Centralia coach Ron Brown was happy to report that his Tigers had a size advantage Friday night in a 70-56 win over 3A Fort Vancouver in the Hub City.
“We were a much bigger team, and I can’t say that very often,” Brown said. “Fort Vancouver was lacking height, and that benefitted us.”
The Tigers also benefitted from excellent shooting inside the 3-point arc, where they hit 70 percent of their shots. Forward Layne Pertzborn led the way, scoring 21 points on 10 of 11 shooting, and Cale Shute added 11 points on 5 of 7 shooting with seven boards.
Nolan Wasson did the distributing, dishing out 12 assists to go with 9 points and five rebounds.
“He just played a really good floor game for us,” Brown said of Wasson. “I thought we passed the ball well, and when you look at our 2-point shooting, that means that you usually passed pretty well.”
Christian Peters added 20 points for Centralia, which led 34-26 at halftime.
Jordan Thomas saw his first action of the season for Centralia after an injury, playing three quarters in the JV game — which Centralia won, 60-53 — and hitting the court briefly in the varsity contest.
“We’re encouraged. He’s healthy, he’s just got to play himself into basketball shape,” Brown said. “Hopefully it’ll be good for him, and hopefully it helps us a little bit.”
Centralia (8-8, 2-1 league) will play at 3A Kelso on Tuesday.
Note: Brown added that his first league victory as the Tigers’ head coach came against Fort Vancouver, on the road — 55 years ago. …The Tiger C-squad also won.
Bearcats Can’t Stop Long, Columbia River
VANCOUVER — A 3-point barrage from Columbia River’s Spencer Long proved to be just enough to down the Bearcats, 56-51, here in nonleague boys hoops play on Friday.
Long connected on five treys en route to a 23-point night to keep Chehalis at bay.
Dakota Hawkins scored a team-high 15 points for W.F. West. Brandon White added 14.
W.F. West (4-12) will host Prairie on Tuesday for another nonleague affair.
NOTE: The W.F. West JV squad won in overtime. The C-Squad team lost.
