Montesano’s girls basketball team picked up its first win of the season while the Elma Eagles boys team went down to the wire against Adna on Thursday.

GIRLS PREP BASKETBALL

Montesano 72, La Center 22

Montesano responded from a blowout loss the night before to defeat La Center 72-22 on Thursday at Montesano High School.

The Bulldogs (1-1 overall) played an improved defensive game, holding the Wildcats (1-2) to five points in each of the first two quarters and four points in the fourth.

“Tonight, we came out with a lot more energy,” Monte head coach Mark Mansfield said. “I think we did a really good job whole night of flying around defensively and creating problems for them.”

Monte, a young team that entered the season with just two players that had any varsity experience, got a big game from sophomore post Jillie Dalan, who single-handedly outscored La Center with 29 points to go along with a game-high 15 rebounds.

Sophomore Lex Stanfield scored 10 points and had four steals while freshman guard Tieander Olson had a solid all-around floor game with seven points, eight rebounds, seven assists and six steals.

PHOTO BY FOREST WORGUM Montesano freshman guard Tieander Olson drives against La Center during a 72-22 victory on Thursday in Montesano.

Montesano pounded the glass on Thursday, holding a 55-19 rebounding advantage.

Mansfield said the victory “was a good bounce-back” from Wednesday’s season-opening loss to 1B state-champion Neah Bay and he was pleased with his entire team’s performance.

“Every single one of them came in there and worked their tail off. … We played 12 and all 12 played hard,” he said. “Our intensity and energy was better tonight, especially at the start.”

Mansfield added that though this is the youngest Monte team he’s coached during his tenure at the school – with just one senior and three juniors on the roster – he believes they will improve with more game time.

“I think the more they play, the more comfortable they’ll get playing at that level,” he said. “Last night, against a good team (in Neah Bay), we didn’t back down and kept fighting until the very end and I think that’s something we can build on. It carried over tonight.”

Montesano plays at Napavine at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

La Center 5 5 8 4 – 22

Montesano 18 19 18 17 – 72

Scoring: Montesano – Dalan 29, Stanfield 10, Olson 7, Parkin 6, Jones 6.

BOYS PREP BASKETBALL

Adna 63, Elma 58

Elma ended up on the wrong side of a back-and-forth matchup between two quality teams, losing 63-58 to Adna on Thursday in Elma.

Playing its third game in four days to start the season, Elma (1-2) trailed 35-26 after giving up 22 points in the second quarter and took too many long-range jump shots on offense, according to Eagles head coach Matt Ferrier.

“We attacked their zone tentatively in the first half. Our shot selection in the first half wasn’t very good,” he said. “We settled for outside shots instead of attacking the gaps of their zone.”

Elma outscored Adna in the second half after Ferrier urged his team to be more patient on offense.

“After our half-time chat, our adjustments looked spot on,” he said. “We were way more deliberate on offense, waited for the right looks and it showed.”

Trailing by as much as 12 points in the third quarter, Elma rallied to tie the game at 58-58 with just over a minute to go in the game.

The Eagles defense forced a missed shot from Adna’s Eli Smith, but Smith followed his own rebound, scored and was fouled to give the Pirates the lead in the final seconds of the game.

“Smith was a load,” Ferrier said. “He did a great job shouldering their load since (all-league guard Braeden) Salme sat out with a broken foot.”

Ferrier added his team had chances down the stretch, but too many missed opportunities led to the loss.

“Didn’t help that after we tied the game we missed a few point-blank lay-ins,” he said. “So yes, definitely, the quote of the night was ‘missed opportunities.’”

Junior guard Traden Carter scored 16 points to lead Elma.

The Eagles’ AJ Holmes (14 points, 10 rebounds), Grant Vessey (10) and Cason Seaberg (10 points, 5 assists) also scored in double figures.

Elma hit 21-of-50 from the field (42%), including 8-for-19 from 3-point range (42%).

The Eagles play at Centralia at 7 p.m. on Monday.

Adna 13 22 12 16 – 63

Elma 10 16 14 18 – 58

Scoring: Adna – Smith 27, T. Salme 15, Johnson 11, Humphrey 7, Muller 3. Elma — Carter 16, Holmes 14, Vessey 10, Seaberg 10, McGaffey 6, Studer 3.

Chief Leschi 75, Ocosta 42

Ocosta was never really in this one as the Wildcats lost a 2B Pacific League opener 75-42 to Chief Leschi on Thursday in Puyallup.

The Wildcats (1-1, 0-1 2B Pacific) struggled to handle the defensive aggression of the Warriors (2-0, 1-0), which forced Ocosta into 30 turnovers in the game, 12 alone in a 31-9 first quarter.

“Well, tonight was the definition of a good old-fashioned butt whoopin’,” Ocosta head coach Jason Quinby said. “Leschi pressured us into turnovers in the first quarter and never looked back. We tried to match them, but it was kind of like the tortoise trying to keep up with the hare on a sprint, it didn’t work. We were overmatched from the start.”

Ocosta guard Kayden Turner scored 22 points – including 6-of-10 from beyond the arc – to lead all scorers.

“Kayden Turner tried to keep us in the game with his shooting, but we didn’t generate any offense outside of that,” Quinby said. “Overall, I was pleased with our effort, but we were completely overmatched tonight.”

Ocosta plays at Crescent at 4:45 p.m. on Saturday.

Ocosta 9 9 5 19 – 42

Chief Leschi 31 20 23 1 – 75

Scoring: Chief Leschi – Winzer 21, Lara 16, Oyos 13, Spino 12. Ocosta – Kay. Turner 22, Priest 6, Ceja 4, Kor. Turner 3, Agramon 2, White 2, Wyland 2, Miranda 1.