Coming out of a 15-day winter break layoff, Bonanza (4-5) girls basketball head coach Ray Struve knew it was important for his team to put together a sound game against Tulelake (6-8) in their final non-league matchup Tuesday.
“We talked about [how] this is a new season starting tonight, because we have to do some things better,” Struve said. “We’re trying to get the focus on hustling, moving, shooting, and just playing fun [and] getting after it.”
The Antlers eventually checked all of those boxes, outscoring the Honkers 26-6 in the second half to win 44-25. It’s the third time Bonanza has held an opponent to 25 points or fewer in their last four games.
Initially, it was the Antlers who were on pace to be held under 25 points; they managed two field goals in the first quarter as Tulelake took a 9-4 lead.
“We weren’t aggressive,” Struve said. “We were standing and we weren’t moving on offense.”
Things began to turn around in the second quarter, with Bonanza putting up 14 points to cut Tulelake’s lead to 19-18 at halftime.
The third quarter was a rockfight very similar to the first, with the Antlers outscoring the Honkers 8-4 to pull ahead 26-23. Tulelake struggled with turnovers and guarding the perimeter for most of the evening, and Bonanza took full advantage of those lapses in the fourth quarter to turn the game into a blowout.
“Defensively, they were really rotating on the cutters and doing a better job [in the second half],” Struve said.
In total, the Antlers hit the same number of 3-pointers as they did 2-pointers: eight (several of the twos were from just inside the arc or from midrange).
“We have good shooters,” Struve said. “They just are hesitant, and we’ve been trying to get them to shoot more. And tonight kind of proved to them that…moving gets you open instead of standing.”
Julie Hess–who hit three triples–led Bonanza with 15 points (including 10 in the second half), followed by Ellie Huffman with 10 (including two threes), Mary Schooler with 8, Grace Kness with 6 (on two threes), Maggie Ackley and Abby Hill with 2 each, and Hayle Wierleske with 1.
Makenzie Perez–who entered Tuesday’s contest averaging 6.9 points per game–led Tulelake with 14 (including 11 in the first half), followed by Maritza Chavolla with 4 (all in the first quarter), Alejandra Perez with 3, and Kayla Frey and Mareli Hernandez with 2 each.
This was Tulelake’s sixth game in a row without both Josefina Mojica and Na’Tali Idrogo, who combined to average 19.7 points per game (Mojica also averaged 3 steals per game). The Honkers are now 2-4 during the stretch.
Bonanza opens Mountain Valley League play with a trip to Crosspoint Christian (3-6) at 6 p.m. Friday. Tulelake competes in the Etna Tip-Off Tournament Thursday to Saturday with their opening game against Etna (4-10) at 4 p.m. Thursday.
