27th Annual
North Central District "A"
Girls Basketball Tournament
2002

Champ

ionship

Feb

. 15

Brew
(20

ster
-1)

Score

: 69-38

Okan
(8-

ogan
14)

Score

: 42-34

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Liberty Bell 59, Oroville 40
Game 1.
At Chelan Community Gym, WA

The magic number was 31 during the opening round of the girls' North Central 1A District tournament Tuesday at Chelan.
First, Liberty Bell's Sheena Hinkle dropped in 31 points in a 59-40 win against Oroville. Then Jeni Boesel of Brewster matched her in a 73-56 victory over Okanogan.
The tournament continues Friday, with Oroville facing Okanogan in a loser-out game at 6 p.m. in the Lake Chelan Community Gym. The district championship between Brewster and Liberty Bell follows at 7:30.
Hinkle scored 19 in the second half, 12 in the third quarter. The junior hit a pair of treys in that 23-point quarter.
Hinkle's hot scoring helped erase Oroville's 21-20 halftime lead.
"Maybe it was the first district game, but we were nervous in the first half," Liberty Bell coach Mike Bourn said. "In the second half, we did a better job of pushing the ball up the floor and running our half-court offense.
Hinkle also pulled down 14 rebounds and had seven steals. Lion senior Rickie Bovee added 12 points and nine rebounds.
Danielle Moser led Oroville with nine points.

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Brewster 73, Okanogan 56
Game 2.
At Chelan Community Gym, WA

After losing by 33 and 46 points during the regular season, the Bulldogs stayed right with the top-ranked team in the state, behind 14 points from Angela Roberts and 13 points from Marcie Mitzner.
But in the end it was too much Boesel and Rachel Crane, who dumped in 19 points. Kaylan Crane added 10 points and nine rebounds.
Bear coach Bryan Boesel said he hopes the return of point guard Reagan Pariseau and reserve post Alex Saint will give his team a boost. He credited Rachel Crane for taking over at point, with Pariseau recovering from a hip flexor.
"A win's a win, but we're not playing very well," Boesel said. "The last four or five games, our defense and rebounding -- they're just not there."

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Okanogan 42, Oroville 34
Game 3.
At Chelan Community Gym, WA

As the second quarter wore on, Bulldog coach Darin Radke wasn't sure if his team would ever score again.
Okanogan was down by eight points after 15 consecutive scoreless possessions. That helped Oroville go on a 10-0 spurt, fueled by guards Daniele Moser and Shalene Jensen, with four points each.
Finally, Angela Roberts hit an inside shot and Marcie Mitzner drained a trey just before halftime.
"That was a big shot for us," Radke said. "Our offense was clogging itself up in the lane. So we tried to spread everything out in the second half."
Finding Mitzner also helped. The senior had 11 in the third quarter. Hiley Spaet spent much of the second half looking for Mitzner.
"First, we had to cut down our turnovers," said Spaet of the 16 against Oroville's press. "Then, we had to calm down so we could run our offense."
The Bulldogs built a six-point lead midway through the fourth quarter. Then Oroville answered as Ashley Guenther plus two free throws by Erica Day.
Okanogan had an unlikely answer as Clara Mosqueda hit a couple of inside shots.
"Oh, I wasn't surprised," Spaet said. "She's an aggressive player."
Mitzner helped close out the game with a press-breaking layup off a Spaet pass. The senior finished with 24 points and 11 rebounds.
Day led Oroville with 10. Moser had eight, including the team's only field goal in the third quarter.
Before the game, Oroville coach Greg Moser was worried if his team had recovered from a midweek flu outbreak.
"I thought we were fine before Tuesday's game, but several kids said they had the flu afterwards," the coach said. "I hope we're fine tonight."

