PAGE A12, KEIZERTIMES, JANUARY 20, 2017
Lady Celts win three straight
By DEREK WILEY
Of the Keizertimes
McNary’s girls basketball
team has found the key to
success—playing together.
In a 52-44 win over Mc-
Minnville on Friday, Jan. 13,
four different girls scored
at least nine points and the
Lady Celts dished out 11 as-
sists.
The following night,
in a 52-30 victory against
Sprague, fi ve girls scored at
least seven points to go along
with 15 assists.
“I just think the chemistry
part, we’ve fi nally fi gured it
out,” senior Sydney Hunter
said.
“We’re playing as a team.
We’re fi nally playing as fi ve,
not just individuals and that’s
helped us a lot. We’ll drive
and we know that we’ll have
somebody right by the bas-
ket to dish off and that’s defi -
nitely helped us.”
With the two wins, Mc-
Nary improved to 4-2 in the
Greater Valley Conference
after opening league play 1-2.
“It was a big week for us,”
MHS head coach Derrick
Handley said.
“The biggest thing is we’re
starting to trust each other a
little bit more. We talked be-
fore the season started that
we’re going to rely on a lot
of girls that haven’t really
been relied on in the past. I
KEIZERTIMES/Derek Wiley
McNary senior Sydney Hunter had 17 points and 10 rebounds at home against Sprague on Sat-
urday, Jan. 14.
think they’re starting to un-
derstand their roles. I think
they’re starting to get confi -
dence and I also think that
Kailey (Doutt) and Sydney,
who have led us in scoring,
are realizing that they don’t
have to do it alone and that
there’s more people that can
help us out. It’s been much
more balanced. Our scor-
ing is becoming a lot more
evenly distributed, which is
the key to us being successful
this year.”
Fast starts have also helped
the Lady Celts, who led Mc-
Minnville 18-4 at the end of
the fi rst quarter.
The Grizzlies got within
three points of McNary in
the fourth quarter but back-
to-back 3s sealed the Lady
Celts victory.
“They
(McMinnville)
made a couple of runs but I
think it asserted a lot of en-
ergy for them to do it and
we stay composed,” Handley
said.
Hunter and Abigail Haw-
ley each had 12 points to lead
McNary.
Doutt added 11 points
and nine rebounds. Paige
Downer fi nished with nine.
The Lady Celts then
jumped out to a 23-0 lead
against Sprague before the
Lady Olympians made their
fi rst basket midway through
the second quarter.
Sprague scored eight
points in the period but Mc-
Nary entered halftime with a
commanding 29-8 lead.
“We put in a new pressure
defense a couple weeks ago
and it takes repetition and
getting used to where you’re
supposed to fall in different
circumstances,” Handley said.
“We stuck with it knowing
that it was going to gener-
ate starts like that for us. The
girls are just working really
hard and I think they’re also
realizing that you give your-
self a little bit of a padding
like that, it’s a little easier to
play the next 30 minutes.”
The Lady Celts added to
their lead in the third. Mc-
Nary then emptied its bench
in the fourth quarter.
Hunter fi nished with a
double-double of 17 points
and 10 rebounds. Doutt and
Anita Lao both had eight
points.
Hawley and Jaylene Mon-
tano each added seven.
McNary boys fall to South Salem
McNary’s boys basketball
team suffered just its third loss
of the season on Tuesday, Jan.
17.
Matthew Ismay had 20
points, four rebounds and
three assists at home in a 56-
53 loss to South Salem.
The Celtics led 29-23 at
halftime but were outscored
33-24 in the second half, in-
cluding 16-11 in the fourth
quarter.
Cade Goff had eight points,
four rebounds and two assists.
Alex Martin had six points
and six assists. Adam Harvey
had fi ve points and four re-
bounds.
Chandler Cavell added 10
points off the bench.
The game was McNary’s
third in just fi ve days and the
Celtics second lowest scoring
output of the season.
McNary has the week-
end off and then hosts North
Salem on Tuesday, Jan. 25 at
6:45 p.m.
KEIZERTIMES/Derek Wiley
McNary sophomore Abigail Hawley scored fi ve points in a 58-
56 loss at South Salem on Tuesday, Jan. 17.
McNary nearly
upsets Saxons
By DEREK WILEY
Of the Keizertimes
SALEM—McNary (9-6,
4-3) went into South Salem
and almost knocked off one of
the top girls basketball teams
in the state.
Kailey Doutt had 20 points
and Anita Lao added 17 but
the Lady Celts came up just
short, 58-56, on Tuesday, Jan.
17 to the defending Greater
Valley Conference champions.
McNary fell behind 16-9
after the fi rst quarter but
Jaylene Montano made a
3-pointer to get McNary
within 26-22 with 2:15 re-
maining in the second period.
However, the Lady Saxons
closed the fi rst half on a 7-0
run.
After the two teams played
a back-and-forth third quar-
ter, the Lady Celts outscored
South Salem 19-9 in the fi nal
period but it wasn’t enough to
pull the upset.
Evina Westbrook had 24
points to lead the Saxons, who
entered the game as one of the
hottest teams in the state with
a 5-0 record in league-play,
defeating GVC opponents by
an average of more than 39
points.
They are ranked fi fth in the
OSAA power rankings.
McNary returns to action
at home against Beaverton on
Friday, Jan. 20 at 7 p.m. The
Lady Celts then get back into
league-play on Friday, Jan. 27
at Sprague.
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