PREP GIRLS BASKETBALL
Montesano 70, Castle Rock 35
Coming off their first loss of the season, the Montesano Bulldogs responded with a smothering, aggressive defense to rout Castle Rock 70-35 at home on Thursday.
Monte (3-1 overall) ran their full-court press and got a number of steals to start the game, which led to transition layups.
Monte’s Lexi Lovell was one of the defensive leaders with six steals to go along with her 15 points.
Montesano’s Lexi Lovell hits a contested layup in the third quarter against Castle Rock on Thursday. Lovell had 15 points and six steals against the Rockets. (Hasani Grayson | Grays Harbor News Group)
“We came out with better energy than we did last night,” Monte head coach Julie Graves said, referencing Wednesday’s loss to Rochester. “We wanted to come out early and get some steals for some easy looks at the basket right off the bat and we did that.”
As the lead grew in the first half, Monte kept the pressure up and took a 38-20 lead into halftime. In addition to the success they found running the floor, the team also got points running plays out of the half-court offense.
Bulldogs center Zoe Hutchings put up a team-leading 17 points, with most of her buckets coming on plays in the post.
Graves said she liked the ball movement she saw from her team when they slowed down the pace.
“I thought we did a better job in the half court tonight than we did the first couple of games,” she said. “We had better ball movement and we were getting the ball from one side to the other and getting it from inside to outside.”
The Rockets didn’t find too much success on offense in the second half either, with Castle Rock only putting up six points in the third quarter when Monte returned to the full-court press.
Castle Rock’s Brooke Wirkkala was one of the few players able to score against Monte’s aggressive defense, leading the Rockets with 13 points.
The Bulldogs will now set their sights on Aberdeen (0-3 overall) in a game scheduled to tip off a 7 p.m. on Monday in Montesano.
Montesano’s Katie Granstrom looks for an open teammate while defended by Castle Rock’s Brooke Wirkkala in the second quarter on Thursday. (Hasani Grayson | Grays Harbor News Group)
Kate Granstrom said her team is starting to click at the right time and is feeling good heading into Monday’s game.
“I think we’re really getting used to each other and finding out what works for each player,” she said. “We just want to make the passes we need to hit open shots and be selfless.”
Montesano 18 20 16 16 — 70
Castle Rock 8 12 6 8 – 34
Top Players: Granstrom (12 pts., 7 rebs., 4 stls), Lovell (15 pts., 6 stls., 4 assts.), Glory Grubb (5 assts., 4 stls.); Castle Rock — Wirkkala (13 pts.), Zoe Naugie (10 pts.).
BOYS PREP BASKETBALL
Willapa Valley 81, North Beach 38
Vikings senior point guard Matt Pearson scored a game-high 24 points to lead Willapa Valley to an 81-38 drubbing over North Beach on Thursday at Willapa Valley High School.
The Vikings (3-0) led by five at the end of the first quarter but caught fire in periods two and three, outscoring the Hyaks 51-15 in that time frame.
Willapa Valley finished off the resounding victory by outscoring North Beach 15-3 in the final frame.
Pearson led all scorers with 24 points followed by Logan Walker, who added 17 points to go along with a team-best eight rebounds.
Beau Buchanan contributed 10 points for the Vikings.
“We’ve been struggling to find a rhythm, that was no different in the first half,” Willapa Valley head coach Jay Pearson said. “We’re still trying to find our identity. … We came out at halftime and said, ‘We just have to play basketball and have fun. Play with a smile on your face.’ And they responded. I think we know where we’re headed and, hopefully, we continue to build on it.”
Willapa Valley hosts Chief Leschi (2-2,2-1 Pacific 2B) in a big early-season league game at 7 p.m. on Saturday.
North Beach (1-2) hosts Ocosta at 7 p.m. on Saturday.
North Beach 10 12 13 3 — 38
Willapa Valley 15 22 29 15 — 81
Top Players: Willapa Valley — Pearson (24 pts.), Walker (17 pts., 8 rebs.), B. Buchanan (10 pts.), Peter Hamilton (6 rebs.).
Ilwaco 70, South Bend 26
South Bend had trouble keeping up with Ilwaco after the first quarter and suffered a lopsided 70-26 loss at home on Thursday.
South Bend (0-3) got a solid game from Drew Rose, who put up 13 points, but didn’t get much scoring outside of his performance.
Ilwaco (4-0) exploded in the second and third quarters, scoring 21 and 25 points, respectively.
South Bend head coach Manuel Rangel was working with a short bench and said that his team played better than what the numbers show.
“Ilwaco hits some good open shots and got a rhythm going. We tried to do the best we could with what we had,” he said. “I thought my boys did a really good job keeping their composure defensively in the first half.”
The Indians will seek out their first victory when they take on Life Christian (2-1) at home at 5:45 p.m. on Friday.
Ilwaco 10 21 25 14 – 70
South Bend 6 9 5 6 – 26
Top Players: South Bend — Rose (13 pts., 8 rebs.).
Chief Leschi 74, Raymond 58
The Seagulls got off to a slow start and were never able to recover in Raymond’s 74-58 road loss on Thursday.
The Warriors (2-1) got a big game out of Kahea Baker, who led all scorers with 31 points.
Raymond head coach Derek Rask said his team’s inability to stop Baker in the first half was a big factor in the loss.
“I thought we started the game flat and we weren’t aggressive. We really struggled with Kahea Baker in the first half, as he scored 27 of his 31 points in the first two quarters,” he said. “We lost the rebounding battle this evening, and I thought that was the key to the game.”
Raymond (0-4) got a strong game from Tre Seydel, who put up 22 points to lead the Gulls. McCartney Maden also performed well in the loss with 12 points.
Raymond will be in search of their first win with a home game against Pe Ell on Saturday at 7 p.m.
Raymond 13 18 16 11 – 58
Chief Leschi 26 20 18 10 – 74
Top Players: Raymond – Sydel (22 pts.), Maden (12 pts.), Audison Phimmasone (10 pts.); Chief Leschi – Baker (31 pts.), Chris Lee (18 pts.), Darnell Lewis Jr. (9 pts.).