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Brewster 69, Liberty Bell 38
Game 4. (Championship, winner to state)
At Chelan Community Gym, WA

As the championship game of the North Central 1A District wound down, Jeni Boesel was getting tired.
The Brewster junior knew she had scored a lot of points against Liberty Bell on Saturday night at the Lake Chelan Community Gym. She didn't know how many in the Bears' 69-38 victory.
"When I subbed out, the bench was really excited," Boesel said. "They told me why right away what I did."
Her teammates yelled "you broke the district scoring record." Boesel had 43 points, shattering the co-record of 35 by Kendra Curtis of Tonasket in 1985 and Jennifer Paluck of Liberty Bell in 1996.
Brewster also put itself in the record book as the third team to win three or more consecutive district titles, joining Ephrata from 1983-86 and Omak from 1993-95.
Most importantly for the Bears, the victory clinches a third straight trip to the State 1A tourney, Feb. 27 to March 2 at the Yakima SunDome. Before that, Brewster plays Colfax for a third straight year in the District 6/7 regional championship in a Feb. 23 afternoon game at Moses Lake.
Meanwhile, Liberty Bell plays Okanogan for the second spot to regionals at 6 p.m. Tuesday. Okanogan rallied to beat Oroville 42-34 in a loser-out game.
The Bears had two goals in the title game: get off to a quick start and slow down Lion Sheena Hinkle.
Both Hinkle and Boesel had 31 points in district semifinal wins Tuesday. Boesel kept on rolling Friday, feeling confident going into the game.
"I had a good practice last night and I was shooting well this afternoon warming up," Boesel said. "I was also hitting my shots before the game."
When play started, Boesel hit a short jumper and turned a steal into a layup. It was the first of four steals into baskets, worth 10 points with subsequent free throws. Boesel also hit a trio of 3-pointers, the first two helping Brewster to a 23-7 start. She amassed 24 points by halftime.
"That's the kind of start we wanted," said coach Bryan Boesel. "We were sluggish at the start in the last two games. We wanted to get out fast tonight."
That wasn't what Liberty Bell coach Mike Bourn wanted. A tie at 11 as in the Jan. 25 home game was his wish.
"I guess we were intimidated by Brewster and playing in a district championship game," Bourn said. "Except for Rickie (Bovee), none of these girls had played in a championship game. We talked about not being intimidated and they said they weren't, but ..."
The Lion offense opened 1 of 9 from the field. Hinkle had a trey late in the first quarter, but finished with six points before fouling out in the fourth quarter.
A combination of Rachel Crane and Michelle Tostenrude guarded Hinkle, the CTL's second-leading scorer at 18.7.
"You really have to stay on her," Crane said. "She's a good player, you can't let her get open at all. We stopped her early and that helped us."
Boesel had 10 points in the third quarter and broke the district record with 6:12 left on a layup.
The junior was as happy with the record as she was frustrated in missing four free throws in the fourth quarter.
"Missing those free throws, I shouldn't be missing that many," Boesel said. "I did that early in the season and I told myself I didn't want to do that again."
Boesel had nine points in the fourth quarter, leaving with 1:38 left.
Reagan Pariseau, out for the past four games due to a hip flexor injury played two-minute stretches in each quarter.
"This was an evaluation, we'll see how she feels tomorrow and next week," Bryan Boesel said.

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Liberty Bell 63, Okanogan 39
Game 5. (Winner to regionals, loser out)
At Chelan Community Gym, WA

The Liberty Bell girls and Lake Roosevelt boys came through in the clutch with wins in the North Central District 1A tournaments Tuesday to advance to the District 6-7 Regional on Saturday in Moses Lake.
Liberty Bell stopped Okanogan 63-39 behind a huge game from Sheena Hinkle at the Lake Chelan Community Gym.
The Mountain Lions must win at 12:30 p.m. Saturday against Kettle Falls to advance to the State 1A Tournament. Lake Roosevelt, which topped Manson 55-36, plays Freeman at 10:30 a.m. Saturday in the regional at Moses Lake.
Hinkle collected 20 points, eight steals and six assists for the Mountain Lions. Defense was foremost on Liberty Bell's minds.
"They were embarrassed by their defense Friday," coach Mike Bourn said of the 69-38 loss to Brewster, "so they wanted to make up for it."
Step in Randi Walsh, who scored a season-high 14 points and helped hold Okanogan's Marcie Mitzner to 13 points. Walsh hit 7 of 9 from the floor.
Jessica Tugaw added nine points for the Bulldogs.

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