By By BRIAN HAINES, Sports Writer
Washington opened up the Coastal Conference tournament in impressive fashion as the No. 4 seeded Pam Pack used a solid defensive performance to top No. 5 seeded White Oak 57-32 on Monday.
The Pam Pack (10-13) held the Vikings to 10 first half points thanks to creative defensive adjustments by coach Allison Jones.
Washington struck offensively with a balanced attack that was most effective in transition. Hayley Stowe and Beth Batchelor paced the Pam Pack attack with 13 points each, while Rakira Ward and Shonnita McIver both scored 10.
Washington won both its meetings with the Vikings (9-16) this year, with each win coming by a narrow margin. The familiarity between opponents worried Jones, but said her team handled it well.
“I felt the girls came out with a good energy, It’s hard to beat a team for the third time,” Jones said. “We just tried to change it up on them defensively all night long. We threw just about every defense we had at them just to keep them honest.”
Washington took control of the game early, and while the offense took a while to heat up, the team scored enough points to create some distance between it and White Oak. A Ward three-pointer gave the Pack an 11-4 cushion going into the second quarter.
Washington used its defense to limit the Vikings to only six points in the second quarter. The Pam Pack blew the game open when Stowe stripped White Oak of the ball and raced down court for a fastbreak layup while drawing a foul. After’s Stowe hit her free throw Washington took a commanding 21-10 with 30 seconds left before halftime.
Jones said the element of surprise on the defensive end made teams’ third meeting not as close as the previous two.
“I think it might have been a bit of an X-factor,” Jones said. “There were a couple of defenses we used this time that he have not used in the last two games. … When you know each other’s strengths and weaknesses it can work either way.
“I was pleased with our man-to-man, it wasn’t exactly an aggressive man-to-man, but we were able to D-up a couple of their players in (Sierra Young) and (Kierra Cruise) and got good help from our help defenders.”
Cruise led the Vikings with 12 points, while Young added nine.
The defensive effort by the Pack led to points on the other end. With Washington struggling in its halfcourt offense, getting fastbreak points was imperative.
“As usually our defense is what we scored out of,” Jones said. “They played very unselfish, they gave the ball up on the fastbreak and made good decisions on the break. When you do that their is not as much pressure on the halfcourt offense.”
The Pam Pack will continue its tourney play on Wednesday when it travels to No. 1 seed South Central.
White Oak 4 6 14 8 — 32
Washington 11 13 14 19 — 57
Vikings (32)
Kierra Cruise12, Young 9, Katie McClain 10, Smith 2.
Pam Pack (57)
Shonnita McIver, 10, Rakira Ward 10, Williams 4, Hayley Stowe 13, Beth Batchelor 13, Griffin 2, Redmond 2, Hiatt 1.