ABERDEEN — The Chokers couldn’t find a way to slow down Lower Columbia’s low post offense in an 83-68 home loss on Saturday.
The Red Devils (11-8, 3-1 NWAC) relied heavily on post Nizhoni Wheeler, who put up 25 points on 10-of-15 shooting, with all her made field goals coming in the paint.
“I thought we had good flashes and good moments, but when we had lapses and they took advantage,” Chokers head coach Chad Allan said. “We just couldn’t find a way to stop the inside today. We would like to press to get a few more possessions and, for some reason, we didn’t have the energy today.”
Grays Harbor (8-8, 2-2) started out strong before the Red Devils began getting the ball to Wheeler in the low post and held a 13-6 lead halfway through the first quarter.
However, Lower Columbia ended the first quarter on a 16-1 run to take 22-14 lead into the second quarter.
Grays Harbor played evenly with its opponent in the second quarter, but didn’t do much to cut into the deficit. The Red Devils took a 40-33 lead into halftime with Wheeler accounting for 16 of Lower Columbia’s points.
Wheeler’s production slowed in the second half thanks to some double teams from the Chokers. Lower Columbia took advantage of the double teams down low by kicking the ball out to its perimeter shooters. Kenya Larton hit three 3-pointers on her way to 22-point night. The Red Devils also got a lift from Emily Packman who shot 3-for-5 on shots from beyond the arc.
The Red Devils shot 10-for-24 from beyond the arc while Grays Harbor shot 5-of-22 from downtown.
Allan said his team’s inability to control Wheeler made it difficult to defend against jump shooters.
“We were supposed to front Wheeler and we didn’t. When we did, she didn’t get the ball,” he said. “We tried to have somebody else come over and help on defense, but when you help out you leave somebody else open.”
Chokers shooters had trouble responding with jump shots of their own. Sandin kidder was Grays Harbor’s leading scorer with 18 points. Grays Harbor’s has relied on Charleea Armstrong for scoring as well, but Armstrong couldn’t quite find her shot and was 3-of-17 from the field en route to a 10-point night.
Despite struggles on both ends of the court, the Chokers were still only down seven heading into the fourth.
The Chokers put up five more shot attempts in the final frame, but Grays Harbor only hit 30 percent of its shots in the last ten minutes while being outscored 21-13 down the stretch.
Grays Harbor will be looking to get back above .500 in the conference with a game at Tacoma on Wednesday at 2p.m.
Allan said he hopes the Chokers will do a better job defending the interior the next time out.
“Tacoma will probably match up with us fairly well athletically. They have a big that takes up a lot of space, so hopefully we learned from this one,” he said.
Lower Columbia 22 18 22 21 — 83
Grays Harbor 14 19 22 13 — 68
Top Players: GHC — Kidder (18 pts., 9 reb.), Isabel Hernandez (12 pts.); Lower Columbia — Wheeler (25 pts., 2 blk.), Kenya Lorton (22 pts., 8 reb.)
MEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Lower Columbia 77,Grays Harbor 69
Grays Harbor’s 77-69 loss marks the team’s fourth straight loss in conference, but Chokers head coach Matt Vargas still found some positives.
“Sterling Barnes has really only been playing the last four games after his injuries, and it was good to see him tonight,” Vargas said. “If there are things to take away from tonight it’s the effort and the fact that we now have a point guard.”
Barnes’ 14-point effort was a welcome sight to Vargas, who has been making adjustments to his back court after guards Cornelius Holifield and Joseph Barranco left the team in December.
Barnes also had three of the Chokers’ steals on a night where Grays Harbor’s coaching staff was impressed with the defensive effort.
It was Grays Harbor’s offense that struggled early on as the team found itself down 36-26 at halftime. The Chokers had success dumping the ball down to Zyare Ruffin and Carl Fischer in the post, but had limited luck finding points outside the paint in the first half.
Grays Harbor was 1-for-8 from behind the 3-point line in the first half and struggled to hit jumpers consistently.
Fischer went 4-of-6 and Ruffin was 4-of-8.
Vargas is still looking for his bigs to get more shots up.
