Just days removed from an upset victory over Onalaska on the road, the Winlock girls basketball team sent another shockwave through the Central 2B, defeating another top-10 squad in Rainier on senior night, 49-38.
Down by six at the half, the Cardinals (13-7, 6-4 C2BL) got blitzed by a couple Faith Boesch shots from deep, and decided to switch up their defense aimed at stopping the Mountaineers’ sharpshooter.
The game changed in the third, when Charlie Carper grabbed a couple of steals out of the box-and-one defense, and Winlock ran away the victory.
“The whole team’s attitude changed,” Cardinals coach Dracy McCoy said. “The girls are gelling and peaking at the right time, they’re adjusting on the fly and really buying into the system.”
Addison Hall did her usual thing, scoring 16 points, but Madison Vigre had a monster game inside with 12 points and a game-high 15 rebounds, with 10 coming in the second half. Kindyl Kelly scored in double figures with 10 points, and the Cards sent out their seniors with a last regular season win before districts.
Seniors honored included Raen Yarbrough, Vigre, Kayla Miller, Maia Chaney, Hall, Savannah Cline, and Gabby Cruz.
Rainier was led by Boesch’s 14 points, with other Mountaineers struggling to find a rhythm. Bryn Beckman was the Mountaineers leading rebounder with nine boards, and the freshman also scored seven points.
The loss means that Rainier drops to 7-3 in league, and in fourth in the league standings, while Winlock has a case to move up for districts when the committee decides seeding Friday morning. The Cardinals are currently in sixth place.
