Entering their 1A Evergreen League opener on Thursday, the Eatonville Cruisers had a sparkling 8-1 overall record and averaged 57 points-per-game this season.
Then they faced the Montesano Bulldogs, and all that flew out the window.
Using a sound, smothering defense and a relentless rebounding effort, the Bulldogs routed Eatonville 64-14 on Thursday at Bo Griffith Memorial Gymnasium in Montesano.
Monte (8-2 overall, 2-0 1A Evergreen) was sharp from the tip-off. The Bulldogs quickly jumped out to an 11-2 lead on a steal and layup by reigning league MVP McKynnlie Dalan, who scored all 11 Bulldogs points in the first three minutes of the game.
Later in the period, Monte took a 20-5 lead after a 9-0 run that included buckets from junior forward Mikayla Stanfield, senior guard Maia Young, freshman forward Evanjillie “Jillie” Dalan and senior forward McKynnlie Dalan.
Jillie Dalan hit 1 of 2 free throws with just under a minute to go to stake Monte to a 22-7 lead at the end of one quarter.
RYAN SPARKS | THE DAILY WORLD Montesano’s Jillie Dalan scores two of her 13 points during the Bulldogs’ 64-14 win over Eatonville in a 1A Evergreen League game on Thursday in Montesano.
The second period was much the same for Monte, with its defense leading the way. The Bulldogs controlled the glass on both end of the floor and used its full-court pressure defense to create turnovers.
A Monte offensive rebound off a missed free throw led to a three from senior guard Jaiden King for a 29-7 lead at the 5:31 mark.
Jillie Dalan gave the Bulldogs a 31-point lead at 38-7 on a bucket from the low post with 2:21 left in the half, closing out a 16-0 Monte run.
In the final minute of the quarter, Stanfield would score on a baseline pull-up jumper followed by a breakaway layup and — after a free throw from Monte junior Elizabeth York — Monte took a 43-10 lead into the half.
Eatonville (8-2, 0-1) opened the third quarter on a basket by sophomore center Lillian Bickford off an inbound pass but couldn’t produce much offense against Monte’s superb defense.
After that, the Bulldogs outscored the Cruisers 19-2 in the frame as five Bulldogs put up points in the third quarter, led by Stanfield’s six points.
Monte’s reserves played the fourth quarter and held Eatonville scoreless in the frame under a running clock as the Bulldogs made an emphatic statement with a convincing 40-point victory.
“(Eatonville) plays really hard and we’ve been focusing the last few days on our defense and defensive pressure and I thought our defense really delivered tonight,” Monte head coach Mark Mansfield said. “Every league game is important. … We knew we had to come ready to play. We set the tone early and didn’t give them much space to do anything.”
McKynnlie Dalan led the way with 22 points, 14 rebounds and seven steals.
Younger sister Jillie Dalan scored 13 points and had nine rebounds while Karr and Stanfield finished with nine and eight points, respectively.
RYAN SPARKS | THE DAILY WORLD Montesano guard Jordan Karr (20) puts up a shot against Eatonville’s Lillian Bickford (14) during the Bulldogs’ 64-14 win in a 1A Evergreen League game on Thursday in Montesano.
Monte shot 27 of 70 from the field (38.5%) and held a massive 36-11 rebounding advantage.
The Bulldogs defense recorded 26 steals and forced 40 Cruisers turnovers in the game.
Eatonville sophomore guard Bailey Anderson led the Cruisers with seven points and was limited by the defensive effort of Stanfield, King, Vanna Prom and others on the perimeter.
With the victory, Monte has won seven of its last eight games and is tied with Hoquiam atop the league standings with a 2-0 record.
“Early in the season, we weren’t doing a very good job of running the break,” Mansfield said. “So we really focused on that and I thought we did a really nice job of that tonight.”
Mansfield went on to discuss how his team’s defense has improved over the course of the season into arguably one of the best in the 1A classification, allowing just 17 points in its two league victories.
“Our team defense was really good tonight,” he said. ”Early in the season we weren’t communicating as well so we really focused on that. … It can’t just be one or two, it has to be everybody talking. And they’re buying into that and when they see the results it just reinforces it.”
Montesano hosts Ridgefield at 7 p.m. on Friday.
Eatonville 7 3 4 0 — 14
Montesano 22 21 19 2 — 64
Scoring: Eatonville — Anderson 7, Bickford 4, Kralik 3. Montesano — M. Dalan 22, J. Dalan 13, Karr 9, Stanfield 8, King 5, Young 4, Schrader 2, York 1.
