Traci Hoffman and Alicia Smaciarz lifted Willapa Valley to a 41-35 victory over Rainier in a Pacific League girls' basketball game Friday night at Tenoski Gym in Menlo. Hoffman registered a double-double with 14 rebounds and 11 points, and Smaciarz scored 10, including a huge trey that gave the Vikings the lead for keeps midway through the third quarter.
"This was a huge league win for us tonight," Willapa Valley HS Head Girls' Basketball Coach Matt Bannish told the Herald. "It was a strange game as it was delayed for more than an hour due to two medical emergencies. We probably lost Karlee Gray for the season with a serious knee injury. I feel real bad for her because she was progressing quite well at the varsity level."
The Mountaineers led 6-4 after a lackluster first eight minutes and 14-10 at the intermission. Both teams came up with 14 points in the third panel and the Vikes outscored RHS 17-7 in the fourth quarter.
"We struggled once again offensively in the first half scoring only 10 points," Bannish said. "We went down 10 points in the third but battled back to cut the lead to four at the quarter. We took the lead 35-32 at the 3:38 mark on a three-pointer from Alicia Smaciarz. Brooke Friese extended the lead to five with two clutch free throws.
"Traci Hoffman had her best performance of the year scoring eleven points and pulling down 14 rebounds," Coach Bannish noted. "We could have easily packed it in tonight but we just kept battling and pulled off a nice win."
Madison Huber added 9 points and 6 rebounds for the Vikings.
Kera Anderson fired in 19 points for Rainier; 8-5 after the defeat.
Valley evened its overall record to 6-6; the Vikes are 1-1 in league games.
Lady Hyaks 33,
Vikings 30
North Beach scored the final three points on free throws to upend Willapa Valley 33-30 last Tuesday night (Jan. 5) at Oyehut.
"This was real offensive struggle for us tonight," Bannish told the Herald. "We went over 13 minutes in one stretch (at the end of first quarter to the mid-third quarter) without scoring. Despite that, we had the lead with 1:17 to go in the fourth.
"I was proud of how the girls kept battling and we were very close to stealing a win in the House of Pain on a woeful offensive night," Bannish said.
Smaciarz led all scorers with 13 points and Huber grabbed 14 rebounds.
The Lady Hyaks and the Vikings were even at 8-8 after the first quarter before Valley went scoreless in the second stanza while NBHS scored five points for a 13-8 halftime edge. North Beach increased its lead to 23-15 heading into the fourth quarter where WVHS outscored their hosts 15-10 only to fall three points short.
North Beach (8-4) scored two free throws with 12 seconds left in the game to assume a two-point lead. After a Valley turnover, the Lady Hyaks sank another free throw before Valley missed a 3-pointer.
Gray pulled down 6 boards for Willapa.
Valley held North Beach to 18% shooting (9 of 48).
The Vikings have three big league games on the horizon, including last night versus South Bend in Menlo, Saturday at Northwest Christian and Tuesday at Raymond.