‘Humble but confident.’ Been-there, done-that Barlow holds on — literally — to get past Tualatin, return to 6A girls semifinals

“I think we’re really playing for each other, and that’s the most important part.”

Author:
Alex Tam
Updated:
Mar 10, 2023 4:31 AM EST
Original:
Mar 9, 2023

By Alex Tam | Photos by Naji Saker

PORTLAND — While clinging to a one-point lead with four minutes to go, Barlow coach Nick Hudson was more than ready to go back to a strategy that worked well for his team in the past.

Reminiscent of how his Bruins drained the clock to help beat South Medford in the state semifinals a year ago, Hudson discussed with his coaching staff about using the strategy again to escape with another big win and advance.

“I know a lot of people are thinking we’re notorious for slowing the game down,” Hudson said. “This is the final year to do it, right, without a shot clock. But we just wanted to play smart.”

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Sixth-seeded Barlow did just that, holding on to beat No. 3 Tualatin, 37-32, in the OSAA Class 6A state quarterfinals Wednesday night at the Chiles Center at the University of Portland.

The Bruins grabbed a 31-30 lead with 4:33 left when senior Annie Koenig came through in the clutch with a 3-pointer from the corner. Barlow do-it-all senior guard Kennedie Shuler stole the ball on the ensuing possession, and then the decision was made.

From the 4:15 mark, the Bruins played keep-away for nearly two minutes before senior Haidyn Sobella missed a 3-pointer. But Barlow senior Olivia Payne grabbed the rebound, and with 1:10 to go, Koenig found senior Rilyn Quirke wide open under the basket to push the lead to 33-30.

Barlow’s tactics took more than 3 minutes off the clock.

“There’s no shot clock yet, so, I mean, we might as well take advantage of that if they’re not going to come up and defend us in their zone,” Shuler said. “We had to make them adjust, and it went in our favor.”

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Tualatin quickly cut the deficit back to one at 33-32 with 1:00 left following senior Olivia Poulivaati’s layup. But Barlow again had an answer with Sobella finding Quirke wide open behind the Timberwolves’ defense for another layup to take a 35-32 advantage with 43 seconds remaining.

Tualatin had a chance to send the game to overtime but missed two free throws and a layup over the last 33 seconds.

Tualatin coach Wes Pappas said he had “no problem” with Barlow going to the stall strategy.

“It’s within the rules right now for one more week,” Pappas said. “So, you can do that. I think maybe we could’ve subbed at some point earlier. I’ll always question, if we could’ve had a little more legs, I don’t think they could’ve kept it away from a fresh group of ours.

“If our starters are more fresh, I think they pass it around for two minutes and we get a tip and take it the other way. Then that looks like the worst move of all-time to pull that out, but we ran out of gas.”

In the first half, Barlow looked like a team determined to return to the state championship game after a runner-up finish last year. Behind Koenig’s hot shooting with 11 of her 16 points before halftime and an aggressive defense with several deflections that caused nine turnovers, the Bruins jumped out to a 25-15 lead at the break.

It was an uncharacteristic first half for Tualatin’s defense, which allowed a state-low 27.5 points per game for the season — a hallmark of their team that helped the Timberwolves breeze to a 24-2 record and their first appearance in the state tournament since 2009.

“Our shots were falling,” said Shuler, who finished with five points, three rebounds and five assists. “We were moving the ball well. We were just knocking it down, which was big for us.”

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Added Koenig: “We were able to move the ball really well that first half. Skip-passes were there. We were getting a lot of touches in the middle that really helped break down their zone. That’s honestly what we practiced all the time leading up to this game.”

Tualatin senior Tabi Searle acknowledges nerves got the best of the Timberwolves, playing at the Chiles Center and in the pressure-packed environment.

“This is the first time we’ve been here with a different court — just stuff we weren’t used to that Barlow was,” said Searle, who led Tualatin with 10 points and six rebounds. “They made such a great run last year. We made mistakes we usually don’t make because we were nervous and we’d never played on that big of a court. It was a lot on the line, so we were definitely nervous.”

The Timberwolves got back to what they do best in the third quarter, allowing just two points on 1-of-7 shooting from Barlow. The 10-point deficit was cut to 27-26 entering the fourth.

Tualatin retook the lead at 28-27 on Searle's layup in the opening minute of the final period. Senior Jaylyn Arosemena’s two free throws gave the Timberwolves a 30-28 lead with 5:29 remaining, but they could not hold on.

Quirke totaled six points and four rebounds for Barlow, and sophomore Maiya Hardy added four points and three boards.

Poulivaati had nine points and 10 rebounds for Tualatin.

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“We’ve been in this situation before,” Koenig said. “Obviously, there’s a little bit of nerves going into it because it’s a big stage and you want to do as well as you possibly can for your teammates. I think we’re really playing for each other, and that’s the most important part.”

Barlow gets a rematch against No. 2 South Medford in the state semifinals Friday at 3:15 p.m.

“We’re humble but we’re confident,” Shuler said. “We know that there’s nothing given to us. … We were here last year. We know what it’s like. We’ve just got to come to play every game.”