RAYMOND — By employing its traditional suffocating defense, Raymond’s girls gave their Holiday Classic opponents precious little to celebrate.
Limiting Hoquiam to eight field goals, the well-balanced Gulls trounced the Grizzlies, 56-18, on the final day of the Raymond Holiday Classic girls basketball tournament Friday night.
While pairings were pre-determined, the Gulls (8-2) wound up as the lone unbeaten team in the four-school event. They held their two tourney foes — Onalaska and Hoquiam — to a combined 44 points.
“The kids are buying into (our philosophy),” said Raymond coach Jason Koski. “They see the value of hard work.”
On the offensive end, the Gulls barely missed having four players scored in double figures.
Senior wing Aubree Gardner paced the winners with 19 points and seven rebounds. Classmate Winter Newman, with what Koski called her finest performance of the season, finished with 17 points, four rebounds, four assists, three steals and a pair of blocked shots.
Senior post Mikayla Collins attained a double-double with 10 points and a game-high 14 rebounds. Point guard Cydney Flemetis contributed eight points and five assists. Makenna Williams, the fifth starter, failed to score but had eight rebounds and four steals.
“We’re kind of a collective group,” Koski noted.
Hoquiam, meanwhile, shot only 16 percent from the field and committed 23 turnovers.
“They’ll start falling,” HHS coach Mark Maxfield yelled to his troops during the first half. But Maxfield later ruefully conceded that his optimism was misplaced.
“I’ve never seen us shoot so poorly,” Maxfield asserted. “We had good shots, rotating the ball, doing some good things. But it doesn’t matter how many good things you do if you can’t put the ball in the cylinder.”
It spoke volumes about this game that Raymond went only 1-of-14 from the field in the first quarter and still owned a 7-2 lead.
Gardner knocked down consecutive 3-point shots during a run of 13 successive points in the second quarter that widened the margin to 25-6 at the half.
The Grizzlies (4-6) trimmed the deficit to 15 (31-16) on Maya Jump’s traditional three-point play late in the third quarter. Gardner and Flemetis responded with three-balls in the final 90 seconds of the quarter and the Gulls held the Grizzlies scoreless for the first 6 1/2 minutes of the final period.
Newman hit four treys — most from the deep left corner — in the second hand alone. The Gulls, in fact, were far more accurate from 3-point range (9 of 21) than from inside the arc (6 of 30).
Jump scored seven points and Izzy Hernandez snared five rebounds for Hoquiam.
Maxfield wasn’t enthralled with his team’s energy level, but acknowledged that several Grizzlies have battled viruses during the holiday break.
Both teams return to action in their respective leagues on Tuesday. The Grizzlies visit Tenino while Raymond travels to Chief Leschi.
Hoquiam 2 4 10 2 — 18 Raymond 7 18 12 19 — 56
Hoquiam (18) — Jump 7, Hernandez, Parson 2, Krohn, Vonhof 5, Jade Cox, Mode 2, Dunn, Jordan Cox, Bagwell 2, German. FG — 8-51 (.157). FT — 2-9.
Raymond (56) — Williams, Collins 10, Gardner 19, Newman 17, Flemetis 8, Mora, Harland, Warnstadt, Stepp 2. FG — 15-51 (.294). FT — 17-24.
