Quincy Valley Post-Register

• Home
• News
• Sports
• Obituaries
• Opinion
• Blog
• Photos
• Our Neighbor
• Schools
• Classifieds
• Churches
• Businesses

Lady Jacks show heart in win over Selah

Jan. 27, 2009

It's not fun to lose a basketball game by 67 points, to say the least. After coming up on the losing end of such a one-sided affair, it can be easy for a team — especially one that doesn't have a ton of varsity experience — to fall into a deeper funk. Doubt can set in, and things can get worse in a hurry.

The Quincy High School girls basketball team lost by 67 points last Friday to Ellensburg, but in a way, that made its four-point win over Selah the next night all the more impressive.

The Lady Jacks didn't dwell on the night before, when they fell behind 26-7 after one quarter, 57-12 by halftime and watched as the Bulldogs did pretty much whatever they wanted on both ends of the floor. They didn't start to think to themselves after their fifth straight loss, 'We're not good enough to compete.' The players and coaches didn't point fingers at each other.

Instead, they competed in their next game to the best of their capability with a winning mindset. For its efforts, Quincy was rewarded with a 44-40 victory that will go down as one of its biggest wins to date.

"I was very proud of girls for coming out on Saturday and playing the way they did," said head coach Cully Donovan. "They played with a lot of heart and played great team basketball. I like the balance of having three girls scoring in double figures. They showed a lot of character coming out and getting a big win on the road after Friday's game. We are still looking for the consistency we need to play with."

With the victory, Quincy (3-7) sits in a tie for seventh in the Central Washington Athletic Conference standings with Grandview. The Lady Jacks now have a two-game lead on the ninth-place team, Toppenish, and a three-game lead on winless Selah.

Finishing in the top eight is crucial because only the top eight teams qualify for next month's district tournament. The Lady Jacks have a chance to make up even more ground on Saturday when they travel to Toppenish. Quincy beat the Wildcats 56-48 on Dec. 20.

• Quincy boys basketball head coach Wade Petersen decided to move his leading scorer, senior Eric Martin, from his customary post position to the wing for Saturday's road contest against Selah.

Martin, for the most part, flourished in his new role, scoring a team-high 19 points, 17 coming in the first half to lead Quincy to a crucial 40-38 win to vault it into a tie for fourth place in the CWAC at 6-4.

There's a couple of good reasons why Petersen might have chosen to make this switch now, at the midpoint of the league season, and could elect to do it again in the coming weeks.

First of all, Martin is certainly capable of playing the wing position. Roaming the perimeter instead of banging down low will probably get Martin more touches. He didn't take a ton of outside shots in the first half of the season, but in the first half of Saturday's game, Martin canned three 3-pointers.

In his freshman and sophomore years, before he had completely grown into his 6-foot-3 frame, Martin was more of an outside threat, so he certainly has the capability to be more of a multi-dimensional player.

"He's a good 3-point shooter," Petersen told the Post-Register after Saturday's game.

Moving Martin to the wing would also allow more playing time in the post for senior Ian Dearie. Dearie has emerged over the last few weeks as the Jacks' first player off the bench.

Dearie doesn't have typical big-man size, but he has skilled, aggressive post moves that make him an ideal choice to bang inside with 6-foot-3 senior Jesse Gonzales. Dearie is not afraid to mix it up down low with players two or three inches taller than he is.

Saturday's performance capped an interesting weekend for Martin. In Friday's 41-40 Jacks win at Ellensburg, Martin struggled at times going inside against a taller Bulldogs team — he missed several short shots that he normally would make.

He did make a very important short shot late, however — a layup with just seconds remaining in regulation to send the game into overtime. And earlier in the second quarter, he combined with point guard Jay Cedergreen for a play that certainly will end up on the team's end-of-season highlight reel — a crowd-pleasing monster alley-oop dunk.

For those who are counting, that's Martin's second slam of the season; his first came in the Jacks' first game of the season against Selah.

• The Jacks wrestling team isn't going to win the CWAC title this season. Head coach Manny Ybarra freely admits that.

While he's certainly disappointed that injuries have robbed his squad — which, at full strength, probably would have been a strong contender for a league crown — of a chance at the top spot, Ybarra is still thinking positive.

"I think we have the potential (to be one of the best teams in the league)," he said. "The league has kind of written us off because we've lost some duals, and we're not at full strength. They forgot about us. But that's perfect for me; I kind of like the underdog role. At districts, we'd like to re-open some eyes. We want (other teams) to say, 'Oh yeah, Quincy's here, too.' "

Injuries to several key wrestlers caused the Jacks to lose three straight league duals earlier in the season, but they're slowly starting to get healthy.

Heavyweight Max Melburn, who had been dealing with an elbow injury, and 130-pounder Armando Hererra, who has hurt ribs, are on track to return for Thursday's home dual meet with Prosser. Another key grappler, 160-pounder, Breck Webley, returned from a knee injury last Thursday for the Jacks' match with Ellensburg and picked up a victory.

"I think the guys who are coming back are strong enough," Ybarra said. "They've got to get back on the mat and get some experience before the postseason. The team part of it is out the window; we're not going to be league champions. Now we've got to deal with the individual (aspect).

"We're trying to hold them out, trying to get them rested, stronger for postseason. We're going to show what we were supposed to show if we weren't hurt. We were supposed to be a strong team if we didn't have a lot of injuries."

This is the time of year when a wrestling team will start to focus more on individual results over team performance anyway, and that's exactly what Ybarra is thinking, especially when considering his wrestlers that aren't 100 percent healthy.

"If we were going for the league title, we would still balance the team winning with focusing on individual strengths and weaknesses," Ybarra said. "But now, the way I see it is, is it better to fight for fifth or sixth place in league, or get healthy for the postseason? I've got to choose what's best for the kids."

Contact Doug Flanagan at reporter@qvpr.com or through Facebook:

Doug Flanagan's Profile

Create Your Badge