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ROCHESTER — You know the saying:
“It is hard to beat a team three times in a season.”
The Onalaska High School girls basketball team learned that in a heartbreaking way on Tuesday night.
Despite erasing a 13-point margin by the start of the fourth quarter, the Loggers never could buy the go-ahead bucket and Raymond/South Bend converted enough free throws in the waning seconds to pick up a 49-45 triumph in a Class 2B District 4 quarterfinal at Rochester High School.
“I can never fault the effort of this team, but just some mental mistakes,” Onalaska head coach Alana Olson said. “We didn’t get 32 minutes of consistently good execution. It is heartbreaking to have a game that you know you could have won.”
It sends the Ravens (14-5), who lost the two regular season games to Onalaska by a combined 22 points, to the district semifinals next Tuesday in Kelso where the runner-ups from the C2BL Rainier Mountaineers await for the right to go to state and play in a district title contest.
Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
“We made just enough plays,” RSB head coach Jason Koski said.
One of the season-long bugaboos for the Loggers has been field goal percentage. Olson was blunt in saying it hasn’t been ideal this winter.
To date their biggest game of the season, they shot 20-of-54 from the field. Emalie Jacoby was responsible for 11 of those field goals and 29 attempts. Everyone else went 9-for-35.
And they only attempted 16 shots from beyond the arc.
“I was pretty happy with our shot selection,” Olson said. “We just need to finish. We have to knock those down to beat teams like that.”
Still, Onalaska (15-7) had plenty of chances to come away on top.
The full-court press button was pushed in the second half that steamrolled the Loggers to a third quarter that featured a handful of turnovers and trailing by five.
Jacoby launched a deep triple and off a turnover, Randi Haight made a layup that tied the game at 36 within the first 53 seconds of the final frame. That was the closest the Loggers would be to taking the lead.
The Ravens’ sharpshooter Kassie Koski drilled a trifecta to make the lead 42-38, then Ava Baugher scored four straight – the second layup on an out of bounds play with three seconds on the shot clock – to build the cushion back to seven.
Between bunnies not falling and finishing 3-of-8 from the charity stripe in the last stanza, the Loggers never could get over the hump.
“You got to give RSB credit, they made key buckets down the stretch and we didn’t,” Olson stated. “When we got rolling, it was our press.”
Koski’s final point of her team-high 20 put RSB up four in the last five seconds and it erupted into euphoria. Baugher finished with a 17-point, 12-rebound double-double.
Three other Ravens combined for 12 points.
“Against teams like Onalaska that have scouted us a lot, they know where we like to go,” Coach Koski said. “I thought (Kassie) was patient tonight. When she needed to, she hit a couple big ones to give us that edge.”
Onalaska’s only lead came at 14-12 late in the first quarter on the end of an 8-0 spree. RSB comfortably led by double figures much of the night and used an 8-2 run of its own to take an 11-point lead at the half.
Switching to zone helped the Ravens have an answer for Jacoby and the screens.
“That stabilized Jacoby,” Coach Koski said. “Having them shoot perimeter shots might be a factor for us. Luckily for us, they weren’t making them.”
Jacoby registered a game-high 23 points while Renzy Marshall added seven. Jacoby, Haight and Delaney Marshall all tied for the team lead in rebounds with eight.
Onalaska will now have to crawl out of the elimination bracket to reach state. First up is a Thursday game back at Rochester against North Beach.
“They’re not happy and they know they can play better,” Olson said.
