Staff photo by E.J. Harris Pendleton's Cece Hoffman drives towards the basket in the Bucks' 59-45 win against Baker on Tuesday in Pendleton.

Focus — it’s been a theme for the Pendleton girls basketball team all season, and one they’ve struggled with at times while trying to find their identity.

After a sharp start in Tuesday’s non-league game against Baker, the Buckaroos appeared to be getting a little hazy-eyed once again as they clung to a slim lead.

But a key timeout midway through the third quarter snapped them back to 20/20 vision and Pendleton dominated down the stretch to close out the Bulldogs 59-45 at Warberg Court.

Despite taking the lead for good in the middle of the first quarter, Pendleton was never able to rest on its cushion thanks to Baker’s Brie Sand.

Every time Pendleton (4-7) seemed ready to put the game on ice, the guard’s smooth jump shot and aggressive drives brought Baker (6-6) back into the fray, and her inside bucket with 3:52 left in the third quarter made it a 40-38 Pendleton lead.

That was when Bucks coach Michelle Gomez called the pivotal timeout, and apparently conveyed a message the players needed to hear.

“We had great defense on her all game but our help wasn’t there, or weren’t comfortable leaving their man,” Gomez said. “So we allowed them to (and said), ‘You know what, we’ll (as coaches) take the blame for it. Help out on (Sand) a little bit more.’ And I think they were a little bit more comfortable doing that so we were able to help the person who was on her the whole time working their tail off and then she didn’t look so open, those lanes didn’t look as open.”

Sand didn’t score again after the break in action, and Pendleton went on a 19-5 run the rest of the way for their third win in a row.

“We realized she was scoring most of their points and we don’t want to get beat by a one-man team,” said Pendleton junior Haley Greb of Sand, who scored 17 of her game-high 22 points in the first half. “She had a good drive … she could go both ways so you couldn’t really play her to the left … so we had to play her up and try to keep her off the foul line too.”

Greb and sophomore Rylee Gentner drew the responsibility of guarding Sand most of the game, and both were also key scorers for the Bucks with Gentner’s 13 points coming in as the team high and Greb’s 11 a close second.

Also big for the Bucks was senior Cece Hoffman, who jump started a 10-2 run to close the third quarter and finished with 10 points, nine rebounds and six assists.

Hoffman sank a mid-range jumper, then came up with a steal and hit Gentner on the fast break to extend Pendleton’s lead to 44-38 within a minute of that momentum-changing timeout. Baker’s Jayme Ramos scored on a fast break, but Pendleton’s Lauren Richards then added all of her five points with a 3-pointer from the corner and later a pair of free throws to push the lead back to double digits for the first time in the second half.

Then a 7-0 run to start the fourth gave Pendleton its largest lead of the game at 57-42 with 5:33 to play.

“Lately our focus has been if we can polish up our defense that the offense will come to us and it really has made a difference,” Gomez said. “We really focus on being good aggressive defensive players and I think that had a lot to do with it.”

Pendleton scored its points in spurts throughout the game, and used a 12-0 run in the first quarter to take the lead for good.

A drive from Sand gave Baker its second lead at 8-6 three minutes into the game, but Shelby Greb answered with a 3-pointer to give the Bucks the game’s final lead change.

Another key for Pendleton was excellent offense rebounding and the team finished with 21 offensive boards, 19 on defense.

Kalan McGlothan led those efforts with 10 rebounds to go with seven points, Maureen Davies added eight boards and Gentner chipped in six.

“We’re not that tall but we’re aggressive,” said Hoffman, a 5-foot-5 guard.

“They did a great job and they always do a good job rebounding,” Gomez said. “There’s obviously things we can get better at, some little things, but they’re aggressive. They’re a good group of kids, they work very hard. Hustle is never a question in our game plan.”

The win improved Pendleton to 4-1 in its last five games, and Hoffman said a recent tournament in Bend where they won two out of three really seemed to be a turning point in the season for a team that started the year with a completely new starting five and seven straight losses.

“I think those three game and our team bonding then got us to where we played (Tuesday),” she said.

“I feel like we are getting better,” said Greb. “We’re young but we’re going to get there. We’re getting better every game and I’m excited for the rest of the season.”

Pendleton gets three more tune-ups before the start of league play, including a Jan. 19 date at Baker, and will play its next game on Saturday at Lebanon with a 3 p.m. tip.

———

BHS (6-6) 13 19 10 3 — 45

PHS (4-7) 20 16 14 9 — 59

BAKER — B. Sand 22, K. Severson 6, J. Ramos 4, G. Huggins 4, R. Hughes 3, H. Collard 3, C. Bruce 2, S. Phillips.

PENDLETON — R. Gentner 13, H. Greb 11, C. Hoffman 10, S. Greb 7, K. McGlothan 7, M. Davies 6, L. Richards 5, J. Lemberger, H. Porter.

3-pointers — BHS 3, PHS 3. Free throws — BHS 4-12, PHS 14-31. Fouls — BHS 25, PHS 17. Fouled out — S. Phillips, H. Collard (BHS).