SPORTS
10A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN FRIDAY, MARCH 11, 2016
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Seaside never
hit its stride
By MIKE WEBER
For The Daily Astorian
FOREST GROVE —
Appearing in the Class 4A
girls basketball state tourna-
ment a third straight year, the
Seaside High Lady Gulls had
hopes of reaching the semi-
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team, three-day event.
Playing
the
Mazama
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both teams had exactly the
same record at 20-5, but other
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Seaside, guided by coach
Wally Hamer, has the No. 3
ranked defense (34.6 points
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Class 4A, but had a tough time
stopping a solid sixth-ranked
Mazama offense (52.6 points
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Mazama jumped in front
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unable to overcome the early
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44-31 to the No. 3 ranked
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Forest Grove High School.
Seaside faced the Banks
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morning consolation round
contest (results unavailable at
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everyone play hard throughout
the game,” Hamer said. “We
came out at the beginning and
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We had some good looks at
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get good shots against a good
defensive team like Mazama.
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make a good transition into our
offense.”
Photos by Alex Pajunas/The Daily Astorian
Seaside’s Whitney Westerholm stretches to reach around a Mazama defender and bounce a pass to an open teammate
in the post. More photos online at www.dailyastorian.com
Mazama probably felt
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mascot paraphernalia, since
the Class 5A Forest Grove
School is home of the Vikings,
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Mazama a psychological edge
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at home.
Mazama, the Skyline Con-
ference Champions from
Klamath Falls, connected on
many perimeter jumpers and
scored often in the post to gain
its advantage. Seaside senior
post Brittany West scored on
a post move inside for the
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quarter.
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shoot as much as they did from
the outside,” West said. “We
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ping them on the inside and
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Seaside Coach Wally Hamer and his bench watch the ac-
tion during the first half against Mazama.
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Mazama build a 19-4 lead
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Vikings momentum continued
in the second. Mazama started
the second quarter exactly
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the second. The Vikings uti-
lized a big advantage in free-
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them get a lead. Mazama shot
13-for-23 (56.5 percent from
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line. Mazama outrebounded
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proved to be a key factor to
help them gain the advantage.
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effort the last couple of min-
utes in the second quarter,”
said Hamer. “We began play-
ing more physical and aggres-
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have a very good offensive
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bounce back and play better on
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The Seagulls fought back
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baskets by junior guard Maddi
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sophomore backup guard Jetta
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in a three-pointer to make the
score 29-14 at halftime.
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any kind of offensive rhythm
early in the game,” said Utti.
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together better in the second
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pull through though to get the
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though to help them build a
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bounce back and play better
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to play for trophy on Saturday
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Seaside climbed back to
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its in the third. A 6-2 Seagull
run, fueled by baskets by
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Sydney Villegas (6 points,
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pointer by senior post Brit-
tany West, trimmed the margin
to 31-20, forcing a Mazama
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in the third quarter. Mazama
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though to build a 38-20 advan-
tage after three.
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to help us stay in the game,”
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fought back.”
The resilient Seagulls never
gave up though and played
tough for the entire contest to
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cit. A 9-2 Seaside run, capped
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three-point play, trimmed the
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remaining in the game. At that
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had a chance, but it just proved
to be too much of an uphill
battle for them to overcome. A
jumper in the lane by Villegas,
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game as the Seagulls fought
back to make it a respectable
margin at the end.
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