OTHELLO — The Othello Huskies girls basketball team fell short in their first two matchups of the season, losing 33-50 on the road Tuesday against Omak and 32-46 at home against Connell. Despite this, the young Huskies team is still optimistic. 

“Things didn’t go too bad, but they could’ve gone a lot better,” said Huskies sophomore Khloe Valdez. “Could have connected a little bit better as a team and talked some more.” 

Following a tough loss against Omak, the Huskies returned home on Thursday to play the Connell Eagles in another nonleague matchup. In the first quarter, the Eagles scored eight unanswered points before the Huskies put up four by the end of the quarter. 

While Connell remained ahead, the Huskies found more momentum as they moved into the second quarter. Othello used their physicality and speed to stay in the game as Valdez made a layup for two and made two free throws and Abcde Garza added another four to their score, but the Eagles remained on top as the first half closed with a score of 15-26. 

The third quarter continued this trend as the Huskies worked to get on top, but Connell remained one step ahead of them for the remainder of the game and the Huskies would fall 32-46.  

Valdez said these last few games taught the Huskies how much communication on the court will be key to finding success this season as they push to improve upon where they left off last season. 

“I’m excited, I think it’ll be fun,” she said. “We’ll improve as we go on and we’ll start looking a little bit better.” 

Huskies Head Coach Caleb Tovar said this was a good game to help the team get the preseason rust off and while it was a rough loss, it does still give the team a good outlook. One area they struggled with during Thursday’s matchups was not having their open shots make it into the basket. 

“It seemed like everything was going their way and nothing was going our way,” he said. “But I was pleased that we had the looks that we did because eventually they’ll start going in.” 

Tovar said he picked up the program as head coach at the beginning of the school year, meaning that the Huskies players did not have much opportunity to run drills during the summer. This means that for many of the girls, the last time they touched a basketball was at the end of last season. 

With only around two weeks of basketball under their belt since February, it was expected that this season would be off to a slower start, said the coach. Even with such a short amount of practice behind them the team still showed they have the right skillset to win; it’ll just take some time to get them back into it. 

This year’s Huskies team is also very young returning only three upperclassmen with Shaylee Freeman as the only returning senior from last season and two juniors, Cumorah Giles and Cierra Giles. The remainder of the team is made up of five sophomores and two freshmen. 

Another struggle coming with this season is that for some of the players, basketball is not a sport they are entirely used to as they come from having soccer and volleyball as their main sports, said Tovar. This is something that he said will be much easier to overcome, as the athleticism these players have shown in other sports should transition well into the basketball season. 

“I’m looking forward to what they can do,” said the coach. 

The Huskies will remain at home for the next matchup Tuesday, where they will face Sageview at 5:30 p.m. 

BOX SCORE:  

GAME ONE:  

OTHL: 33 

OMAK: 50 

GAME TWO:  

OTHL: 4-11-9-8: 32 

CNNL:16-10-12-8: 46 

OTHELLO HUSKIES ROSTER: 

Name, Jersey, Grade 

Khloe Valdez, 2, 10 

Meila Zuidema, 3, 10 

Bethany Zamora, 10, 10 

Abcde Garza, 12,10 

Cumorah Giles, 15, 11 

Cierra Giles, 21, 11 

Shaylee Freeman, 30, 12 

Evelyn Prows, 34, 10 

Enyce Perez-Vargas, 40, 9 

Suzzie Henley, 42, 9 

    Othello sophomore Khloe Valdez sprints down the court during Thursday’s game after gaining possession of the ball.
  

    Abcde Garza, an Othello sophomore, gets ready to make a layup during the matchup against Connell.
  

    Meila Zuidema from OHS calls out to a teammate as she makes her way down the court during the game against Connell.
  

    Othello freshman Suzzie Henley guards against a player from Connell as the opposition makes an offensive push.
  

    Enyce Perez-Vargas dribbles the ball at the halfway point of the court as she looks for an opportunity to pass to a teammate.