MONTESANO — After Montesano allowed Hoquiam to mount a fourth-quarter comeback in the first meeting of the season, Bulldogs guard Evan Bates was determined to get the win in the rematch.

Evan Bates scored 24 points to lift the Bulldogs in a 69-47 win over Hoquiam on Friday in Montesano.

“I had butterflies coming into this game, but they were the good type of butterflies. I was ready,” he said. “We were practicing hard all last week. We did let one slip but we weren’t going to let that happen again.”

Montesano grabbed some steals early on to get the transition game going, which resulted in the Bulldogs starting the first quarter on a 9-0 run.

Hoquiam (7-9, 3-2 Evegreen 1A) normally relies on Matt Brown and Rayyon Dayton to shoulder the load offensively, but Montesano used the tandem of Tanner Nicklas and Shaydon Farmer to slow down the Grizzlies’ leading scorers.

Montesano’s Ben Estes, right, knocks the ball out of the hands of Hoquiam’s Rayyon Dayton in the third quarter on Friday. (Hasani Grayson | Grays Harbor News Group)

Dayton and Brown scored 13 and seven points, respectively.

Montesano head coach Doug Galloway said he was impressed with the way his defenders handled themselves on the interior.

“They have two very good big men and you always have to be aware of them because they can beat you up really quick,” he said. “Our focus was to not let them get off to a good start. I thought our bigs played pretty well against them.”

Montesano (10-7, 4-1) had success contesting shots in the paint and also made it difficult to get the ball into the post. Hoquiam tuned the ball over 21 times, eight of them coming in passes to the interior.

The combination of turnovers and hot shooting from Montesano helped give the Bulldogs a 39-15 halftime lead.

Hoquiam head coach Curtis Eccles was disappointed with his team’s ball movement and is hoping they can correct some of those issues in practice.

“A big part of our loss tonight was not making good decisions with the ball,” he said. “Montesano did play some good defense, for the most part, but we have some practices to fix that. We’ll be fine.”

Hoquiam will be hoping for a better offensive performance next time out as the Grizzlies struggled to find a shooting rhythm in the second half.

Montesano outscored Hoquiam, 17-11, in the third frame. Hoquiam shot 2-for-8 in the third quarter while Montesano shot 4-for-12 to give the Bulldogs a 56-26 lead heading into the fourth.

Hoquiam didn’t have much luck shooting 3-pointers either, going 1-for-7 from beyond the arc.

Hoquiam’s Bryson Eccles, right, dribbles past Montesano’s Evan Bates on Friday. (Hasani Grayson | Grays Harbor News Group)

Eccles said the large halftime deficit forced his team to alter the game plan in the second half.

“We don’t really like to lean on that. We don’t shoot very well from the outside,” he said. “We got out of sync because we were attempting a few more 3-pointers, but when you get down that much, that early you have to shoot more 3-pointers to get back into it. It didn’t work out for us.”

Hoquiam falls to third place in the league standings with the loss and will try to bounce back with a game against Elma on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in Hoquiam.

The win puts Montesano in a tie for first in league with Forks, which won its matchup with Tenino on Friday night.

The Bulldogs will travel to Tenino on Tuesday for a game that will tip off at 7 p.m.

Bates said the Bulldogs are starting to peak at the right time with just three games left on the regular season schedule.

“We have a lot of momentum and we’re playing well. We’re seeing the court well and we’re getting a lot of good looks for each other offensively,” he said. “We’re also getting good looks for our bigs, which is something that I don’t think we did earlier in the year. I’m excited for these next three games before playoffs.”

Hoquiam 6 9 11 21 – 47

Montesano 15 24 17 13 – 69

Top Players: Montesano – Bates (24 pts.), Sam Winter (11 pts.), Nicklas 10 (pts.); Hoquiam – Dayton (13 pts., 8 reb., 4 stl.), Cameron Bumstead (8 pts.)

North River 77, Wishkah Valley 44

North River got out on the fast break and ran away from Wishkah Valley late in the second quarter in its 77-44 home win on Friday night.

Luis Nieves led the Mustangs with 28 points, many of which he scored after receiving outlet passes and making runs to the rim.

North River (3-2 overall) got off to a fast start on offense, but Wishkah (1-5) stayed tough and trailed 26-21 halfway through the second quarter.

North River ended the quarter on 15-5 run, however, to take a commanding 41-26 lead into halftime.

Mustangs coach Sean Pierson said Nieves’ speed helped propel the team to victory once North River got comfortable in its offense.

“Transition (offense) really benefited us in this game. Luis is fast and he’s a great ball handler so we would get the ball down to him on outlet passes for layups but we didn’t get the transition game going until later in the game.”

Joey Brenneman led Wishkah with 13 points in the loss.

The Loggers play host to Oakville on Tuesday at 7:15 p.m.

North River will face league-leading Taholah on the road for their next matchup. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.

North River 18 23 22 14 – 77

Wishkah 12 14 9 9

Top Players: North River – Adam Schreck 15 pts., Nives 28; Wishkah – Owen McNiel 12 pts., Joey Brnemman 13

Willapa Valley 64, South Bend 31

Willapa Valley used a stout defense to lead the Vikings to a 64-31 win over South Bend on Friday in Menlo.

