East Oregonian
HERMISTON — The Hermiston girls’ basketball team took a 15-point lead into the fourth quarter against Hanford (WA) on Tuesday. The Bulldogs nearly ran that head start dry with a two-point fourth quarter, holding on for a 45-41 victory in non-league action.
After leading 17-15 in the second quarter, the game’s closest mark since the tip-off, Hermiston (1-1) moved ahead by as many as 17 at the beginning of the final frame. But after Sara Ramirez made both ends of a trip to the free throw line to make that score 45-28, Hermiston wouldn’t tally another point.
“We were really confident, but then like died down,” said Jansen Edmiston, who scored all of her nine points before halftime. “We thought we had this huge lead and we were going to win by so much and we only ended up winning by four.”
Despite the troublesome trend in the second half, Hermiston’s first victory of the season never seemed in real danger. A Hanford team that shot 2-of-17 from the field to open the contest looked better after that point, but wasn’t in the business of making runs for the lead.
After playing solid defense in a season-opening loss to Clackamas last Friday, coach Steve Hoffert said he saw signs of brilliance again Tuesday — but definitely not as many.
“We still did a good job holding them,” he said. “I mean 40 points? You’re going to be usually wining if you hold somebody to 40 points. But I still felt like that was too much for them to get.”
Heidi Walchli also scored nine for the Bulldogs to go with three steals and Tavin Headings chipped in eight points.
Colette Gall had a game-high 20 points for the Falcons but no other player topped double digits.
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Contact AJ Mazzolini at [email protected] or (541) 966-0839.