“Why would we not want the guy who shoots 50 percent and the guy who shoots 60 percent to shoot more,” he said. “We have to adjust because Lower Columbia took some stuff away from Fischer and Ruffin, but they need to be shooting 15 to 20 times a game.”
The Chokers offense found some consistency in the second half with Grays Harbor scoring 44 points in the game’s last 20 minutes.
While Lower Columbia held onto the lead, the Chokers didn’t make it easy on the Red Devils in the latter part of the second half.
With about five minutes to go, Grays Harbor went to a zone press that slowed down the Red Devils and allowed to the Chokers to pick up four steals during that stretch.
Even though the comeback attempts ultimately fell short, Grays Harbor’s Trevor Ridgway said the team’s press defense is a new wrinkle to the play book and has been encouraged with the way improved defense has helped fuel the offense.
“I feel like we’re getting better each game,” he said. “Every game we’re moving the ball better and we’re doing way better on defense than were earlier in the season. Things are headed in the right direction.”
Despite the defensive improvements, the Red Devils still had a pair of players reach the 20 point plateau. Seth Hall led Lower Columbia with 28 points and did most of his damage from deep with 5-for-7 shooting from beyond the arc.
Center Samaad Hector also added 20 points for the Red Devils along with two blocks.
Grays Harbor will be taking on Tacoma on the road at 4 p.m. on Wednesday in a game that Vargas is confident his team can win.
Vargas said his team can come out ahead as long as his team plays disciplined.
“They’re strong and athletic. They have a lot of guys who look the part, but they’re pretty wild,” he said. “I feel like if we can be patient, we should be fine. I feel very optimistic.”
Lower Columbia 36 41 — 77
Grays Harbor 25 44 — 69
Top Players: GHC — Barnes (14 pts., 6 ast.), Fischer (12 pts.), Jordan Gardner (16 pts.); Lower Columbia — Hall (28 pts.), Hector (20 pts., 9 reb.), Brcin Ford (18 pts., 7 reb.)
GIRLS PREP BASKETBALL
Willapa Valley 53, South Bend 48
Both teams put together dominant offensive quarters, but it was Willapa Valley that nosed ahead in a 53-48 road win over South Bend on Saturday.
Willapa Valley (14-2, 12-2 Pacific 2B) looked to be in cruise control after holding the Indians to 0-11 shooting as they shut out South Bend in the first quarter to take a 17-0 lead.
Neither team took control of the second quarter, but a 25-7 halftime lead had Vikings head coach John Peterson thinking he could experiment with different lineups in the second half.
“If we do anything in the third, my plan was to run different combinations and things and they just smoked us,” he said. “The key for us was we made our free throws down the stretch. Hannah Cook hit some big ones in the fourth quarter.”
South Bend got on a roll and outscored the Vikings 24-8 in the third frame to cut the Willapa Valley lead to 36-31 heading into the fourth.
South Bend’s Jessica Sanchez and Karley Reidinger were instrumental in the offensive outburst, with the pair scoring 15 and 13 points, respectively.
South Bend (8-8, 8-6) and Willapa Valley both scored 17 points in the fourth quarter as the Vikings held off the Indians’ comeback attempts, in part to a big game on the boards from Brittney Patrick. The junior forward grabbed 14 rebounds in the game while Brooke Friese led Willapa Valley in points with 21.
The loss drops South Bend from fourth to fifth in the league standings, one game behind Raymond. The Indians will try to capture an important late-season league victory when they take on Chief Leschi at home at 5:45 p.m. Wednesday.
“It was the perfect storm,” South Bend head coach Gary Wilson said. “Our weak points really showed up and Willapa Valley weas hot from all over the floor. I am very proud of the effort of all our girls. … Not once in the game did I ever see a player give up and that is all we ask.”
Willapa Valley held on to third place in league with the win and will host second-place Ocosta with a chance to tie the Wildcats in the standings on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
Willapa Valley 17 8 11 17 — 53
South Bend 0 7 24 17 — 48
Top Players: Willapa Valley — Friese (21 pts.), Cook (12 pts.); Patrick (14 reb.), Swartz (10 reb.) South Bend — Sanchez (15 pts.), Reidinger (13 pts.)
