Orofino girls basketball was seeded #2 entering the District I/II playoffs with a home matchup Tuesday evening Feb. 2, against St. Maries. While the Lumberjacks had struggled this year, Maniac coach Tessa Mullinex said she got her players ready for a team that had their backs against the wall in an abbreviated “1 and done” bracket. St. Maries would keep the game close after the first period when Orofino held a slim 7-4 advantage. But afterwards it was Katie Bar the door and the offensive firepower of Orofino took over. The Maniacs would score 23 points in the second quarter and cruised to a 61-12 win eliminating St. Maries from further 2-A play.
Jaelyn Miller was the game’s high scorer with 16 points on four field goals at a perfect four for four from the free-throw line.
With the victory, the #2 Maniacs would travel on Thursday evening to Grangeville to face the #1 seed Bulldogs in a “must win” game for the lady maniacs. The #1 team in the state proved too much for Orofino and the lady Maniacs fell 57-20 ending their season.
In a look back at the victory over St. Maries, Sophomore Jaelyn Miller was chosen at the KLER/Pizza Factory Player of the game with her shooting performance. In the contest with Grangeville, sometimes it’s not always about who scores the most points, but who shows the most heart.
Senior Riley Schwartz was kept out of the scoring column, but the leader for this Maniac squad showed she and her teammates would not go down without a fight. Evidenced in the third quarter when Grangeville guard Baily Vanderwall, who was on the way to becoming her teams high scorer, went for an offensive rebound and an easy put back attempt, found Schwartz had squeezed in from the baseline and stole the ball out of her hands and quickly got the ball up the court to give her Maniacs an opportunity.
It was effort like this, until the bitter end, that Schwartz is named the season’s last player of the game honor.
For their work on the court, both Miller and Schwartz received a Pizza Factory Player of the Game certificate.
