West Salem’s Delaney Henery (11) moves with the ball during the first half of the Central Catholic vs. West Salem girl’s basketball game, in the first round of the OSAA State Championships playoffs, at West Salem High School on Wednesday, March 1, 2017. West Salem won the gam 53-46. They will play South Salem in Round 2 of the OSAA State Championships playoffs on March 4.
The Titans remembered to play defense and it earned them a short trip for the second round of the OSAA Class 6A state playoffs.
West Salem High School’s girls basketball team came back from a 15-5 deficit in the first quarter to take a 20-17 halftime lead Wednesday against Central Catholic and came away with a 53-46 win.
“In the first quarter we missed a couple of keys that we wanted that we practiced on,” West Salem coach Terry Williams said. “I didn’t want to waste a bunch of timeouts going over that.
“So at the quarter break we got a chance to remind the players what those keys were on defense and you saw the evidence of it in the second quarter.”
West Salem’s reward: A team they know well.
The Titans advance to Saturday’s second round to play at their Greater Valley Conference arch nemesis South Salem with a spot in the 6A state tournament at stake.
Normally playing a road game in the state playoff game is a huge deficit – especially playing against the two-time defending state champions.
But considering that the No. 15 seed West Salem (12-7) has played the No. 2 seed South Salem, a 70-48 winner Wednesday against Tualatin, twice this season, they won’t have to do any scouting: West Salem lost to South Salem both times.
“It will be a tall task, but where we’re sitting at 15 it was going to be somebody good, so at least we don’t have to drive to South Medford like we did last year,” Williams said.
“We obviously will have them well-scouted and we know them so the fear factor shouldn’t be there like it would be against an unknown.”
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West Salem went on a 13-2 run in the second quarter, then senior Delaney Henery broke free to start the second half with a 5-0 run and opened up the Titans’ offense.
West Salem wouldn’t trail for the rest of the game.
Henery finished with 21 points, Brenna Redman scored 15 points and the team managed to fill in the hole left by point guard Sarah Zwicker’s injury late in the second quarter.
“People don’t realize just how balanced we really are as a team,” Williams said. “They played a box and one on Delaney, which is fine because we can post Delaney up and she can take people.
“But we have other people who can get the job done just fine. On a lot of teams you see a second or third scorer, but in our case you see four, five, six other scorers. Losing Zwicker the way we did, you saw other players step up, and that shows our depth.”
bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com or Twitter.com/bpoehler
West Salem’s Brenna Redman (12) moves past Central Catholic’s Abby Cooper (33) during the second half of the Central Catholic vs. West Salem girl’s basketball game, in the first round of the OSAA State Championships playoffs, at West Salem High School on Wednesday, March 1, 2017. West Salem won the gam 53-46. They will play South Salem in Round 2 of the OSAA State Championships playoffs on March 4.