By BEN MCCARTY
News staff writer
January 2, 2008

The Cascade Locks girls basketball team has had some big comebacks this season, but none has been bigger than their effort in the first game of the Bear Mountain Classic to give them a 32-28 win over Arlington. Since the beginning of the season, Pirates coach Donna Nolin has worried about the lack of numbers on her team, but the Pirates’ depth was enough to outlast the Honkers, who finished the game with four players on the court.

“There is not a lot you can do with four players,” Arlington coach Kevin Ball said.

Arlington, which led by as much as six in the second half, came into the game with six players. When Tylen Mundy fouled out midway through the third quarter, Ball was left with five players. After Mikayla Ryan gave the Pirates a 29-28 lead on a three-point play with just over a minute to go, one of the Arlington players on the floor became ill, while another hurt her ankle, leaving the Honkers with just three players for the ensuing possession, leading to a turnover and a three-point Pirate lead that Arlington could not overcome.

After trailing by five at the half, the Pirates rallied back to tie the game at 18 midway through the third quarter, but Arlington then went on a 6-0 run to end the quarter and get the lead back.

In the final quarter, Ryan and Kristen Rutherford stepped up to get the Pirates right back in it. Ryan pulled the Pirates within a point with 3:30 to go with a free throw, and then Rutherford rebounded a Ryan miss to give the Pirates a lead that they would not relinquish with 2:30 to go.

Ryan and Rutherford combined for 23 of the Pirates’ 32 points.

In their second game of the round-robin style tournament, the Pirates faced off against a high scoring Jewell team that wasted no time in going up big on the Pirates before Cascade Locks once again rallied. However, this time, the Pirate rally came up short in a 48-40 defeat.

After the Blue Jays extended their lead to as much as 18 in the third quarter, the Pirates slowly began to cut into the gap, trimming the lead to nine with under two minutes to play before Jewell was able to drain the clock.

The win gave Jewell the tournament championship with a 2-0 record, while the Pirates finished second at 1-1.

The Pirates were led by 11 points each from Ryan and Jamie Cantwell. All of Cantwell’s points came during Cascade Locks’ second half surge. Jewell got 16 points from Amber Meir and 10 points each from Amanda Deponte and Jesika Kaczenski.

After coming from behind to win the first game and then getting another comeback in the second, Nolin felt that her team is starting to show mental maturity as the team heads toward league play.

“Its good to see them step up and get some confidence in their shots,” she said.

She was also pleased with the play of Cassandra Basseman and Cantwell, who both stepped up their offensive efforts with the Pirates playing shorthanded.

“There are a lot of positives,” she said of the effort she saw in the two games.

• In the other tournament game Jewell beat Arlington 49-29 in the tournament’s second day behind 20 points from Meier and 10 from Deponte.

• Deponte was named the girl’s MVP after scoring 10 points each in both of Jewell’s games as well as contributing a strong effort on defense.