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Centralia 101, Grays Harbor 80
After a disappointing 101-80 loss to Centralia in the first conference game of the season, Chokers head coach Matt Vargas wasn’t in the mood to look for positives.
“There is absolutely nothing good to take from this,” he said. “We’re going to take this tape and throw it away. Then we’re going to go out and practice tomorrow to get ready for Pierce.”
Grays Harbor (8-7, 0-1 Northwest Athletic Conference West) had its four-game win streak snapped with the defeat after the Trailblazers (11-5, 1-0) began to heat up toward the tail end of the first half and continued to find ways to score in the second half.
Despite the lopsided loss, the Chokers got off to a solid start and held 25-20 lead at 12:23 in the first half.
The Trailblazers chipped away at the lead from that point on and ended the half on a 12-4 run that gave the Centralia a 48-40 halftime lead.
Grays Harbor’s Zayre Ruffin (24) sinks a mid-range jumper in the first half against Centralia on Wednesday. (Hasani Grayson | Grays Harbor News Group)
Grays Harbor’s Carl Fischer said conditioning played a factor in the loss.
“There was a lot of energy in warmups, but fatigue kind of got the best of us at some point and we started declining as the game went on,” he said.
Grays Harbor’s struggled continued in the second half when the Trailblazers went on a 10-2 run with about 15 minutes left in the second half.
The Chokers went to a 2-1-2 press later in the second half to try to close the gap, but Centralia still found ways to break the press and get to the hoop for layups.
Grays Harbor struggled defensively throughout the night and allowed five players to reach double figures. Liam Murphy created the most problems for the Chokers defense and led the Trailblazers with 17 points.
The Chokers will try to bounce back against Pierce in another road game at 7 p.m.
Grays Harbor’s Zayer Ruffin wasn’t happy with Wednesday’s result and is expecting a better effort next time out.
“It’s only the first conference game of the season, so we’re not going to dwell on it,” he said. “We played tougher teams than this, so its frustrating, but we’ll get past it.”
Grays Harbor 40 40 – 80
Centralia 48 53 – 101
Top Players: Centralia — Murphy (17 pts.), Collin Prangley (15 pts., 5 reb.), Marques Gilson (16 pts., 8 rebs.); Grays Harbor — Ruffin (25 pts. 6 reb.) Fischer (17 pts., 5 reb.).
WOMEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Centralia 66, Grays Harbor 54
A scoring drought in the second and third quarters proved to be too much for Grays Harbor to overcome in a 66-54 road loss to Centralia on Wednesday.
Grays Harbor didn’t get off to the hottest start on offense in the first quarter but did enough on the defensive end to hold on to a 14-7 lead after 10 minutes of play.
Grays Harbor’s Charlea Armstrong shoots a 3-pointer from the corner in the second half of a game against Centralia. (Hasani Grayson | Grays Harbor News Group)
The Trailblazers started to heat up in the second quarter however as they began to turn steals into points at the other end.
Centralia players racked up nine steals in the game while the Chokers came away with one.
While the Trailblazers began to find an offensive rhythm, Grays Harbor struggled to hit some of its mid-range jumpers and found itself down 24-22 heading into halftime.
“You have to give credit to Centralia tonight,” Grays Harbor head coach Chad Allan said. “Tonight was about effort and they out-efforted us. That led to some of our struggles on offense and defense.”
The third quarter saw Centralia heat up even more, especially from beyond the arc. Allani Talapu hit three straight 3-pointers to help widen Centralia’s lead to 48-33 by the end of the third frame.
Grays Harbor couldn’t close the gap but did a lot to cut into it in the fourth quarter. Grays Harbor’s leading scorer Sandin Kidder began to find her shooting stroke in the game’s final frame where she scored eight of her team-leading 17 points.
The Chokers also made adjustment on defense, going to the half-court press looking to force turnovers while Centralia was up 56-48 with about five minutes left in the game. The Trailblazers handled the press well and only turned the ball over once in the final stretch of the game as the Chokers’ comeback attempt fell short.
Grays Harbor’s Isabel Hernandez (22) hits a layup in the third quarter against Centralia on Wednesday night. (Hasani Grayson | Grays Harbor News Group)
Allan was hoping to come away with a win in the team’s first conference game of the season, but he is hoping his team can use this loss as a building block.
