With a loud and packed gymnasium, the Woodland Beavers’ girls basketball squad couldn’t outlast the Columbia River Rapids in a 2A Greater St. Helens League title matchup as they fell 50-42 on Thursday, Feb. 6.
The crowd, mostly Woodland fans who embarked into enemy territory for the title game, was raucous with every shot that went through the twine for both squads.
“Our fans came. I mean, we doubled their crowd in their place,” Beavers head coach Glen Flanagan said. “You know, that’s what small schools are about. So it’s fun. It’s a good atmosphere. I wish we could have played a little bit better, but they have good players that make plays, and so that seemed like every time we needed to make some ground.”
The Beavers trailed at the end of each quarter in the contest. They were down just 15-12 after the first period, but put up just two points in the second quarter to head into the locker room down 21-14. They rallied in the third quarter and even tied it up at 25, but found themselves down by three at the start of the final quarter.
Columbia River put the pedal down to gain a 10-point lead numerous times down the stretch.
The Rapids hit a dagger three-point shot with four minutes left to cut off a Woodland comeback, extending the deficit to eight points. The Beavers would continue to make it interesting, however. Columbia River ultimately found a second dagger at the one-minute mark as once again Woodland cut it closer, but with not enough time on the clock.
The Woodland Beavers were led by sophomore forward Kennedy Bockert with 17 points and senior wing Lainey Hayden with 14.
Earlier in the season, the two teams faced off at Woodland High School in a 42-41 loss for the Beavers. Flanagan said the team dug themselves into a hole last time by missing a multitude of three-pointers and free throws.
“We had shots. We had looks. We just needed to do a better job,” Flanagan said of the Feb. 6 game. “I needed to do a better job of getting the ball in places where we could score. So that’s on me. These girls played hard.”
Flanagan added that his squad forced too many passes, causing turnovers that the Rapids took advantage of. The Rapids made it tough to get the ball from the perimeter down to their leading scorer, Bockert, in the paint. When the Beavers did find Bockert, to the displeasure of Columbia River fans, she was often fouled attempting a shot.
But Flanagan believed the refs should have called more fouls in Bockert’s favor.
“There’s some that were obvious fouls, but they told us they can’t call all of them, so they didn’t call them,” he said. “So it was like, ‘oh well.’ I didn’t think that was a thing. But you know, (the Rapids) did a good job of nullifying her. We needed to do a better job of getting her the ball more. We kind of went away from her a little too much, probably should have moved her around a little bit. I probably should have ran her from the high post, but you know that’s hindsight.”
After securing second place in the GSHL, they next play the winner of the pigtail round matchup between the GSHL’s six seed and the Evergreen Conference’s three seed occurring on Wednesday, Feb. 12. The Beavers are slated to host the winner of that game on Friday, Feb. 14, with time to be announced. The finalized bracket was yet to be determined at press time.
