DES MOINES — Road trips just don’t seem to be the Trailblazers’ thing so far this season.
A stagnant start continued Centralia’s NWAACC West Division road woes here Wednesday night with a 68-61 loss to Highline.
The Thunderbirds jumped out to a 32-20 lead at halftime and withstood a late Blazer run to earn the 7-point win.
“Offensively, we couldn’t get anything going in the first half. We were just kind of lackadaisical,” said Centralia coach Jason Moir, whose team is 1-4 in Western Division road games.
Centralia’s frontcourt struggled to find its rhythm in the opening period, while poor perimeter shooting left the Blazers wanting heading into the second half.
“In the first half we just kind of settled for the outside shot when they were sagging defensively,” said Moir, whose team was 1 of 9 from beyond the arc and just 6 of 27 overall from the field in the opening half. “We settled for those long shots and it didn’t allow us to get into the flow of the game in the first half.”
The Blazers turned the corner in the second half, outscoring Highline 41-36 on 15-30 shooting from the floor, but the hole was too large to overcome.
The Thunderbirds (11-5, 4-3 league) racked up 20 points on 18 Blazer turnovers, and Centralia didn’t have an answer for Highline’s PJ Bolte, who tallied game-highs in points (23) and rebounds (14).
“He had a good game,” said Moir of Bolt. “He’s not a bad player. He’s very athletic, shoots the midrange shot well and is good at putting the ball on the floor and getting to the basket — he was a tough matchup for us.
“Other than that I though we did a pretty good job defensively,” added Moir, who was very pleased with the defensive effort of Jeffery Parrish, who held Highline’s leading scorer Ira Haywood to just 8 points.
Brandon Semken led the Blazers with 16 points, while Jake Brown chipped in 12 points and a team-high 12 rebounds.
“The kids came out with a great effort and besides us not being able to score, only losing by 7 after scoring 20 in the first half shows we can come out and score after struggling in the first half,” said Moir, who remains confident his team can still vie for a playoff spot in the second half of the season if it can find a way to nix its despondency on the road.
“We play the top three teams at home next time around, and I’d much rather see those teams at home and not have to play them up there,” said Moir. “I think we are capable of going out on the road and winning, and if we do that I think we have a chance to get into the playoffs.”
Centralia (7-9, 4-4 league) has a bye weekend and will play at Clark on Wednesday at 8 p.m.
