The Philomath High School girls basketball team had to dig deep Thursday night to pull out a 40-37 victory over a good Coquille squad in the first round of the Les Schwab South Coast Tournament in Coos Bay.
Playing on Marshfield High’s court in a game with an 8:30 p.m. start, the No. 1-ranked Warriors (4-1) trailed 29-25 going into the fourth quarter before staging a comeback to hold off the Red Devils, which came into the game unbeaten through their first four games and were ranked No. 3 in the most-recent OSAAtoday coaches poll.
Sophomore Reagan Heiken scored nine of her game-high 18 points in the fourth quarter to lead the Philomath charge. Heiken shot 72.7% from the field in the performance and scored all but two of her points in the second half.
Senior Anneka Steen finished with 11 points on four field goals and 3 of 5 on free throws. Seven of her points came in the first half and she contributed a basket and two free throws in the fourth quarter.
Another player that came up big in the fourth quarter was senior Zoee Howard, who started for the first time this season, and had two hoops down the stretch.
Senior Hilli Vigue led the Red Devils (4-1) with 13 points.
Philomath advances to the tournament’s semifinals and will face Junction City for the second time this season at 3:30 p.m. Friday. The Tigers (2-3) advanced with a 35-31 victory over Mountain View, a 5A school out of Bend. The Warriors opened the season Dec. 7 with a 45-19 win over Junction City in the first meeting between the two schools.
In other results from the tournament, Sutherlin beat Crook County, 43-22, and Marshfield got past Bend, 69-64. The tournament’s championship game is scheduled for 4 p.m. Saturday.
