Eureka Girls Fall into Second Place Tie with Owyhee after Loss

Eureka’s Lady Vandals were on the road at Carlin and Owyhee this past weekend and split a pair, winning at Carlin, but losing 37-23 to Owyhee and dropping into a second place tie in the 1A East with the Braves.

“We had our chances in a close game at the end,” said coach Travis Gallagher, “Pressured them on defense and got a couple of steals and deflections late in the game. We were down by three with about thirty seconds left, had a couple of good looks, but it wouldn’t go in.” Owyhee scored at the final buzzer to pad their lead.

Gallagher thought illness on part of some of the players was tiring to them. “At Owyhee, we started off slow, sluggish on offense, lots of turnovers mainly due to poor passes.”

Slow was the name of the game for both teams as Owyhee only led 25-13 as the fourth quarter began.

“Then we found our groove,” Gallagher said. Kyra Todd led the way with 12 points that period as the Vandals roared back and set the stage for the dramatic finish.

Jenna Sope was tops for Owyhee with 11 points.

Eureka did hurt themselves at the foul line though as they made only 8-of-17.

“The girls never gave up and that is great,” Gallagher noted. “Need to figure out something though to get us going earlier.”

At Carlin the night before, Gallagher said he wanted to rest several of the varsity players showing symptoms of the flu, and played many of the JV players and won an easy 47-23 romp over the winless Railroaders.

This Friday is an important game for the second place Lady Vandals (12-5, 5-2) as they host league leader Wells (15-3, 6-0). The girls lost at Wells 42-35 Jan. 17