Oroville girls fall in district title game
Published 1:38 am Thursday, February 20, 2014
Kaitlyn Grunst’s rebounding drew extra attention from White Swan in the second half.
WENATCHEE – A staunch defensive effort wasn’t enough for the upset Wednesday, Feb. 19, as the Oroville girls basketball team dropped a hard-fought defensive battle to White Swan, 45-31.
The Hornets held White Swan to 14 points below its average, and its lowest point total since a December lost to Sunnyside Christian, but had to contend with a Cougar defense that was suffocating in its own right.
White Swan used its defense to spur an 11-0 run in the first quarter that snapped a 4-4 tie.
Oroville, which trailed 27-15, fought to get back in the game and pulled to within 38-31 with three minutes to play.
White Swan took advantage of the Hornets’ desperation in the final minutes to score the final seven points.
Lily Hilderbrand scored 12 points, while Kaitlyn Grunst added seven and had about a dozen rebounds to limit White Swan to one shot per possession.
Cayla Jones paced White Swan (18-3) with 15 points as the Cougars won their 16th straight game.
The Hornets (14-7) play Lake Roosevelt at 1:00 p.m. Saturday in a loser-out game, with the winner heading to the regional round of 16.
About Brent Baker
Brent, is a former reporter/photographer for the Gazette-Tribune and sometimes works as a freelance sports reporter for the G-T. Prior to working at the G-T, he was the sports editor for Sunrise Publishing from 2000-2005 in Michigan. He subsequently owned and operated Buckland Media, a high school sports website, in Michigan until 2010. He and his wife Kim, who have an adult son, moved to Tonasket in 2010. Brent worked as a full time reporter/photographer at the G-T from 2011 - 2014).
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