Lady RedHawks beat Wheatland, lose to Willits

Stifling defense by the Colusa High girls basketball team shut down Wheatland on Friday in a non-league tune-up game in Colusa.

The RedHawks (7-6) took the lead at the start of the second quarter and pulled away for a 37-26 victory.

Sophomore forward Teale Stacey scored eight of her game-high 12 points in the first half and senior guard Paige Townzen scored seven of her 11 points in the second half for the well-balanced RedHawks.

Emily Mobley shot just 2-for-12 from the field but dominated the paint with 21 rebounds and two blocked shots. Mattie Myers played through a serious ankle injury to finish with six assists and three steals.

"(Myers) is doing a remarkable job coming off the injury that she's got going, but she's working her way through it and we're hoping she can keep playing through it and not hurt it any worse," Colusa coach Jerry Davies said.

After a layoff of longer than two weeks, the RedHawks impressed Davies with their ball security, though they turned the ball over 14 times, against a tall and athletic Pirates team (7-8).

"We handled the ball well with minimal turnovers. We had some, I knew we were going to have some, because of not having the court experience for a couple weeks, but I was pretty happy with it," Davies said.

Foul trouble became an issue early in the third quarter when Townzen, Mobley and sharp-shooter Savannah Miller picked up their third fouls, but none of the three fouled out. Mobley picked up her fourth foul with about four minutes remaining but was able to finish the game.

"We got in a little foul trouble but we were able to manage it down the stretch. We were worried there that if we lost a couple, three of them, out of the lineup there would be a little bit of trouble, but they did a good job managing their fouls," Davies said.

Kassidy Heuvelhorst led the Pirates with 11 points but none of her teammates scored more than four.

Colusa followed up the victory against Wheatland with a tough 62-35 loss against visiting Willits on Saturday.

The Wolverines (7-5) have a tall team which runs a press, something Davies was worried about before the game, comparing their style of play and team makeup to Durham.

Willits held the RedHawks to 10-of-48 shooting and no Colusa player scored more than nine points. Townzen led the team with nine, Myers added eight points and Stacey scored eight before fouling out. Mobley added six points and 14 rebounds.

Alicia Mehtlan scored a game-high 16 points for the Wolverines, and Samantha DelBello (12 points), Kellie Elder (10), Mykayla McClellan (9) and Hailey Riley (9) led a balanced scoring charge.

The RedHawks played a non-league game against East Nicolaus on Tuesday and host Gridley tonight at 7 p.m., before opening Mid-Valley League play with a home game against Biggs on Thursday.

CONTACT Kirk Barron at 458-2121 or kbarron@tcnpress.com.