The Philomath High School girls basketball team advanced to the Class 4A tournament semifinals with a 55-23 victory Thursday night over Marist Catholic.
The third-seeded Warriors (21-5) have defeated the Spartans (12-12) three times this season by an average of 20.3 points. Marist, seeded 11th, reached the tournament by upsetting No. 6 La Grande in the first round.
Philomath will face either second-seeded Henley or seventh-seeded Madras in the semifinals at 8:15 p.m. Friday on Forest Grove High’s Joe Moran Court. The winner will advance to the championship game at 8:30 p.m. Saturday while the loser drops into the third/fifth trophy game at 2:15 p.m. Saturday.
Three players hit double digits in a balanced scoring attack for the Warriors in the win over the Spartans. Junior Zoee Howard had a big night inside with 12 points, freshman Reagan Heiken finished with 11 and junior Anneka Steen scored 10 to go along with eight rebounds, three steals, three assists and two blocked shots — a performance that earned her Philomath’s Player of the Game distinction.
Both teams got off to a slow start with a scoreless tie through more than three minutes into the game. Marist got on the scoreboard first on a tip-in at the 4:54 mark. Philomath finally broke through with 3:13 left in the first with Howard hitting a jumper to tie the score. Steen followed with a 3-pointer and the Warriors never trailed again.
By the end of the first, Philomath held an 11-4 lead and the margin at halftime grew to 28-9.
Both teams saw another offensive slowdown in the third quarter but Philomath dominated in the fourth with 21 points over eight minutes — and that included significant minutes for players off the bench. Coach Ben Silva got 12 players time on the floor in the victory, a number that is somewhat rare for a game at the state tournament.
Philomath shot a respectable 46.5% from the field — 50% in the first half — compared to Marist’s 20.6%, a testament to the Warrior defense. The Warriors had the advantage in several other categories, such as rebounds (33-26), points off turnovers (19-5), points in the paint (28-12) and bench points (26-2).
Senior Addie Ruckwardt scored a team-high eight points for Marist.
