Eagles win girls basketball opener, 58-25, over Bruins

“Our goal is to press and get more points in transition versus just our half-court offense, and we did a good job of that against Columbia,” Noteboom said. “[We] still have some things to fix but overall, I was pleased with the outcome.”

Hood River led 9-0 in the game’s first 90 seconds and 22-0 before the Bruins scored their first point — on a Sheyenne Antis free throw with two minutes remaining in the opening period. Antis, a junior, is the Bruins’ lone upperclassman.

Marina Castaneda, one of five HRV seniors, scored on a drive and hit a 3-pointer for HRV, and Julia Rowan added two layups for the Eagles’ 9-0 start. Columbia turned the ball over on four of its first five possessions — three against HRV’s full-court press — and would finish the opening period with 12 turnovers.

Bruin Coach Justin Frazier settled down his team with a timeout at 6:10 of the opening period, but by that time the tone of the game had been established. Columbia, which lost six seniors to graduation off of last year’s district playoff team, missed its first eight shots. Sophomore Sara Miller finally connected on a layup off a back screen on an in-bounds play with less than a minute to play in the opening quarter.

“We were outmatched and outgunned against Hood River,” Frazier said. “Since it was our first game and these girls haven’t played that much basketball, it was tough for them, but it was okay, and we’ll get better throughout the season.”

Bruins freshman Kiera Bucher was the team’s leading scorer with seven points.

Noteboom substituted freely the rest of the game, with HRV leading 38-8 at halftime, and 54-18 after three periods, as a running game clock was used in the second half.

“I feel like I have 10 or 11 girls who can really compete for some [varsity] playing time,” Noteboom said. “So that makes practices more competitive.

“I have 14 girls on the bench and all of them got a chance to play.”

Hood River was scheduled to play at Heritage, Wash., on Dec. 6 before hosting 4A Estacada on Dec. 11 — the first of three home contests next week.

Frazier said there are better days ahead for his young CHS team.

“I’m happy to see how well our young team just seems to be getting better and better every day at practice,” he said. “We’re going to have some growing pains this year, but I guarantee you that the girls will always play hard. When we score this year, it’s going to be a team effort, because I don’t have that one girl yet who is capable of scoring a whole lot. We’ll have better match-ups in our upcoming games, so I’m hoping that we’ll just continue to improve and play better in our next game.”

Columbia was scheduled to play back-to-back games Dec. 4 against visiting Fort Vancouver and Dec. 5 at Trout Lake, before traveling to Corbett for a Dec. 11 contest.