Central Oregonian

Lava Bears crush Cowgirls 55-20

Bend holds Crook County to two first-quarter points, cruises to easy win

LON AUSTIN/CENTRAL OREGONIAN

Kimmer Severance attacks the basket during the Cowgirls game with the Bend Lava Bears on Tuesday night. Severance led the Cowgirls in scoring with 10 points, but the Lava Bears won the game

Lon Austin

February 14, 2013

The Bend Lava Bears rolled into the Crook County High School gymnasium on Tuesday night riding the crest of a six-game winning streak.

The winning streak is now seven, after the Lava Bears cruised to a 55-20 win over the hapless Cowgirls.

“We had a lot of trouble finishing — lots of trouble,” said Crook County head coach Dave Johnson.

The Cowgirls spread the floor with their offense, attempting to slow the pace of the game.

The strategy worked to a point, just not the way they planned as Crook County could muster just two first quarter points.

The Lava Bears scored the game’s first six points, and led 14-2 at the end of the period.

The Cowgirls continued to try to slow the pace of the game in the second quarter. However, 14 first-half turnovers hurt their cause as the Lava Bears rolled to a 32-10 halftime lead.

“The reason we spread the floor was that with a team like Bend you want to bring their kids away from the basket,” Johnson said. “You want to try as much as you can to bring those big people away from the basket and get some space.

Crook County was able to get Bend’s 6-2 center, Mekayla Isaak, into early foul trouble, and held her to just eight points in the game. However, Bend’s guards picked up the slack by hitting seven three-point shots in the contest as the Lava Bears cruised to the easy win.

“The game plan was to plug the middle as best we can and take away their bigs,” Johnson said. “But tonight their guards were able to knock down some threes.”

Although no Lava Bears scored in double figures, Bend played 14 individuals in the contest, and 12 of them scored. Delaney Crook hit three long-range bombs to finish with nine points to lead the visitors.

Kimmer Severance scored a game-high 10 points and added 10 rebounds to lead the Cowgirls. However, no other Cowgirl was able to score more than four points in the contest.

The Lava Bears (15-5) were dominant in every facet of the game. Bend pounded the glass for 42 rebounds, compared to just 26 for the Cowgirls. In addition, the Lava Bear press forced 29 Crook County turnovers, while Bend made just 14 turnovers of their own.

Although Bend shot poorly from the floor (34 percent), Crook County was worse, hitting just 8-39 (20.5 percent).

Crook County (9-12) has lost four games in a row. The Cowgirls have averaged nearly 47 points per game this year. However, during the latest four-game span the team is averaging less than 33 points per game while falling by an average of nearly 28 points per game.

The losing streak couldn’t come at a worse time. With just three games left in the regular season, the team should be gearing up for a play-in game on Saturday, Feb. 23.

Still, Johnson is optimistic that the team can turn things around.

“We are coming up on a three-game stretch,” he said. “We’ve got Redmond, Ridgeview, and Summit, and we definitely want to be heading into the play-in game on an up.”

The Redmond and Ridgeview games are Friday and Tuesday, respectively, both on the road. The Cowgirls will return home for the final regular season game of the year on Thursday, Feb. 21, when they host the Summit Storm. The game is senior night for the Cowgirls.

All three games are scheduled to start at 7 p.m.

Tuesday, Feb. 12

Bend 55, Crook County 20

at Crook County

Bend (55) — Delaney Crook 9, Isaak 8, Froelich 7, Burnham 6, Maloney 5, Howard 4, Hayes 4, Mattox 3, Lundy 3, Kramer 2, Sylvester 2, McLay 2, Evert, Wheeler. Totals 22 2-7 55.

Crook County (20) — Kimmer Severance 10, Loper 4, Ovens 2, Smith 2, Apperson 2, Lindburg, Benton, Bannon, Malott, Estes, Woods. Totals 8 4-9 20.

Bend 14 18 11 12 — 55

Crook County 2 8 2 8 — 20

Three-point goals — Bend: Crook 3, Froelich, Mattox, Howard, Lundy; Crook County: none.