Posted Tuesday February 8, 2010

HERMISTON - The Mountain View Lady Cougars defeated the Hermiston Bulldogs on Friday, February 5, 2010. The Cougars chipped away at a ten point lead by the Bulldogs in the second period to tie the Dawgs at 30 at the end of the third period. The Cougars then went on to win 53-47. Kersey Wilcox of Mountain View sealed the win by hitting 10 of 10 freethrows in the final minute of the game.

The first period saw the teams exchanging the lead for the first five minutes. Tied 11-11 Hermiston's Courtney Walchli hit a freethrow that started the pulling away to the lead by the Bulldogs. Three pointers by Maloree Moss and kathryn Barnitz helped stretch the Hermiston lead to 19-11 at the buzzer.

Mountain View continued their scoring draught for about a minute and a half of the second period. Scoring for the Dawgs came from Andrea Waters, Kayla Blankenship, Crystal Schmidt, and Barnitz at a slower rate than the first period. The Cougars put a run on towards the end of the first half with a couple three pointers by Kersey Wilcox. The game tightened up somewhat in the last minute of the first half with the teams exchanging the lead until the final shot gave Hermiston the 27-26 lead.

The third period was very low scoring. Hermiston scored three freethrows. Jordan Wilcox of the Cougars hit a trey and a freethrow for all of Mountain View's scoring. The third ended tied at 30.

Mountain started to take the momentum in the first half of the fourth period leading by six about three minutes in. Hermiston clawed back to within three on a baseline drive by Crystal Schmidt and a freethrow by Maloree Moss. Mountain View continued to plug away hitting several freethrows just to have Hermiston close again to within three at 43-40. A jumper with 32 seconds by Walchli closed the Dawgs to two 47-45. But freethrows by Kersey Wilcox sealed the 53-47 win for Mountain View.

Photos by Terry Aichele