With season hanging in the balance, Rilyn Quirke comes up big for Barlow in final minute to close out Tualatin
By Dave Ball
PORTLAND — The layup is the simplest shot in basketball. Teams do lines of them in pregame just to get warmed up. Announcers often refer to them as an ‘easy two.’
The layup is certainly the highest percentage shot on the floor, but it is by no means automatic.
With the season on the line Wednesday night, Barlow center Rilyn Quirke secured a 37-32 win over Tualatin with back-to-back ‘easy twos’ in the final minute.
Holding a one-point lead late in the game, Barlow guard Annie Koenig dodged a Tualatin double team, leaving two Timberwolves tumbled on the floor. Quirke saw the opportunity and zipped to the basket. Koenig hit her with a pass, and the rest was up to Quirke.
“I was left wide open — I just had to finish,” Quirke said. “You don’t want to overthink it. I just went back to the basics, knowing I’ve made this shot thousands of times. I was nervous when it circled the rim, but it went down.”
Tualatin came up with a quick answer at the other end, bringing it back to a one-point game.
Once again, the Bruins looked inside to their senior post. Haidyn Sobella took a couple dribbles down the baseline before sending a bounce pass to Quirke on the far block.
“As soon as we got the ball to Rilyn, it was, ‘Yes, we’ve got two points,’” Barlow coach Nick Hudson said.
Tualatin 6-footer Olivia Poulivaati was in position to challenge, but Quirke was in no hurry.
“I knew they would be going after it, so I paused to gather myself and found that gap to go up to the hoop,” Quirke said.
In addition to hitting the clutch shots down the stretch, Quirke also turned in a solid game on the defensive end by holding Tualatin’s twin towers of Poulivaati and Jaylyn Arosemena to 5-for-15 (33.3%) shooting.
“I knew I was not as tall as they were, so I had to use my strength and keep them out of position,” Quirke said.
Quirke, second-team all-conference, will be returning to her family’s Canadian roots next season, playing at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia.
