PORT TOWNSEND — The rest of the 1B girls’ basketball teams better watch out for Neah Bay, because for the first time anyone can remember, they just knocked off a 4A school.
The girls beat a good Auburn team 54-51, getting 19 points from Courtney Swan and 12 second-half points from Cei’J Gagnon, who finished the game with 14.
And Auburn isn’t just a 4A team, the Trojans are a decent 4A school that’s 3-3 in the North Puget Sound League and came into Friday’s game 4-5 overall.
The Red Devils a couple of times built some big leads on Auburn, but the Trojans refused to quit and kept coming back on Neah Bay. At one point in the fourth quarter, Neah Bay had a lead of 46-31 over Auburn, but the Trojans made the Red Devils nervous down the stretch, going on a 10-0 run to cut the lead down to 46-41 with 1:58 left in the game.
Gagnon hit a clutch shot at 1:50 left and Swan hit a pair of freethrows with 1:30 left to open the lead up to 50-43.
Swan hit a shot and Ruth Moss, who finished with 11 points, a pair of free throws to hold off Auburn down the final 90 seconds.
Assistant Coach Casey Bruner said that while Swan had a big game, much of the credit for the win goes to Laila Greene. Greene, usually a big scorer for the Red Devils, had just three points, but she provided the lockdown defense on Auburn’s Emily Strojan, who at one point in the game scored three straight 3-pointers. Strojan ended up leading the Trojans with 20 points.
“We went to a box and one [with Greene being the ‘one’ guarding Strojan] and Laila shut her down,” said Bruner. She thought that was the turning point of the game.
Auburn’s run at the end of the game was actually the Trojans’ second big run of the contest. Neah Bay went into the halftime break with a 22-13 lead, but then Strojan hit her three straight treys in the third quarter. Auburn actually took a brief lead at 23-22 as the Red Devils went on a scoring drought of 5 1/2 minutes.
Neah Bay responded with a 10-5 run to end the third quarter to enter the fourth with a 33-27 lead.
Neah Bay came in as the No. 3 ranked 1B school in the state in the RPI, but it’s still a huge day for Neah Bay hoops to beat a 4A school.
“I’m pretty proud of our team,” Greene said.
Gagnon had her biggest game for the Red Devils since returning to the team. She was a big player for the Red Devils as a freshman, but missed all of last year with a foot injury.
“I’m excited,” to be back on the team after a year off, Gagnon said.
“[Beating a 4A school} is pretty crazy. It was fun,” she said.
Neah Bay (0-0, 5-1) played the Port Townsend girls (0-3, 1-5) after press deadline on Saturday in both team’s second Crush in the Slush games. The Redhawks lost their Crush opener 51-10 to Friday Harbor.
Neah Bay 54, Auburn 51
Neah Bay 11 11 11 21 — 54
Auburn 10 3 14 24 — 51
Neah Bay (54) — C. Swan 19, Gagnon 14, Moss 11, Greene 3, Aguirre 2.
Auburn (51) — Strogjan 20, Harshman 14, Smith 9, Hill 5, Rose 3, Appiah-Kubi 1.
