MONTESANO — Forcing 20 turnovers in the first half alone, Montesano paved the way to a 65-32 victory over Eatonville with its full-court press defense in a non-league game at Bo Griffith Gym on Friday.
After having their original opening game postponed to Monday, the Bulldogs were more than ready for their overdue opener. Monte unleashed their defensive attack early and forced the Cruisers into seven turnovers in the first quarter. The Bulldogs jumped out to a 5-0 lead and rolled out to a 16-2 lead midway through the first quarter.
“They have been ready to play,” Monte coach Julie Graves said. “They’ve been anticipating and I didn’t see any jitters out of our kids. They came out and played hard. We got a lot of hands and deflections on the ball and I really feel like that created some turnovers and let to some quick offense.”
On offense, the Bulldogs worked the ball to the open player with three players scoring in double figures and eight Bulldogs chipping in a basket on the night.
Monte’s 6-foot-1 post Jordan Spradlin scored eight of her game-high 17 points in the first quarter and grabbed eight rebounds in the game. Josie Toyra hit four 3-pointers and finished with 16 points, while Josie Talley added 11 points.
“If we couldn’t get the ball inside, we were willing to take an outside shot or we were willing to drive,” Graves said. “We’ve got kids that work really well together, they were really unselfish tonight and played really well together as a team. It was a great first game.”
The Bulldogs stretched their lead to 25-6 at the end of the first quarter. After Eatonville scored four points in the first two minutes of the second, Monte went on a 14-to-2 run to close out the half up 42-12.
Montesano continued to control play to start the second half with the Bulldogs starting the third quarter on an 8-to-2 run and making a 9-to-0 run with five minutes left in the quarter to create a 40-point margin and invoke the mercy rule and a running clock.
With Graves clearing the Bulldogs’ bench through much of the fourth quarter, the Cruisers were able to cut into the Monte lead but the outcome was never in doubt.
Eatonville 6 6 6 14 — 32 Montesano 25 17 17 6 — 65
Eatonville (32) — Kondra, Holt 4, Hotz 8, Baker 4, Litzenberger, Mc. Jumper 6, Hutchings, Ma. Jumper 10. FG — 12-30. FT — 8-10.
Montesano (65) — Granstrom, Ekerson, Hutchings 4, Quinn 5, Bartlett 2, Lovell 3, Talley 11, Toyra 16, Perkinson, Floch 6, Spradlin 17. FG — 25-52. FT — 10-18.
JV — Montesano 57, Eatonville 19. Zoe Hutchings scored 13 for Montesano.
C-Squad — Montesano won.
