MONTESANO — Elma may have scored the first points of each quarter, but it was Montesano who scored the most points to defeat their rival 45-22 in an Evergreen 1A League game at Bo Griffith Gym on Friday.
The Eagles started out hot, making a jumper to add the first points of the game, but went cold from there. With the game tied 5-5, Montesano took control with a 15-to-0 run fueled by Noah Quinn coming off the bench to hit three 3-pointers. The Bulldogs would lead by nine points or more the rest of the way.
The chilly shooting stuck with the Eagles the whole night. Despite scoring the first points in all four quarters, Elma shot just 16 percent from the field in the contest.
Montesano stayed tough defensively throughout the game, working a full-court press into a 2-3 zone. The Bulldogs forced 23 turnovers and Monte’s offense fed off the work of its defense.
“It was a battle,” Montesano head coach Doug Galloway said. “We got a little run there at the end of the first quarter. Noah came off the bench and hit three 3-pointers there at the end of the quarter and I really have to take my hat off to Noah for coming in and giving us a spark offensively and defensively.”
Elma outscored Monte 8-5 in the second quarter, but struggled to gain any momentum, turning the ball over seven times in the third quarter.
“We missed a lot of easy ones there and just couldn’t get the ball to fall,” Elma head coach Marvin Prince said. “In the first half, we had some outstanding looks and we just couldn’t make buckets. The first half was we couldn’t make shots, the second half was we just turned it over. We made some very fundamental mistakes.”
Elma closed the gap to 26-17 on a layup by Sohtye Tep with 4:50 left to go in the third quarter, but that was as close as the Eagles would come. Montesano stepped up the defense and didn’t allow another field goal in the quarter, closing out the third on a 10-0 run that would shut the door on the Eagles for good.
Seth Dierkop scored six of his game-high 10 points in the run over the final four minutes of the third quarter. Dierkop added six rebounds for the Bulldogs in the game.
Sam Winter and Nick Chapman each added four assists, while L.J. Valley added three assists for the Bulldogs.
Galloway cited Lyle Burbidge for his defensive play.
Avery Brown led the Eagles with eight points.
Both teams are back in action on Tuesday when Montesano travels to Forks and Elma heads to Tenino.
Elma 5 8 4 5 — 22 Monte 20 5 11 9 — 45
Elma (22) — A.J. Brown 2, Tep 4, Vollan 4, Spalding, Av. Brown 8, Peterson 4, Horton, Schneider, Acuff. FG — 7-42. FT — 6-8.
Montesano (45) — Ridgway 5, Winter 5, Chapman 5, Valley 3, Dierkop 10, Wallace, Peterson, Burbidge 2, Quinn 9, Albert 2, Farmer 2, Nicklas 2. FG — 17-42. FT — 6-14.
JV — Montesano 48, Elma 34. Montesano’s Jordan Ruggles 13.
