Clatskanie girls lose third in a row

The Clatskanie girls basketball team lost its first game of the season last Tuesday, Dec. 10, at home against Riverdale 42-35. The visiting Mavericks held a slim, five-point lead going into the half, but were able to double it by the end of the third quarter. Despite outscoring Riverdale 11-8 in the fourth, Clatskanie couldn't get over the hump enough to completely erase its deficit. Junior Joey Sizemore led the Tigers in scoring, rebounds, and steals, hauling in 16 points, 12 boards and five swipes. Sophomore Lacey Willis had two blocks - which led the team - to go along with her six points, eight rebounds, and four steals. Sophomore Olivia George led the Tigers in assists with four to go along with her 11 points and six rebounds.

The girls then traveled to Portland last Thursday, Dec. 12, to take on Oregon Episcopal. Unfortunately, Clatskanie was outscored all four quarters, falling 55-24 to the Aardvarks to even its record on the season at 2-2. The girls were led in scoring by Sizemore, who had eight points on 3 for 17 shooting from the field. Sizemore also led the team in assists with four, blocks with two, and co-led the team in boards with six. George also had six rebounds to go along with three steals and an assist. Willis led the team in steals with seven. Sizemore's five steals rounded out the team's defensive efforts in the loss.

Finally, the girls fell 45-33 at home against Turner's Crosshill Christian Monday, Dec. 16, to bring their season record to 2-3. The girls were led in scoring by Sizemore, who had 13 points to go along with a team high three assists. Willis led the team with 11 rebounds, along with 12 points, two assists, and a team high four steals. George managed to score six points, pull down nine rebounds and grab three steals in the loss.

"The coaching staff, as a whole, is excited about the incredible potential that this team has," said Coach Dawn Warren. "This season, the girls are having to adjust to (an) all new coaching staff, new roles and responsibilities, and all new offenses and defenses. They are responding positively to everything that we are asking them to do, and we are incredibly proud of them. We knew that we would take some knocks in the pre-season as we adjust to new roles and responsibilities, but the girls have done everything we've asked them to do and put complete trust in us. As a coaching staff, we couldn't ask for much more than that."

The girls hosted Portland Adventist Academy Tuesday evening and will host Yoncalla this Friday, Dec. 20 at 4 p.m. and Glendale Saturday, Dec. 21 at 11:30 a.m. The stats from the three games will be included in next week's edition of The Wahkiakum County Eagle.

"The girls are eager to learn in order to improve and are starting to put that knowledge to use," said Warren. "The team's goal is to get better each game so that they are primed and ready for the regular season. Our focus now is to get our legs under us and get better conditioned so that we can do what we want to do for a full four quarters. This is a great group of young women, and we're excited to see how far they go ."