WP Girls Top Pioneers 49-24

MILTON-FREEWATER - The Waitsburg-Prescott girls shook off a sleepy start to their first game in over a week Tuesday night against Mac-Hi in Mil­ton Freewater. The Cards awoke for 17 third-quarter points while holding the Pioneers to four in the same period, and WP cruised the rest of the way to a 49-24 victory.

Krystal Harris led the Cardinals in scoring with 16 points, five rebounds, and four assists. Chelsey Bran­nock banked 14 points of her own to go with three impor­tant offensive rebounds.

Both Harris and Bran­nock erupted on second half scoring streaks that- coupled with a stifling WP full-court press-put the game out of the Pioneers' reach.

Up 25-19 after a Pioneer 3-pointer by Makenzie Fite, WP launched into 15-1 streak. Brannock scored 10 straight Cardinal points in the streak, including four in just seven seconds when she rebounded and put back her own free throw miss on the back end of a foul- and-basket three-point play attempt.

Harris snapped to action two minutes later, scoring nine straight Cardinal points on three 2-point buckets and a deep trey. Her individual run wrapped the third quar­ter and kicked off the fourth.

"We came out a little bit sluggish, but we haven't played in about 10 days," WP coach Jerry Baker said. "We stayed with them in the first half then got a little more aggressive and did a better job. We came out in third quarter and kind of opened it up right then.

"(Brannock) got hot right there in the third quarter." Baker continued," That was just being ag­gressive and running the floor and hitting the open lay-ins."

Not everything was pup­pies and rainbows for the Cards. Baker was anything but pleased with his team's poor free throw perfor­mance. The Cardinals fin­ished the night 3-for-20 from the charity stripe.

Baker was, however, happy with the cutting and back-cutting that resulted in 20 free throw tries.

The win boosts WP's record to 4-7 overall, 1-1 in league play.

WP heads into a trio of league match-ups this week­end. The Cardinals travel to Asotin Friday, host DeSales Saturday then square off against Walla Walla Valley Academy on Monday.