“Tonight can be a learning experience, but that depends on if we want to learn from this,” he said. “We have to be coachable to move forward from this but that’s why there’s another game on the schedule. We’ll have another chance to improve.”
Grays Harbor 14 8 11 21 – 54
Centralia 7 17 24 18 – 66
Top Players: Centralia — Piper Cai (18 pts., 7 reb.), Talapu (16 pts.); Grays Harbor – Kidder (17 pts., 5 reb.), Charlea Armstrong (12 pts.)
PREP BOWLING
WF West 17, Aberdeen 2
Aberdeen couldn’t keep up up with WF West’s high scores on Wednesday night as the Bobcats fell 17-2 to the Bearcats at Rainier Lanes.
Iliana Mercado-George had the high score for Aberdeen with 273 pins, but Aberdeen couldn’t keep pace with three Bearcats players bowling scores of 300 or higher in the first two games.
Megan Howell was key to the Bobcats avoiding the shutout as her strike in the 10th frame of the first Baker game gave Aberdeen the 146-139 win.
The win moves WF West to 10-1 overall and 7-1 in the 2A Evergreen.
Aberdeen (7-6, 4-3) will try to snap its four-game losing streak with a match against league-leading Black Hills on Friday.
WF West (1,848): Ellie Bunker (370), Brianna Power (345), Jessica Loflin (301), Leslie Erwin (294), Kelsey Stritmatter (246).
Aberdeen (1,483): Iliana Mercado-George (273), Bryerlee Perry (243), Kaitlyn Martin (217), Annabelle Micheau (205).
BOYS PREP BASKETBALL
Hoquiam 60, Winlock 58
Hoquiam’s Matt Brown hit a buzzer-beating jump shot to give the Grizzlies a thrilling 60-58 win over Winlock on Wednesday at Hoquiam Square Garden.
“That was pretty exciting,” Hoquiam head coach Curtis Eccles said of the Grizzlies victory, which concluded a furious fourth quarter after Hoquiam had lost a double-digit lead earlier in the game.
Behind Rayyon Dayton’s double-double (17 points, 12 rebounds) and Cameron Bumstead’s 18 points, Hoquiam (6-7 overall, 0-2 Evergreen 1A) started hot, building a 10-point lead after the first quarter which they extended to as many as 14 early in the second half.
But an 8-0 Winlock run in the third quarter cut Hoquiam’s lead to six points. The Cardinals (4-8) took a 54-52 lead on a Bryce Cline jump shot with approximately two minutes left in the game.
Eccles called timeout to settle things down and get his team to re-focus.
“I told them to stay calm, there was a lot of time left,” he said. “We needed to play better defense because (Winlock) was getting open shots and had the momentum and we needed to stop that.”
To slow down Winlock the Grizzlies strategy was a direct one — attack the basket. But Hoquiam failed to tie or take the lead on back-to-back possessions when Bumstead missed two freebies followed by two misses from Dayton.
But with about a minute left, Bumstead stole the ball and scored on a breakaway layup to tie the game at 54-54.
The teams would trade jabs over the next couple possessions until Dayton was fouled with less than 40 seconds left. The 6-foot-5 junior buried both free throws to tie the game at 58-58.
A Winlock miss on the subsequent possession gave the Grizzlies the ball with 25 seconds left. Hoquiam worked the ball around and with six seconds left on the clock, Eccles called timeout to set up one final play.
Bumstead then took the in-bounds pass, and dribble penetrated to the paint. With the defense collapsing on him, Bumstead sent a pass to Matt Brown with two seconds on the clock. The junior forward took the pass and buried a jumper as the buzzer sounded, giving Hoquiam its second thrilling late-game victory in its past three games.
“Cameron did a good job of recognizing Rayyon was double-teamed and hit Matt wide open in the short corner,” Eccles said. “Credit to Winlock. They shot well and played well.”
In addition to hitting the game-winner, Brown joined Dayton in the double-double department, scoring 14 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.
The victory came at a cost, however, as Hoquiam senior Jackson Folkers suffered a left knee injury midway through the third quarter and is out indefinitely.
Dane McMillan and Garrett Dick, who tied the game at 56-56 with a jumper late in the game, were commended by Eccles for “stepping up and filling the void” left by Folkers.
