Bulldogs host Newberg on Thursday

Mid-Valley Sports

The West Albany girls basketball team will open the Class 4A subtournament against a team that coach Mike Haberly said reminds him of his teams of the past two or three years.

The Bulldogs host Newberg, a 63-59 winner over Churchill on Tuesday, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday. The scheduled boys games against West Salem will be moved to Friday, with the junior varsity game scheduled for 5:30 p.m. and the varsity to follow.

Tickets for Thursday's playoff game are $6 for adults and senior citizens and $4 for students. Only OSAA passes will be accepted.

Newberg likes to press and trap.

"They have three different presses," Haberly said after returning from Tuesday night's game. "Their style is to try to keep teams off-balanced. I have some ideas. I know what teams did to us to hurt us, so we will come up with a game plan similar to that."

Haberly is confident his girls will be able to pick up the game plan and handle the pressure. Churchill had one guard that handled the ball most of the time, but the Bulldogs have three seniors capable of taking care of the ball. They also have four seniors leading the way offensively, making it difficult for teams to focus on one or two players.

"I think that is something that causes difficulties for other teams," Haberly said. "You go in knowing the focus of a team is one or two kids. It is a whole lot easier to stop one or two than it is three or four."

The winner of Thursday's game advances to face Glencoe on Saturday for a chance to advance to the state tournament next week.