Gillett takes down Gresham in nonconference girls basketball clash

The Gillett Secondary School girls basketball team earned a nonconference road win over Gresham on Nov. 29 in Gresham after controlling the start of the second half.

The visiting Tigers went on a 16-4 run at the start of the second half to put away a pesky Wildcats group. Gillett went on to win 51-33.

Gillett scored on its first possession of the final half. Gresham answered with a couple free throws before the Tigers rattled off the next eight points. At that point, Gillett led 40-19 and cruised to victory from there.

“We definitely boxed out a lot more in the second half than the first half,” said Gillett’s Cheyenne Krueger on what the team did in the second half to pull away. “We made sure that even if we made a mistake, we kept our heads up and that really helped push us to a 20-point lead.”

Cilena Guns led Gillett with 20 points in the contest — despite missing the last chunk of the game with an injury. She scored eight of the points on the Tigers’ second-half spurt.

Guns also helped the visitors grab the lead in the opening half, scoring back-to-back buckets early on and then tallying eight of the team’s final 13 points to give the team a 28-16 halftime advantage.

The Tigers pushed the ball every chance they could against Gresham’s press, and it led to some quality looks.

“I feel like when we’re on a fastbreak, it was easy layups, so there really wasn’t much to really compete with — I was wide open for the fastbreaks,” said Guns.

Aside from Guns’ 20-point performance, Krueger and Carleigh Kaczmarek also scored in double figures.

Kaczmarek heated up in the second half and tallied 14 points for Gillett. She scored the team’s final seven points.

Krueger was aggressive all night and attempted all of the team’s free throws on her way to an 11-point showing.

“It’s such a relief because if I’m having a bad night, I can always count on my teammates to pick it up where I’m lacking,” said Krueger of the balanced scoring attack. “Even if they aren’t having a good shooting night, they always make up for it in rebounds or steals.”

Gresham’s Jessa Jensen opened the scoring in the contest with a 3-pointer, but Gillett scored the next 11 points. A three-point play from Jensen, basket from Josie Cerveny and another triple from Jensen made it a two-point game, 13-11.

Gillett scored the next two baskets before Maddie Haffner knocked down a 3-pointer for Gresham. It took the Wildcats nearly three minutes to score again, and by then, Gillett had built an eight-point cushion. The Tigers also ended the half on a 6-0 run to push that lead to double digits.

Haffner knocked down Gresham’s free throws near the start of the second half, but it was another three minutes until the team scored again.

“I think we weren’t talking enough,” said Jensen on some of the team’s struggles. “When we want to throw into the lane, we want to do a bounce pass and we were trying to lob it, or throwing it when we shouldn’t have, and I think our passes got away from us. We weren’t talking enough and our shots were just off.”

The mini scoring droughts proved to be too much for the hosts to overcome in the end, despite a solid finish to the contest.

Janay Pecore-Kirkland, Chloe Bohl, Haffner and Jensen all scored late for the Wildcats, with many of the points coming off offensive rebounds.

Jensen led the team with 12 points, while Pecore-Kirkland had eight and Haffner seven.

Gillett 28 23 — 51

Gresham 16 17 — 33

Gillett (51): Lily Hansen 0-0 2, Halle Fisher 0-0 4, Cilena Guns 0-0 20, Carleigh Kaczmarek 0-0 14, Cheyenne Krueger 6-6 11.

Gresham (33): Lexi Baddmoccosin-Barnes 1-2 1, Jessa Jensen 1-1 12, Maddie Haffner 2-2 7, Josie Cerveny 0-0 2, Rylie Kakwitch 0-2 0, Chloe Bohl 1-2 3, Janay Pecore-Kirkland 0-3 8.

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