Willapa Valley (14-2, 12-2 Pacific 2B) held South Bend (2-14, 1-13) to 10 points-or-less in every quarter of the game, which according to Vikings head coach Jay Pearson, was his team’s goal heading into the contest.

“After (Tuesday’s loss to) Chief Leschi and the past three games, our major focus was on defense,” Pearson said. “We wanted to keep them below 10 points in each quarter and we did that.”

Matt Pearson led Willapa Valley with 14 points.

Logan Walker added 10 points and seven rebounds for the Vikings.

Three Willapa Valley players — Beau Buchanan, Chad Flemeitis and Frank Roonsburg — scored eight points each for a balanced Vikings offensive attack.

South Bend was led by Drew Rose, who scored 14 points, and Nathon Ashley, who tallied 12 points in the contest.

With the victory, Willapa Valley keeps pace with Life Chrsitian for the top spot in the 2B Pacific League.

The Vikings play at Ocosta at 7 p.m. on Thursday before turning around and hosting Life Christian 24 hours later in a game with huge league-title ramifications.

South Bend 9 5 7 10 — 31

Willapa Valley 13 13 18 20 — 64

Top Players: Willapa Valley — M. Pearson (14 pts.), Walker (10 pts., 7 reb.), Buchanan (8 pts., 6 blk., 4 reb.). Flemetis (8 pts.), Roonsburg (8 pts.); South Bend — Rose (14 pts.), Ashley (12 pts.).

— Ryan Sparks, Grays Harbor News Group

Life Christian Academy 84, Ocosta 50

The Ocosta Wildcats had trouble slowing down the high-flying Eagles offense in an 84-50 loss to Life Christian Academy on Friday in Westport.

“Obviously as the score indicates, we did not play well, particularly in the first six minutes of the game,” Ocosta head coach Jason Quinby said. “We allowed Life to get out in transition way too often for easy scores. We did have success when we made them play a half-court pace, but we didn’t play that way nearly enough.”

Cole Hatton led the Wildcats (7-9, 7-7 Pacific 2B) with 24 points and nine boards.

Noah Robinson led the Eagles (13-3, 12-2) with 24 points.

The win keeps Life Christian tied atop the 2B Pacific League standings with Willapa Valley. The Eagles and Vikings face off at 7 p.m. on Friday in Menlo.

Ocosta sits three games back of Ilwaco for fourth place in league and faces Willapa Valley at 7 p.m. on Thursday in Westport.

Life Christian 22 24 16 22 — 84

Ocosta 6 12 13 19 — 50

Top Players: Ocosta — Hatton (24 pts.); LC — Robinson (24 pts.)

— Ryan Sparks, Grays Harbor News Group

Klahowya 43, Elma 42

Turnovers proved costly for the Elma Eagles in a 43-42 loss to the Klahowya Eagles on Friday at Klahowya High School.

Despite holding a large rebounding margin (40-22) and shooting for a higher percentage (33-22), Elma was unable to hold on to a 33-24 third-quarter lead and was outscored by 10 over the final eight minutes of the game.

“(We) dominated the boards, but turned it over way too many times,” Elma head coach Jeff Niemi said. “Some were us making poor passes, some were results of very physical play in the fourth quarter. They got back into the game from us turning it over and getting to the line.”

Further complicating matters for Elma (1-15, 0-4 Evergreen 1A) was the fact they were playing without starting poing guard Christian de la Concha (no reason provided) and had three players foul out in the fourth quarter.

“We missed (de la Concha’s) ball handling, but lots of kids stepped up and played hard,” Niemi said.

One of those kids was Brady Johnston, who led Elma with 11 points to go with four rebounds.

Cody Vollan also had a solid game for Elma, scoring eight points to go with 12 rebounds on the evening.

Carter Jacobson, Cobey Moore and Josiah Jones-Wyeth scored six points apiece for Elma.

Elma takes on league rival Hoquiam at 7 p.m. on Wednesday at Hoquiam Square Garden.

Elma 13 7 13 9 — 42

Klahowya 9 3 12 19 — 43

Top Players: Elma — Johnston (11 pts., 4 reb.), Vollan (8 pts., 12 reb.), Jacobson (6 pts.), Moore (6 pts.), Jones-Wyeth (6 pts.).

— Ryan Sparks, Grays Harbor News Group

Taholah 69, Mary M. Knight 47

James Dan hit seven 3-pointers to lead the hot-shooting Taholah Chitwhins to a 69-47 victory over Mary M. Knight on Friday in Elma.

Dan led all scorers with 24 points on the evening, but Taholah (10-3, 6-0 Coastal 1B) also got a big game from co-captain James Orozco, who was right behind Dan with 23 points on the evening.

Taholah, which was down 29-25 at halftime, made the tweaks needed after the break to pick up the win.

“We went into the locker room and moe our offensive adjustments,” Chitwhins head coach Tyler Crossguns said. “Our defense picked up in the second half.”

Taholah’s 6-foot-3 center Eli Waugh led the way for the Chitwhins defensively, grabbing 12 rebounds while rejecting six Owls shots.

The Chitwhins also swiped 15 steals as a team on Friday.

Top Players: Taholah — Dan (24 pts.), Orozco (23 pts.), Deven James (10 pts.), Waugh (6 pts., 12 reb., 6 blk.).

— Ryan Sparks, Grays Harbor News Group