ABERDEEN — The Grays Harbor College Chokers’ second-half push ended up being too little, too late in their basketball home opener against Skagit Valley on Friday at Grays Harbor Gym.

The Grays Harbor men dropped the game 58-55 in a closely contested matchup that saw the Chokers get off to a slow start in the first half.

Grays Harbor looked to get big man Carl Fischer involved in the early game but the Cardinals were prepared, intercepting the first three passes into Fischer when Chokers guards tried to find him in the post.

Turnovers were an issue for the Chokers throughout the first half with Grays Harbor committing 12 before halftime.

Skagit Valley didn’t bring a whole lot of size into the game but the Cardinals found ways to score inside using their guards.

Ajani Chappell led the team with 10 points, primarily by finding his way into the paint and getting his shot to fall in traffic.

The Chokers found themselves down double digits with just over 10 minutes to go in the first half but battled back to make it a single-digit deficit and only trailed 33-26 after 20 minutes of action.

Cornelius Holifield played a big role in his team closing the gap in the first half and briefly taking a 44-41 lead in the second half with 21 points and 4-for-7 shooting from beyond the arc.

Chokers head coach Matt Vargas said Holifield played well despite dealing with some lower back tightness and is hoping the scoring will spread around more in the future.

“He’s so low to the ground. You know what’s coming and he still gets his shot off,” he said. “Our other guys need to knock down shots because it’ll open up more things for him and he’ll have even bigger nights than 21 points.”

Grays Harbor’s Cornelius Holifield pulls up for mid range jumper against Skagit on Friday. Holifield led the team with 21 points. (Hasani Grayson | Grays Harbor News Group)

With only one player in double figures, the Chokers couldn’t find a way to expand on their lead and eventually found themselves down five points with three minutes to go.

In an attempt to keep his team’s energy up on the defensive end of the court, Vargas encouraged his team to be vocal when defending and even led the crowd in a chant of “Defense!” when the Chokers were looking for a late stop.

Vargas said staying talkative in situations like that can help give the team a boost when it’s most needed.

“I always believe that if you talk yourself through something it can help you be in the right spot and bring some energy when guys are tired,” he said. “If you’re talking and you get a stop, for whatever reason, the basketball gods look down on people and give you a little energy.”

The Chokers got just enough stops to stay in the game and had an opportunity to tie with 16 seconds left but a missed three-point attempt from Holifield and a Skagit defensive rebound allowed the Cardinals to seal the deal.

Vargas expressed that he would have liked to win his home coaching debut but liked the energy his team showed in the loss.

“They weren’t playing not to lose, they were playing to win,” he said. “They did not want to lose and I can work with that. It’s going to be OK.”

Skagit 33 25 – 58

GHC 26 29 – 55

Top Players: GHC – Holifield (21 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists) Dallin Spencer ( 9 pts, 10 reb) Skagit – Cade Isakson (13 pts, 3 reb), Kemo Bell (10 pts, 6 rebs)

WOMEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL

Columbian Basin 77, Grays Harbor 73

Grays Harbor was within striking distance, down by three with 22 seconds remaining, but couldn’t hit a shot from deep to tie things up in its 77-73 loss to Columbia Basin College on Friday

On a night where four of the seven Chokers who got in the game reached double digits in scoring, Sandin Kidder led the way with 22 points while hitting all five of her three-point attempts.

Armonnie Byrd contributd by cleaning the glass with a team-leading 14 rebounds.

Chokers head coach Chad Allan said he expects his young team to learn from playing in close games like this and is expecting a different outcome if the team finds itself in a similar position in the future.

“A lot of good things happened, but at the end we could not close out the game. Experience and effort will correct those things,” he said.

Grays Harbor will play in front of the home crowd again on Saturday with a game against Bellevue Community College at 11:30 a.m.

Columbian Basin 17 17 26 17 – 77

GHC 20 15 23 15 – 73

Top Players: Kidder (22 pts, 7 reb), Armonnie Byrd (15 pts, 14 reb), Sophie Boldgett (14 pts); Columbian Basin— Alexis Castro (27 pts, 8 ast), Sara Ramirez (25 pts, 10 reb)