Aberdeen point guard Ben Dublanko wasn’t just hot on Friday, he was on fire.
So much so that teammate Javier Bojorge felt the need to cool off the sizzling senior by pouring water on him after Dublanko scored 41 points to lead Aberdeen to an 84-47 win over rival Hoquiam at Hoquiam Square Garden.
Dublanko hit 10 shots from beyond the arc and scored 27 points in the second half to put an exclamation point on the boys basketball version of the Myrtle Street Rivalry.
Before Aberdeen broke the game open in the second quarter, the Grizzlies and Bobcats struggled for control of the game and saw things tied up at 12 apiece at the end of the first quarter.
Dublanko was held scoreless and missed all three of his shot attempts in the first quarter, but he would heat up to score 14 points in the second frame.
Dublanko said his teammates helped him find a rhythm in the second quarter.
“My teammates trusted me. Once I got a couple of open looks I was able to knock down a couple of shots,” he said. “They just kept finding me. As soon as I got an inch they helped give me a mile.”
With the cold start behind him, Dublanko hit 4-of-5 3-point attempts as the Bobcats offense came alive and began to pull away from their cross-town rivals.
What was a tie game at the end of the first, ended up being 36-18 game at halftime for Aberdeen as the two teams put up contrasting offensive numbers.
Hoquiam head coach Curtis Eccles said his team’s struggles defending the perimeter made it difficult to execute the game plan.
“You have to give Dublanko credit. He had a great night tonight and we weren’t in the right place at the right time defensively to contest those shots” he said. “We talked about making sure we contain Bojorge and Dublanko and let the other guys beat us. We didn’t do that tonight.”
Aberdeen’s Ben Dublanko pulls up and hits a three in transition on Friday against Hoquiam. Dublanko scored 41 points in the Bobcats 84-47 win over the Grizzlies. (Hasani Grayson | Grays Harbor News Group)
All six of Hoquiam’s points scored in second quarter came at the foul lane and the Grizzlies didn’t fair much better from the field in the third quarter, sinking only four shots.
With Hoquiam focusing its defensive energy on Dublanko, other Bobcats found themselves with open looks. Bojorge put up 17 points and hit two 3-pointers that came off of assists from Dublanko.
Giovani Pisani was the third Bobcat in double digits with 11 points.
Aberdeen head coach Mark Buckman said he was pleased with the way the defense fueled the offense even when they went away from their standard full-court press.
“We played really good defense that allowed us to go into our offense,” he said. “We want to press whenever we can but with certain lineups we’re comfortable playing in the half court, but we want to put on pressure when we can.”
On a night where Hoquiam struggled finding open shots, Matt Brown was steady on offense, scoring 21 points to lead the Grizzlies. Jackson Folkers was the only other Hoquiam player in double digits with 11.
Hoquiam will try to bounce back from the loss with a matchup against Castle Rock at home on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
Aberdeen’s Derrell Shale goes up for close-range shot while Hoquiam’s Matt Brown defends on Friday. (Hasani Grayson | Grays Harbor News Group)
Aberdeen will also be in Tuesday action that day with a road game against Orting at 7 p.m.
Eccles was disappointed his team couldn’t give the home crowd more reasons to cheer and is looking at the loss as a learning experience.
“We always want to make it close and keep it a competitive game, but once they started hitting some shots it got out of hand.” he said. “We have to have discipline and this is a game where I see a lot of aspects we can take out and improve on.”
Aberdeen 12 24 30 18 — 84
Hoquiam 12 16 17 12 — 47
Top Players: Aberdeen — Dublanko (41 pts.), Bojorge (17 pts.), Pisani (11 pts.); Hoquiam — Brown (21 pts. 8 rebs.), Folkers (11 pts., 5 asst.).
