The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON - Dayton girls played two home games last week, coming out on top in both. On Tuesday, January 7, they defeated River View High School, with a final score of 44-31.

"I thought we played pretty good defense again in the first half, as we held them to nine points," said Dayton girls basketball coach Clay­ton Strong. "Our defense also spurred out offense as we were able to get out on the break and get easy points in transition."

Strong was also pleased with how the Lady Bulldogs shared the ball and contrib­uted to the game. Dayton lost to River View in a December pre-league game.

Top shooters for Day­ton were Madison Mings, with 11 points, and Lexie Ramirez, with 10. Dayton finished with 13 assists and 15 field goals.

Last Thursday the Lady 'Dogs out-played the visiting Walla Walla Valley Academy 43-26.

"We had a sluggish first half, but to give WWVA credit - they came out and gave us some problems, knocking down some shots in the first half," Strong said. "I thought our girls did a nice job, in the second half, putting the clamp on them defensively as we pitched a shut-out in the third quarter and for half of the fourth."

The Dayton girls took a few steals, which led to sev­eral easy points, according to Strong, and helped boost confidence.

"It basically came down to us getting back to what has been helping us be suc­cessful, and that is playing defense," he said.

Dayton plays at Tri-Cit­ies Prep on Friday; DeSales on Saturday in Dayton.