Some coaches and players like to split the regular season into three sessions.
First half. Tournament time. Second half.
And after Saturday’s 42-34 nonleague loss at Auburn, South Kitsap’s girls basketball team would like to forget the middle section and move into the final stage.
The Wolves (5-4) now have lost their last four games, including three during the break. When the season resumes Friday at Stadium, it will have been nearly a month since South last won.
Its previous victory was 45-28 on Dec. 12 at Wilson.
South’s struggles began when Gig Harbor outscored the Wolves by eight points in the second half to earn a 42-35 win on Dec. 16. They followed it up with two consecutive losses in the Riverside Invitational on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Skyline (3-2) beat the Wolves 36-33 and Portland’s Sunset (6-2) followed with a 51-41 win.
“I don’t think we’ve had very intense practices,” South senior guard Tori Fairweather said. “We’ve had a slow pace and haven’t been playing at game speed during practices.”
South coach Mark Lutzenhiser has maintained that zone defenses create problems for his team since the beginning of the season, and that was no different after the latest loss.
“We’re still a little tentative against teams that play zone,” he said. “Of course I’m telling the whole word this but that’s OK because we need to work on it. They played zone for three quarters and we struggled for three quarters.”
Even when the Wolves were winning, the offense generally struggled. That continued against Auburn when they shot just 26.5 percent from the field.
“I think we feel discouraged,” Fairweather said. “When we get out there, we seem lost and don’t have the confidence to run the offense.”
But Auburn (3-5) hadn’t won since a day before the Wolves’ last victory. It appeared that trend might continue when South jumped out to an 8-1 lead before the Trojans took a timeout with 6:18 minutes left in the first quarter.
“Our defense created a lot of those shots early,” Lutzenhiser said. “Rather than keeping the intensity on defense, we lost some of that. That’s the main thing.”
The Wolves’ early success came through finding their tallest players, posts Stephanie Osterdahl and Molly Werder, underneath for layups. Auburn, which doesn’t have a player taller than 5 foot 10, struggled to contain the pair at the beginning. Osterdahl and Werder combined for their team’s first eight points, but combined for just eight more the rest of the game.
South’s offense began to stagnant and Stephanie Jameson hit a 3-pointer with 11 seconds left in the first quarter to tie the game, 13-all.
The teams both combined for just 13 points in the second quarter that feature four lead changes and a tie.
Jordan Plummer scored a layup on an assist from McKenna Swanson to give Auburn a 20-19 halftime edge.
It was enough to give the Trojans the lead for good.
Auburn opened the second half with seven unanswered points before Werder connected on a 10-foot shot with 3:40 left in the third period. But Kristiana Strickland hit a 3-pointer with 26 seconds left in the quarter to extend the Trojans’ lead to 33-25. It never became any closer.
After a field goal by Angel Sheldon with 7 minutes left in the game cut Auburn’s lead to 35-27, the Wolves went nearly five minutes before Osterdahl split a pair of free throws. South trailed by 12 points then and the game essentially was out of reach.
“I know we have some much potential,” Fairweather said. “Everyone just needs to figure it out and step it up. We can have all those things.”
At Auburn 42, South Kitsap 34
South Kitsap 13 6 6 9 — 34
Auburn 13 7 13 9 — 42
South Kitsap — Kelsey Callaghan 2, Crystal Polen 2, Samantha Gulisao 2, Stephanie Osterdahl 6, Amanda Feeney 0, Danielle Stewart 4, Ashlee Stoner 0, Chelnesha Thuring 2, Tori Fairweather 0, Angel Sheldon 6, Ashley Guerrero 0, Molly Werder 10.
Auburn — Stephanie Jameson 10, McKenna Swanson 0, Jasmine Hubley 2, Kristiana Strickland 4, Heather Restrepo 5, Isia Johnson 2, Jessica Morgan 5, Erin Williams 0, Jennsyn Chaney 10, Jordan Plummer 4.
