Lady Huskies rally to beat Irrigon

SHELBY SMITH drives past an Irrigon defender Tuesday as the Lady Huskies rallied to win a 40-35 decision. CASEY KELLAS / The Observer

ELGIN — It was far from perfect, but the Lady Huskies managed to down Irrigon 40-35 Tuesday night and keep its hopes for a spot in the district tournament alive.

Elgin committed 33 turnovers and shot just seven of 19 from the free throw line in the first half, but did enough to earn the victory. 

“We’re still learning to win games,” coach Greg Oveson said.

The win is the second over Irrigon in the past four days, and improves Elgin to 4-8 in the Blue Mountain Conference, while the Knights drop to 5-7 with two games remaining for each team.

The game had a slow start, with Irrigon failing to get on the board until the 4:42 mark of the first quarter. Elgin, meanwhile, was able to build a 12-7 lead after the opening period.

But the Knights got going in the second quarter.

An 8-1 start gave Irrigon the lead as Elgin didn’t score its first field goal until a Shannon Strickland three pointer at the 3:30 mark.

A pair of Veronica Lathrop free throws with 28 seconds left in the first half gave the Huskies an 18-17 lead going into the break.

“I really thought we were going to lose that game in the first half with our free throw shooting,” Oveson said.

Irrigon came out strong in the third quarter and was able to rally to take a 27-24 lead heading to the final stanza.

Lathrop scored the first four points of the quarter at the charity stripe to put the Huskies back on top and seemed to energize the team.

“Veronica really stepped up with those free throws. That’s what we needed,” Oveson said.

Then with the game tied at 29-29 with 5:15 left, Strickand nailed a three pointer to break the tie, followed by a jumper by Jordyn Anderson and just like that it was a five-point game.

Elgin led 40-35 with 1:30 left and both teams exchanged turnovers and missed shots to close out the game with the Huskies on top and playoff hopes still alive for another day.

Anderson had 10 points to lead Elgin, and Lathrop added nine. Strickland chipped in with eight and Lauren Sauers had seven. Shelby Smith scored four.

“Taylor (Luse) and Jordyn gave us a big lift. Jordyn is just a freshman but she made a lot of good decisions,” Oveson said.

“And Lauren and Shelby did a great job on the boards.”

Celina Munos had a game-high 14 points for Irrigon, and Andrea Gasparova added seven.

Elgin will travel to Enterprise Friday before hosting Pilot Rock Saturday on the final day of the regular season.