Hoquiam girls surge in fourth quarter to beat Aberdeen

Hoquiam and Aberdeen played in what turned out to be a mirror match with two undersized, aggressive teams looking to run the floor. But the Grizzlies were able to put the Bobcats away with a strong fourth quarter to capture the 52-42 girls basketball victory Thursday night in Aberdeen.

The Grizzlies (1-4) fell behind early to Aberdeen (0-3) as the Bobcats opened up the game on a 5-0 run.

Hoquiam’s slow start could have spelled trouble in a game that figured to be a close one but Hoquiam’s offense woke up halfway through the first, allowing the Grizzlies to take a slim lead by the end of the quarter.

Hoquiam was up 10-7 heading into the second quarter but could not build on the lead. Aberdeen continued to play a close game with their rival and had some success leaning on Reagan Glanz to score the majority of Aberdeen’s points in the second quarter.

Glanz scored eight of the 10 points Aberdeen had in the second quarter but was almost matched by Karlie Krohn who scored six of her game-high 15 points in that quarter.

After two quarters of close, turnover-filled basketball Hoquiam was still holding on a lead by the smallest of margins by a score of 18-17.

The fast-paced play didn’t appear to be working particularly well for either team as neither looked comfortable passing the ball in their offensive sets.

Hoquiam head coach Mark Maxfield said that he talked with his team at halftime about driving to the basket to get the offense going.

“We weren’t attacking the rim very well and we’ve got to attack because we’re not a great outside shooting team,” he said. “We figured we had to get them in foul trouble and attack and dish. We did a pretty good job of doing that in the second half.”

Hoquiam got to the line a few more times in the third quarter but Aberdeen was able to stay in the game as the Grizzlies struggled to hit their foul shots.

While foul shots weren’t falling for Hoquiam, Aberdeen began to connect on a few more passes and got 11 points on shooting from the field. With the Bobcats looking to work the ball inside to Aliyah Tageant had a strong third quarter to help tie the game heading into the fourth.

Aberdeen actually grabbed its first lead of the game since the opening minutes early on in the fourth quarter but Hoquiam’s bench came up big and helped the Grizzlies reclaim the lead around the midway point of the quarter.

Krohn led the way for the Grizzlies in points while also contributing 10 rebounds, five assists and five steals. Kylee Bagwell contributed with eight rebounds and Maddie German added four steals.

Glanz topped Aberdeen with 13 points.

Maxfield was happy to come away with the win but wants to cut down on fouls going forward.

“Our press caused us problems,” he said. “We were fouling too much. I probably stayed in press too long and we got in foul trouble but we played defense. That’s how we stay in games.”

With the game slipping away, Aberdeen had to result to fouling and the Grizzlies were able to finally put the game away at the line, scoring nine of their 19 fourth-quarter points at the line.

Aberdeen head coach John Yonich said he liked the way his team battled but said his players looked tired at the end.

“I thought we played them pretty tough,” he said. “We were in it until the last two minutes. I think we just ran out of gas. We’re not really deep and it’s going to take a while to build up that stamina.”

The Bobcats travel to Peninsula on Saturday. The Grizzlies will be idle until hosting Castle Rock next Thursday.

Hoquiam 10 8 15 19 — 52

Aberdeen 7 10 16 9 — 42

Hoquiam (52) — Jade Cox 6, Mazariegos, Jump 9, Delahanty, Bagwell 8, Bogdonovich, Jordan Cox 5, Krohn 15, Vonhof 2, German 7. FG — 17-68 (.250) FT — 18-33.

Aberdeen (42) — Glanz 13, Walsh 4, Goldman, Pruett 2, Heikkila 8, Krenz, Tageant 9, Jones 6. FG 11-45 (.244) FT 17-32