Keizertimes., March 11, 2016, Page A10, Image 10

PAGE A10, KEIZERTIMES, MARCH 11, 2016
KEIZERTIMES.COM
Statebound
KEIZERTIMES/Eric A. Howald
ABOVE: The Lady Celts celebrate after a win over Newberg High School sending them to the state tournament, which began Wednesday. A: Senior Kaelie Flores puts up a shot. B: Sydney Hunter
makes a drive to the hoop. C: Reina Strand on defense. D: Madi Hingston moves the ball up the court.
A
B
Keizer girls enter tourney on 7-win streak
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Of the Keizertimes
The McNary High School
girls varsity basketball team set
out in December with a single
goal foremost on their minds:
win the Greater Valley Confer-
ence.
After taking a loss to South
Salem High School in January,
the road to a GVC champion-
ship got more diffi cult. Then
the Saxons beat McNary again
in February.
“After that game, Madi
(Hingston) brought us all into
the team room and we made
a board with new goals on it
and what we needed to do,”
said Kailey Doutt, a McNary
sophomore. “Every time we
were having a hard day, (De-
rick) Handley would point to
that board and remind us of
what we needed to be doing to
meet those goals, one of them
was making it to the state tour-
nament.” Handley is the head
coach of the Celtic girls bas-
ketball program.
With a 61-37 win over
Newberg High School Friday,
March 5, the Celtics accom-
plished it.
While another team might
have written off the rest of the
season after losses to the league
leaders, senior Reina Strand
said that wasn’t the case for
McNary.
“We could have come back
and not tried as hard, but we
worked hard as ever every sin-
gle day,” Strand said. “It was a
lot of little goals like executing
plays and becoming more con-
sistent on defense. Over time
we’ve learned how to balance
out offense and defense a lot
better.”
Because of that recommit-
tment to themselves and each
other, the Celts entered the
state tournament on a seven-
game win streak. Their fi rst
test in the state tournament
was No. 1-ranked Jesuit High
School. McNary was ranked
eighth when the game was held
Wednesday, March 9, at Port-
land’s Chiles Center (see related
story Page A11).
It might sound like a lopsid-
ed battle on paper, but the Lady
Celts have been in that position
before. In Decmber, McNary
toppled top-ranked Sheldon
High School 78-57. The Keiz-
er girls also aren’t strangers to
the Jesuit game. During winter
break, the two teams met at the
Nike Interstate Shootout. The
Celts lost 55-33, but it was the
fourth game in as many days.
“I don’t want to see us back
down this time. I want us to
play like we deserve to be here.
I’m actually looking forward to
it,” said Hingston.
Handley, who is making
his fi rst trip to the state tour-
nament as a player or a coach,
said he’s benefi tted from the
steady hands of his assistants in
the program this season. Sev-
eral have played or coached in
state tournaments. Throughout
the season, two of the assis-
tants were tasked with calming
Handley down on the sidelines
whenever things got heated.
“Their job is to pull me to
the side and tell me what I’m
projecting,” Handley said. “Ear-
ly on, they told me to get the
message to the girls that the
game is exactly the same ev-
ery time. The hoop is the same
height, the rim is the same di-
ameter and the fi rst team that
can settle in can get a 5 to 10
point advantage. Our girls have
been the ones to do that in al-
most every game.”
In some respects, the new
challenges are arriving right
on time, said junior Sydney
Hunter.
“We had a lot of opportuni-
ties to stop trying or improve
this season and we’ve gotten
better. I think, for most of us,
it’s not just a matter of making
it to state anymore, we want
to do something while we’re
there,” Hunter said.
Sitting three wins away from
a state title, senior Kaelie Flores
said the view was pretty good.
“We’ve worked up to this
point and we’re getting recog-
nition from different places. We
practiced and we found dif-
ferent ways to defeat different
teams. It’s so good to get the
recognition, but I knew that we
could do this from the start,”
Flores said.
C
D