Clatskanie Basketball

The Clatskanie High School girls basketball team began its season with two impressive road victories last week. The girls came away with a 44-30 victory in the season opener last Wednesday at Warrenton and were led in scoring by junior Joey Sizemore, who managed 16 points on 5 for 15 shooting from the field. Sizemore also led the team with 22 rebounds, four steals, and had the lone block of the game for the Tigers. Sophomore Lacey Willis was second in scoring for Clatskanie with 13 points on 6 for 10 shooting. Sophomore Olivia George had 10 rebounds to go along with her 9 points on 4 for 17 shooting from the field. George's five assists were matched with five from Sizemore, as the two finished as co-leaders for the team on the night.

The girls then traveled to Gervais Friday Dec. sixth where they trounced the Cougars 57-14. "They were pretty young and pretty small," said girls basketball coach Dawn Warren regarding the opposing Gervais squad. "It sounded like their coach stepped up last minute last year because nobody wanted to coach, so she's trying to build the program. You could see that when we were watching them warmup. It did give our second string some good reps, which is nice."

Gervais only managed two points throughout the first half, trailing Clatskanie 36-2 going into the break. Sizemore led the team once again in scoring with 27 points, followed by junior Mya Jensen, who contributed 12 points to go along with her two steals. Sizemore once again led the team with six steals to go along with her two rebounds and two assists. Senior Karielle Carlson led the team with five rebounds to go along with two steals of her own. Willis led the team with four assists to go along with her six points, four rebounds, and two steals.

The Tigers who have won their first two games hosted Portland's Riverdale High School Dec. 10 for the team's first home game of the season. The results of the game will be included in next week's edition of the Wahkiakum County Eagle. The girls will travel to Portland Dec. 12 to take on Oregon Episcopal before returning home Monday Dec. 16 to take on Turner's Crosshill Christian at 6 p.m.

"This group of girls has a really good shot at going to state," said Warren. "That's kind of our goal; to get a little bit better each game so that when we get to that point we're ready to go.

Yesterday's game (at Gervais) doesn't necessarily help us, (but) it does build confidence. I'm actually looking forward to some games where we're going to have just a little bit more competition."