Trout Lake, South Wasco girls lose in Big Sky playoffs

The Big Sky West Division No. 2 seeded Redsides fell behind 14-8 after the first quarter and they trailed 21-16 at halftime. Both teams scored 13 points in the third, making it 34-29 after three quarters. South Wasco outscored Ione/Arlington 12-8 in the fourth, but the Redsides just fell one point short at the end.

South Wasco junior Kylie Iverson scored a team-high 13 points, Sadie McCoy had 11 and senior Holly Miles scored 10. Julie Hull scored three points and Charity Reckmann had two. The Redsides had a total of 42 turnovers. Cardinal senior Hailey Heidemannn scored a game-high 14 points.

Trout Lake lost, 54-53, at home to the No. 8-ranked Echo High Cougars (7-1 league, 16-4).

Trout Lake and South Wasco play Saturday with a berth in the state playoffs on the line. The winner of the contest will advance to the 24-team state playoffs beginning Feb. 23 and the season will be over for the loser. The neutral site and game time will be determined at a Big Sky League District meeting Friday morning.

Ione and Echo both qualified for state with their wins and they’ll meet in the Big Sky Championship game Saturday at a time and place yet to be determined.

Trout Lake, the Big Sky West Division top-seed (6-1 league, 10-3 overall) had the momentum of a five-game win streak in addition to home-court advantage against Echo. The Mustangs, guided by Coach Dennis Anderson, had a rough start, trailing 23-8 after the first quarter. The Mustangs came back in the second, led by Violette Anderson (19 points) and Willa McLaughlin (15 points), and outscored the Cougars, 25-8, to take a 33-31 halftime lead. The Mustangs led 44-40 after three quarters but couldn’t hold off the Cougars late.

“It was close, and it was a good game, and it was probably the best game that we’ve played this season,” said Anderson. “We’re playing well, but Echo is tough, and they have really good shooting from outside. They jumped on us hard in the first quarter and we got right back in it in the second quarter. Then we sort of had a stretch where we couldn’t score in the fourth. It went right down to the final 30 seconds, and we had a shot to try to win, but we missed it. I think Echo is the best team that we’ve played this year.”

The Big Sky District Tournament third place boys game between the Condon Blue Devils (6-3 league, 14-6) and the Echo Cougars (6-3 league, 13-8) is Friday at 6 p.m. at The Dalles High School, followed by the championship game between South Wasco (10-0 league, 21-0) and Ione/Arlington (9-0 league, 19-0) at 7:30 p.m.