5A: No. 6 West Albany Upsets No. 1 South Albany 40-34

<!-- wp:heading --> <h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Bulldogs Stand Alone at the Top of the MWC</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The 5A No. 6-ranked West Albany Bulldogs (7-4, 3-0 MWC) started their Mid-Willamette Conference campaign undefeated and stand alone at the top of the league table after a 40-34 road upset against the 5A No. 1-ranked South Albany Redhawks (8-2, 2-1 MWC).</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:acf/box-score {"name":"acf/box-score","data":{"game":["1485077"],"_game":"field_6a1b2c3d4e5f7"},"mode":"preview","alignText":"left","anchor":"acf-block-696427d6cbbd0"} /--> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>West Albany never trailed in the rivalry game that remained close through the third quarter (29-27). The Bulldogs mounted a game-high 10-point lead in the fourth behind 9 points from [player_tooltip player_id='1179231' first='Natalie' last='Tidwell'], who connected for 3 three-pointers in the final frame.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Down by 3 points, with 13.5 seconds left in the fourth quarter, South Albany had possession and a chance to level the game for the third time. [player_tooltip player_id='832595' first='Kaylee' last='Cordle'] received a pass in the left corner and launched a step-back jumper from three-point range, but missed. Cordle had 8 points and 2 steals for the Redhawks.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Tidwell grabbed Cordle's miss, her ninth rebound, and drew a foul. West Albany inbounded to [player_tooltip player_id='832050' first='Payton' last='Starwalt'], who drew another foul and netted both bonus free throws to put the Bulldogs ahead by 4 points, and ultimately out of reach. Starwalt led West Albany in scoring with 14 points.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:embed {"url":"https://twitter.com/RyStar7_/status/2010069501069693223?s=20","type":"rich","providerNameSlug":"twitter","responsive":true} --> <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://twitter.com/RyStar7_/status/2010069501069693223?s=20 </div></figure> <!-- /wp:embed --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>It was a low-scoring game played mostly in the halfcourt and disrupted by a high number of fouls committed by both teams. South Albany's starting point guard, [player_tooltip player_id='832637' first='Maddie' last='Angel'], who has had a strong start to her senior season, sat out a significant number of minutes due to early foul trouble and was held to 0 points.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>If South Albany had forced overtime, both teams would have continued without their starting bigs. [player_tooltip player_id='1179226' first='Lily' last='Hamblin'] fouled out with less than one minute left in the fourth quarter, after scoring 2 points and securing 6 rebounds for West Albany. Neveah Ukaoma fouled out seconds later.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Bulldogs outrebounded the Redhawks. [player_tooltip player_id='926138' first='Lola' last='Chamberlain'] snagged 9 boards, all in the first half, and added 6 points for West Albany.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Despite being tightly guarded, and double-teamed at times, Wyoming-commit [player_tooltip player_id='832587' first='Taylor' last='Donaldson'] led all scorers with 21 points. Donaldson and Cordle combined for 29 of South Albany's 34 points. Before the game, Cordle was awarded a commemorative basketball in honor of reaching 1000 high school career points scored earlier in the season.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Both teams are scheduled to play home games on Tuesday. West Albany hosts Corvallis, and South Albany plays a nonleague game against West Salem.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->