The Willapa Valley girls basketball team is one win away from a state-tournament berth as we review Friday’s prep sports games and events.
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GIRLS PREP BASKETBALL
Willapa Valley 42, Oakville 39
Willapa Valley advanced to the district semifinals with a 43-39 1B District 4 Tournament game victory over Oakville on Friday at Willapa Valley High School.
The Vikings (12-9 overall) jumped out to an 11-0 lead after holding the Acorns (12-9) scoreless in the first quarter.
Valley held a comfortable 26-12 lead at halftime until Oakville rallied in the third quarter. Behind the physical post play of freshman Naenae Filitaula and a 1-for-14 field-goal shooting performance from Valley, Oakville trimmed the Vikings’ lead to 29-28 entering the final quarter of play.
“We did not play good defense and they came out and everything was falling for them,” Valley head coach Dawn Keeton said of her team’s third-quarter woes. “We can’t take any time off. We took the third quarter off and you can’t do that. You have to play a full 32 minutes, especially if we want to get to where our goals are.”
With 1:30 left to play in the game, Oakville took a 39-37 lead before a free throw by Valley junior point guard Kylee Fluke trimmed the deficit to 39-38.
That score remained until Valley freshman standout forward Tylar Keeton scored from the paint to put the Vikings up 40-39 with 14 seconds left.
Oakville turned the ball back over to Willapa Valley on the following possession and Fluke subsequently buried two pressure-packed free throws for a 42-39 lead with five seconds on the clock.
A last-second Oakville attempt never materialized as the Acorns never got off a shot, sending Valley to the district semis with the victory.
“A lot of it was grit,” Coach Keeton said of her team’s win. “During each of our timeouts that we had, I kept telling the girls that they had to have grit and dig deep, to not give up and come out ahead. It wasn’t pretty sometimes, but they had grit.”
Tylar Keeton led Valley by filling up the stat sheet. The talented freshman had a double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds to go along with a team-high four steals.
Junior center Paislee Hurley and senior Addison Merkel scored eight points each while Fluke led Valley with four assists.
Valley shot 22% from the field on 11-of-49 shooting and converted 15-of-23 free throws on the evening (65%).
With the victory, Valley will face Pe Ell in a district-semifinal matchup at 6 p.m. on Tuesday at Adna High School, with the winner earning a trip to the state tournament.
Valley lost both meetings with the Trojans this season by an average score of 56-26.
Oakville 0 12 16 11 – 39
Willapa Valley 11 15 3 13 – 42
Scoring: Willapa Valley – Keeton 15, Hurley 8, Merkel 8, Matlock 6, Fluke 5.
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PREP SPORTS
Hoquiam’s Bryson, Raymond-South Bend’s Koski named WIAA Athletes of the Week
Hoquiam senior boys wrestler Oliver Bryson and Raymond-South Bend girls basketball player Kassie Koski were both named as Washington Interscholastic Activities Association Athletes of the Week for Week 22 of the prep sports year.
For more information, visit WIAA.com.
Oliver Bryson, Hoquiam boys wrestling, Senior
Bryson has only suffered one loss this season and since then he has dominated every bracket he’s been a part of. Three weeks ago, Bryson tech-falled his way to the finals at the River Ridge Tournament and then pinned his opponent in the finals. Two weeks ago, he pinned his way to the finals at the Kalama Rubber Chicken Tournament and then pinned a highly state-ranked opponent in 26 seconds in the finals. Following that strong showing, he pinned everyone at league duals. Bryson goes into the postseason as the No. 1 ranked wrestler in his weight class.
Kassie Koski, Raymond-South Bend girls basketball, Junior
Koski had two great games last week, helping her team to league victories in both. Against North Beach, Koski scored 19 points – all in the first half – shooting 70% from the floor including four 3-pointers along with nine steals, four rebounds and three assists. In the second game of the week versus Chief Leschi, Koski scored 32 points shooting 11 for 21 from the floor and 8 of 12 from three, and added five steals in three quarters. Koski is averaging 18.2 points, 4.4 rebounds, 4.8 steals and 1.9 assists per game this season.
