By BEN MCCARTY
News staff writer
February 19, 2008

It was a quarter that the Hood River Valley girls basketball team would prefer to shove into a dark secluded corner and never think about again.

After hanging with David Douglas (11-10, 7-7 MHC) for the first half, everything went wrong for the Eagles (6-15, 5-8 MHC) in the third quarter of their game against the Scots on Tuesday, and ultimately sent them to a 44-32 defeat at David Douglas.

“It was one of those mysterious, dark quarters we want to forget,” Eagles coach Phil Hukari said.

Despite missing guard Jodi Kunigal to injury, the Eagles went into the second half down just four points, thanks to Angie Titus hitting a lay-up, drawing a foul, and hitting the ensuing free-throw in the final seconds.

Then the second half opened.

David Douglas started the half with a 16-2 run, forcing the Eagles to turn the ball over time and time again against a tenacious full-court press.

“We had to do something to get Hood River out of their comfort zone,” David Douglas coach Bill Blevins said. “And for a quarter we did.”

Several times the Eagles could not even get the ball to half court, resulting in numerous 10-second calls against them, and when they did manage to get it across, the ball quickly wound up in the hands of a David Douglas defender.

The already shorthanded Eagles were hampered by foul trouble and more injuries.

Point guard Meagan Clark picked up two fouls in the opening minute of the game, and then went to the bench for an extended period after picking up her fourth midway through the third quarter.

Then Audrey Mallon injured her arm on a scramble for the ball and went to the bench for most of the remaining time a few minutes later.

With things rapidly disintegrating for the Eagles, the Scots went on the attack.

Led by leading scorer Kelsey Mattsen, David Douglas slashed through a Hood River defense that had held them in check in the first half.

Titus led the Eagles with nine points.

Mattson finished the game with 16 points, off her nearly 22 points per game average for the season, but it didn’t matter much after the Scots outscored the Eagles 25-5 in the third quarter.

In the fourth the Eagles made up a little ground with a 9-2 run and held David Douglas to four points in the final frame, but it was far too late.

The defeat was the third straight for the Eagles and dropped kept them in sixth place in the Mount Hood Conference standings, 1.5 games back of Barlow.

The good news for the Eagles is that they have their final three games at home.

They were scheduled to host seventh-place Centennial on Friday and first-place Central Catholic on Tuesday. The Rams are undefeated in league play.

Two wins in their final three games could earn the Eagles a spot in the state playoffs, but Hukari says they are not even thinking about that now.

He just wants to see them snap out of their recent skid.“We just need to salvage things,” he said. “Whatever happens can only make us better.”