PORT ORCHARD — Playing with no players over 5’ 9”, the South Kitsap High School girls basketball team scrapped their way to a 56-43 win against a bigger North Kitsap team Friday night in a Narrows League Bridge Division matchup.
SK guards Sarah Groves (10 rebounds) and Olivia Bui (nine rebounds) were forced to be the rebounding machines with the absence of posts Kristin Myles (knees) and Jamae Feddock (flu). Senior post Carly Riggs played limited minutes because of the flu.
SK’s Leah Kendrick took advantage of her minutes on the floor with a career-high eight points and seven rebounds.
SK coach Mike Allen said Kendrick’s contribution could be sign of more things to come from the junior.
“She stepped up huge,” Allen said. “She’s super athletic. Once she gets confidence she’s going to be tough. Anytime you get a lot of minutes and start to get in the flow, you can gain confidence.”
NK’s Sheena Brundage hovered over her SK defenders and scored six of NK’s first eight points.
But foul trouble and a 2-3 zone defense held Brundage to two points over the final three quarters.
“I’ll give South some credit,” NK coach Dan Weedin said. “We got off to a pretty good start in the first quarter and Sheena did some nice things. Then they went to a 2-3 zone and did a good job defensively on us.”
Though NK had the size advantage, Weedin said once Brundage was out, there was no advantage.
NK (0-2, 0-4 overall) trailed 25-23 early in the third quarter but SK’s Kristi Utter hit a big three pointer to push SK’s lead to five points.
The Wolves went on to score seven of the next nine points to take a 35-25 lead.
SK (2-0, 3-3 overall) scored the first six points in the fourth quarter to extend its lead to 46-31 and led by as much as 17 points midway through the quarter.
“I thought we had a decent shot at halftime and we still had a shot in the fourth quarter, but South is a very good shooting team and they made some nice plays,” Weedin said.
Weedin said he was pleased with his team’s defense but is still waiting for the offense to improve.
“Defensively I thought we played really well and we have all year,” he said.
“But offense is where we’re playing catch-up right now.”
The Vikings will look to notch its first win of the season tonight in a home game against also winless Bremerton tonight at 7:30 p.m.
North Kitsap 8 13 10 12 — 43
South Kitsap 7 18 13 16 — 56
NK—Brenda Stice 4, Sarah Bergman 7, Hailey Koiva 13, Brita Nelson 2, Jessica Bento 2, Jen Otelle 2, Ashley Davis 1, Sheena Brundage 8, Jennifer Harris.
SK—Stephanie Robinson 4, Sarah Groves 11, Rebekah Proctor 3, Kristi Utter 6, Olivia Bui 9, Sharon Daly 13, Leah Kendrick 8.