The win extends Hoquiam’s win streak to four games.
The Grizzlies will look to make it five in-a-row when they face Tenino at 5:30 p.m. on Friday in Tenino.
Winlock 11 19 12 16 — 58
Hoquiam 21 15 12 12 — 60
Top Players: Hoquiam — Bumstead (18 pts., 5 stl.), Dayton (17 pts., 12 reb.), Brown (14 pts., 10 reb.).
— Ryan Sparks, Grays Harbor News Group
Black Hills 70, Aberdeen 53
A rough third quarter proved too much to overcome as Aberdeen dropped its second-consecutive league contest with a 70-53 loss to Black Hills on Wednesday at Black Hills High School.
The Bobcats (8-3, 0-2 Evergreen 2A) held a three-point lead at the half but the Wolves (5-6, 2-0) caught fire in the third quarter, hitting seven 3-pointers — three each from Jackson Bauer and Zach Crumley — to take a 56-43 lead heading into the final quarter.
Aberdeen’s point production continued to decline in the fourth quarter as the Bobcats managed 10 points in the frame.
Aberdeen head coach Mark Buckman said second and third opportunities hurt his team’s chances of winning on Wednesday.
“The difference in the game was our inability to get clean offensive rebounds in the third quarter,” he said. “By (the Wolves’) third chance they would kicking it out to the outside and we were too slow to get out on their shooters.”
Aberdeen senior guard Ben Dublanko led all scorers with 20 points, including three 3-pointers on the evening.
Wyatt Johnson added 10 points for Aberdeen.
The Bobcats have what Buckman called a “must win game” when they host Centralia at 7 p.m. on Friday.
Aberdeen 17 14 12 10 — 53
Black Hills 18 10 28 14 — 70
Top Players: Aberdeen — Dublanko (20 pts.), Johnson (10 pts.); Black Hills — Bauer (17 pts.), Crumley (14 pts.), Avery Armin (14 pts.).
— Ryan Sparks, Grays Harbor News Group
GIRLS PREP BASKETBALL
Elma 48, Tenino 32
Elma didn’t waste anytime putting points on the board and jumped out to a 20-point lead by halftime in a 48-32 home win over Tenino on Wednesday.
Elma got a good all-around game from Quin Mikel, who put up 17 points along with five rebounds and four assists.
The Eagles (13-0, 2-0 Evergreen 1A ) didn’t allow the Beavers (10-4, 2-1) to reach double digits until late in the second quarter and took a 32-12 lead into the locker room at halftime.
Elma won’t get much time to rest as they take on Forks on Thursday at 7 p.m.
Elma 15 17 6 10 – 48
Tenino 7 5 11 9 – 32
Top Players: Mikel (17 pts., 5 reb., 4 asst.), Kali Rambo (9 pts. 6 stl.), Jillian Bieker ( 8 pts., 6 stl.).
Wishkah Valley 42, Oakville 24
Erica Bomhoff and Char Gutierrez scored 13 and 12 points, respectively, as the Loggerettes earned a 42-24 victory over Oakville on Wednesday at Oakville High School.
Wishkah (3-2, 1-1 Coastal 1B) took control of the game in the second quarter, outscoring the Owls (0-4, 0-2) 14-4 in the frame to take a nine-point lead heading into halftime.
Wishkah head coach Dave Busz commended the play of his bench players — Breanna Schmoe and Jadin Miller — with helping the Loggerettes earn the league victory on the road.
“They played really well, especially defensively,” he said. “I was pleased with them.”
Brooke Haskey added 8 points and seven rebounds for Wishkah.
Oakville was led by Joanna Kukhar’s 13 points.
Wishkah faces Lake Quinault at 7 p.m. on Friday at Lake Quinault High School.
Oakville hosts Taholah at 5:30 p.m. on Friday.
Wishkah Valley 8 14 6 14 — 42
Oakville 9 4 2 9 — 24
Top Players: Wishkah — Bomhoff (13 pts.), Gutierrez (12 pts., 8 reb.), Haskey (8 pts. 7 reb.), Mackenzie Robertson (8 reb.); Oakville — Kukhar (13 pts.), Cheyenne Lindholm (6 pts.).
