PAGE A22, KEIZERTIMES, DECEMBER 10, 2021
Celts fall to Central Catholic in season opener
M C N AR Y
HOOPS
Avery Buss prepares to go up for the shot after getting double-teamed
BY MATT RAWLINGS
Of the Keizertimes
The shorthanded McNary girls bas-
ketball team kept the score within sin-
gle-digits for most of the contest, but
couldn't contain Central Catholic's Gretta
Baker down the stretch.
The senior shooting guard had 22
points on the night, 11 coming in the fi nal
period, leading the Rams to a 59-39 win
over McNary in the season opener for
both teams on Thursday, Dec. 2.
Hailey Schwinof led the way for
McNary with nine points and nine
rebounds.
The Celtics were playing without
junior guard KJ Custer — their top return-
ing player from last year — who was out
with a toe injury. McNary head coach
Elizabeth Doran admitted that there were
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Photo by MATT RAWLINGS of Keizertimes
a few other kids that were playing while
banged up, but said that there were some
bright spots despite being undermanned.
“We are battling a few injuries, even
the kids that are playing are battling
with some lingering stuff . We had to
have other people step up … Not having
KJ was diffi cult because she is a player
with some of the most varsity experi-
ence,” she said. “We defi nitely have a lot
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to learn, especially on the defensive end,
but I thought for our fi rst game against
a tough Central Catholic team, we did
pretty well.”
Despite going 2-for-6 from the foul line
in the opening minutes, McNary clung to
a 4-2 advantage in the early going. Central
Catholic, however, responded with a 6-0
run to go up by four. The Celtics got the
lead within one after a baseline jumper
by Lillian Besa, but the Rams ended the
quarter on an 8-0 run to extend their lead
to 17-8.
“This is a new group that hasn't really
played together, so some of our team
defense dynamics, like rotations and help
side defense are things we need to work
on,” Doran said.
McNary had a diffi cult time with
Central Catholic's full-court press and
man-to-man defense for the majority of
the game, committing 19 turnovers on
the night. But when the Celtics broke