Lady Bulldogs Finish Season with 3 Wins

DAYTON – The Dayton Girls basketball team won three games last week, beating Weston-McEwen, 50-26 on Tuesday, Walla Walla Valley Academy, 61-13 on Thursday and WP, 55-23, on Saturday. The Lady Bulldogs finished their regular season with an 17-3 record and a second place league finish.

On Saturday, Dayton will play Tri-Cities Prep in the league tournament in Waitsburg. With a win, they will have a chance to avenge two regular season losses to DeSales, if the Irish win their first-round game against either Asotin or WWVA.

Dayton 50, Weston-McEwen 26

On January 27, Dayton overwhelmed the visiting TigerScots, cruising to a 13-6 lead after the first quarter and 23-12 at the half.

For the game, three Lady Bulldogs scored in double figures, led by Jenna Phillips with 15. Sidney Andrews and Madison Mings each scored 12 points. Mings sank two three-pointers.

Dayton had a total of 41 rebounds, including eight each for Phillips and Andrews. Lexie Ramirez and Kellie Moore each had three assists.

Dayton 61, WWVA 13

The Lady 'Dogs' defense rose to the occasion Thursday and snuffed WWVA, allowing only three points by the Knights in the second half. After leading 17-8 at the end of the first quarter, Dayton took a 38-10 lead into halftime.

Playing at home, the Lady Bulldogs shot 50 percent from the floor for the first time this year. With 19 and 14 points respectively, Sidney Andrews and Madison Mings each outscored the entire WWVA team. For the second straight game, Mings downed two treys. She was a perfect six-for-six from the floor. Andrews had eight rebounds and Lexie Ramirez had four assists.

Dayton 55, WP 23

The Lady Bulldogs pulled out to leads of 21-6 after one quarter and 33-10 at the half, as they cruised to an easy victory over WP in the final regular season game for both teams. For the winless Lady Cardinals, it was the season finale.

For Dayton, Ramirez led the scoring with 14 points, followed by Andrews with 13. For WP, Paige Wood had ten points, and Tayler Jones and Lexi Brannock had four points each. Jones also had six rebounds.

Dayton coach Clayton Strong praised his team after three decisive wins. "We had a chance to get a lot of kids significant minutes over the course of the last few games," he said. "Which was nice, so we could have them work on some things and also it gave us a chance to rest some regulars. I thought other than rebounding we played pretty good defense especially contesting shots," Strong added. "We do still have areas to work on going into this week."

Saturday's playoff game in Waitsburg, between Dayton and TCP, will start at 2 p.m.