays were there to be made. … I told the girls, ‘If we can win two quarters, one of those being the fourth, we had a good chance to win.’”
The two teams flip-flopped leads over the first three quarters. Willapa Valley (6-1 overall and Pacific 2B) used its quick 2-3 zone defense to stifle and frustrate the Wildcats in the early going, taking an 11-7 lead at the end of the first period.
But Ocosta (5-1, 5-0 Pacific 2B) flipped the script in the second quarter, using its defense — which features three players over 6-feet tall — to hold the Vikings to just three points in the frame. The Wildcats took a 17-14 lead into the half.
Ocosta’s Kaylee Barnum, left, dribbles against Willapa Valley’s Katie Adkins on Saturday in Westport. (Ryan Sparks | Grays Harbor News Group)
“This was our first actual tough game,” said Ocosta center Kristi Raffelson. “It was good to have good competition. … We have trust in our defense. We’ve worked really hard on it and believe it’s tough to beat.”
Ocosta took a 24-19 lead on a Kaylee Barnum jump shot with approximately 4:15 left in the third quarter, but the Vikings closed out the frame hitting three straight 3-pointers — two by Katie Adkins sandwiched around a three from Britney Patrick — to take a 28-24 lead into the final frame.
But in the fourth quarter Ocosta’s size began to pay dividends. Tied at 31-31 after Adkins hit the front end of a 1-and-1 free-throw situation, Ocosta looked to its usual suspects of Barnum, Raffelson and Kjirstin Hopfer down the stretch to secure the win. After Ocosta’s Layne Martin scored on an offensive rebound and putback, Hopfer gave the Wildcats a 36-31 lead with a top-of-the-key 3-pointer with 3:23 left to go. Barnum then fed Raffelson in the low post to extend the Wildcats’ lead to 38-31 with 2:50 left.
Patrick his a three to cut Ocosta’s lead to 38-34 with 2:33 remaining, but that’s as close as the Vikings would get as Raffelson scored in the paint followed by a Hopfer drive-and-layup to extend the Wildcats’ lead to 42-34 with 42 second to go.
Willapa Valley’s Hannah Cook scored on a layup with seconds remaining to close out the scoring at 42-36.
“The last few years down here, our teams haven’t played very well,” Willapa Valley head coach John Peterson said. “Tonight, that wasn’t the case. I feel bad we lost but I couldn’t be more proud of this team.”
Adkins led Willapa Valley with 11 points and seven rebounds. Friese added eight points and Hannah Cook had seven points to go along with four assists and three steals.
Though the Vikings attacked the basket and got to the charity stripe more often than the taller Wildcats, Willapa Valley hit on just 5-of-16 free throws and converted on the front end of a 1-and-1 just once in the ballgame.
“That’s the game right there,” Peterson said of his team’s free-throw shooting performance. “If you shoot 33 percent from the free-throw line, that will get you beat and it did.”
Despite being held to just two points in the first half and suffering minor injuries to both knees in the game, Raffelson led Ocosta with 13 points, nine of those coming in the critical fourth quarter.
“It took me a little bit to get focused,” she said. “But when I finally got it I feel like our team bond just clicked.”
“It was a very proud moment for me and a great win for our program,” said Barnum, a former Willapa Valley grad who holds his coaching counterpart in high regard. “Coach Peterson is a phenomenal coach … Knowing his legacy and getting to coach against him, being a Valley alumni, it was a very proud moment for me as a coach. … We knew it was going to be a dogfight, our dog just had a little more bite tonight.”
Ocosta hosts Chief Leschi (2-3, 1-3) at 5:45 p.m. on Monday while Willapa Valley takes on another league power in undefeated Ilwaco (7-0, 6-0) at 7 p.m. on Thursday in Menlo.
Willapa Valley 11 3 14 8 — 36
Ocosta 7 10 7 18 — 42
Top Players: Ocosta — Raffelson (13 pts., 9 reb.), Barnum (11 pts., 11 reb., 8 asst.), Hopfer (11 pts.); Willapa Valley — Adkins (11 pts., 7 reb.), Friese (8 pts.), Cook (7 pts., 4 asst., 3 stl.), Patrick (6 pts.).
