Kenzie Proctor goes up for a shot in traffic. Proctor had nine points in McNary’s 66-35 victory on Friday, Feb. 21. (KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings).
With the regular season winding down, the McNary girls basketball team put together their best offensive performance of the year.
Leah Doutt lead the way with 18 points, Bekah Grimmer added 14 and Kennedy Buss chipped in with 13 points as the Celtics had their highest scoring night of the season with their 66-35 victory over McKay on Friday, Feb. 21.
It was also McNary’s largest margin of victory of the season.
“We just played together really well. We made sure that we have everyone incorporated in our offense,” Buss said.
Grimmer came out hot to start the contest, hitting her first three shots to score seven straight for the Celtics — the junior forward finished the quarter with 10 points.
“I came out fired up and I just wanted to play as hard as I could,” Grimmer said.
Coming into the game, McNary’s goal was to stop McKay star Skye Miller, a junior shooting guard that transferred in from Alaska. Even though Miller scored eight in the opening period, including a pair of triples that were far beyond the three-point line, the Celtics held Miller to just six points for the remainder of the contest.
“Our entire scout was around Skye and how we were going to handle her on both ends of the court. We just tried to deny her the ball, even when she was way out on the perimeter. We wanted to do our best to make things difficult for her,” McNary head coach Elizabeth Doran said.
McKay had cut the McNary lead to one more than halfway though the opening period, but the Celtics ended the quarter on a 9-2 run to go up 17-10.
The Celtics continued their offensive explosion in the second period, scoring the first 15 points of the quarter. Three-pointers from Buss and Kenzie Proctor, a jumper from Doutt and a layup from Madi Alt helped put the Celtics on the 15-0 run.
“We wanted to make sure that we were doing everything we could to be successful in this game,” Buss said. “We’re going to have the mindset that we’re going to put everything we got on the floor.”
McNary ended up outscoring the Royal Scots 23-4 in the second period and took a 40-14 lead at the break.
“All season long we have worked on sharing the ball better and I thought tonight our passing was on point. We also did a good job of getting into the paint and getting to the free throw line,” Doran said.
The Celtics extended their lead to 54-25 at the end of three after seven straight points from Buss late in the quarter.
As it currently stands, the Celtics our on the outside looking in when it comes to a state playoff berth. However, McNary would greatly increase their postseason chances with a monumental upset victory over South Salem. McNary hosts the sixth-ranked Saxons at 7:15 p.m. in their final regular season game on Friday Feb. 28.
“It’s weird to think that this could be the last time we play together with this group. I just hope that we play hard and intense and that we are relentless for 32 minutes,” Doran said.