Wildcats 71, Bulldogs 43

LA CENTER — A solid shooting performance from La Center lifted the Wildcats over Montesano in the opening round of the District IV 1A boys basketball tournament at La Center on Thursday.

The Wildcats (14-3) hit eight of their 23 shots from 3-point range on the night and were able to take advantage of a few defensive lapses by the Bulldogs to seal the victory.

“They are a good basketball team and they hit a lot of open jumpers,” Montesano coach Doug Galloway said. “We didn’t play well defensively. We weren’t talking very well on the defensive end and we weren’t getting back and they were able to get out and run on us a little bit.”

La Center controlled the boards to the tune of a 37 to 26 rebounding advantage in the game. The Wildcats were led by freshman Hunter Ecklund, who finished with 18 points.

Trevor Ridgway paced the Bulldogs with 14 points, Seth Dierkop added nine points and six rebounds and L.J. Valley grabbed six rebounds and dished out three assists to go with six points.

Montesano will face Seton Catholic in a loser-out contest at Rochester on Monday.

Montesano 12 11 6 14 — 43

La Center 19 18 20 14 — 71

Montesano (43) — Peterson 4, Ridgway 14, Burbidge, Bates 4, Winter, Chapman 4, Quinn, Valley 6, Albert, Farmer, Dierkop 9, Nicklas 2. FG — 18-51. FT — 7-14.

La Center (71) — Amstutz 3, Shaw, Eastman 5, Wise 17, Bork 2, Seter 12, Leslie 2, Baher 9, Ecklund 18, Weaver 3. FG — 28-54. FT — 7-10.

Knights 67, Eagles 42

VANCOUVER — Trico League champion King’s Way Christian physically moved Elma around in the first half to establish a big enough lead to win this district opener on Thursday night.

The Knights (13-9), who will take on the winner of the Forks-Stevenson game on Monday, kept the Eagles off-balanced on offense and physically moved them on defense.

“Their physicality got to us early,” Elma head coach Marvin Prince said. “We settled down and started to play, but we struggled defensively. They beat us to the basket a lot. We tried a zone and they hit their shots. Then, we’d move to man-to-man and we’d lose their cutters. I thought we were more prepared than we were.”

Avery Brown led Elma with 16 points. Karter Graves led KWC with a game-high 26 points.

On Monday, Elma (4-15) will host the loser of the Stevenson-Forks game at 5:30 p.m.

Elma 8 13 8 13 — 42

KWC 23 18 14 12 — 67

Elma (42) — AJ Brown 3, Tep 2, Peterson 9, Voland 4, Spalding, Av. Brown 16, Horton 5, Schneider 3, Acuff. FG — n/a. FT — n/a.

King’s Way Christian (67) — Jarvi 8, Cotton, Hoffman 6, Graves 26, Koenders 6, Bryant 3, Jones 4, Freeman 12, Kimball 2. FG — n/a. FT — n/a.