Nighthawks slay Knights at home

OAKESDALE - A girls basketball game between teams representing the Wheat and Grape divisions of the Washington 1B Southeast league was won by the Wheat on Jan. 7.

Oakesdale beat visiting Sunnyside Christian 54-35 off the back of a strong second quarter.

Both teams kept a neck-and-neck pace with each other in the opening quarter, and both teams were knotted up 8-8 going into the second quarter.

The Nighthawks opened the second quarter of the game with a 11-0 run, going up 19-8 after a Marilla Hockett 3-pointer. Oakesdale ended up outscoring the visiting Knights 17-5 in the second quarter and went into halftime up 25-13.

"We didn't have a very good shooting night (Jan. 6) against St. John," Oakesdale head coach Heidi Perry said. "And we struggled. We still put up 61 points against them but we took 83 shots and didn't shoot a very high percentage. So, some girls that were off (that) night were on tonight. And it was just really exciting to see them in a big game, because this is probably one of our toughest games of the year, to step up like that and hit those big shots."

Oakesdale went on to expand its lead to 18 with a 34-16 advantage with 4:34 left in the third quarter. Sunnyside Christian went on an 11-5 with the remaining time in the frame to cut the lead to 12 heading into the final eight minutes of regulation.

The visiting Knights chipped the lead down to 10 before Hockett hit another 3-pointer to put the Nighthawks back up by 13 with 5:47 left in the 1B contest.

Sunnyside Christian got to within single-digits for the first time since the second quarter after Oakesdale fouls put the Knights in double-bonus and Taylor Andringa hit both her shots at the charity stripe to cut the lead down to 44-35 with 3:03 left.

Sunnyside Christian's fourth-quarter run was spurred by a full-court press defense implemented by the Knights and was assisted by the foul trouble the Nighthawks found themselves in late in the game

"First on the press was just, 'hey, we run this stuff in practice all the time,'" Perry said. "'We put ourselves in these situations so we know how to handle it. And just remember, it's just like we practice it to stay calm and stay in control. Be strong with the ball.' And Marilla is just a solid ball-handler. I think everyone just trusts her so much and they know when the ball is in her hands it's going to be well-taken-care-of."

An 8-0 run followed and the Nighthawks went back up 52-35 with 1:03 left. Oakesdale put up two more points for the 19-point win.

Marilla Hockett paced Oakesdale with 19 points, 15 of them coming from 3-pointers. Jessie Reed also added 16 points.

The Nighthawks currently stand at 10-1 overall on the year and 5-1 in league competition. Colton and Yakama Nation Tribal are above Oakesdale in league standings as of Jan. 10.