PORTLAND — A loss to Winlock earlier this week was a wakeup call. After dropping a triple overtime thriller to the Cardinals on Monday — the first time any of Adna’s seniors lost in that building to the Cards — the Pirates got back to what they do best in a 65-23 win over Toutle Lake at the Moda Center in Portland.
“All credit to (Winlock) on winning,” Pirates coach Chris Bannish said. “We’re not going to sugar coat it. That was an eye opener. Those seniors had never lost there. It hurt, and it should hurt. Either they could have taken the low road and said we’re not good, or take the high road like I think they have and say we have to get better, it’s on us.”
The Pirates got out in front of the Ducks across the border and dominated from start to finish in a complete victory. And they did it their way.
“We adjusted to other teams earlier this season,” Bannish said. “We have to do what we do and make teams adjust to us. We got back to that and you can see they’re more comfortable with that.”
Adna held Toutle Lake to single digit scoring in every quarter at the old Rose Garden, and scored in double digits in every frame, unphased by the larger dimensions and bigger arena.
Brooklyn Loose had 15 points to lead the Pirates, and Karlee Von Moos was the only other Pirate in double figures with 12 points in a complete team effort. Eight Adna players scored in the win.
“The scary part was this was a league game,” Bannish said. “That was the scary part. They played well, we shot the ball well. It starts with practice. We’re getting 100 made 3s a practice, and if we’re going to shoot them we have to make them. They played as a team. I see these guys buying into one another.”
It’s a quick turnaround since that loss earlier this week, but maybe it was just the wake-up that the Pirates needed as league play gets going and December turns to January.
Bannish knows he has the team to compete, it’s just a matter of if they can put it all together after the holiday break. Saturday afternoon’s game in Rip City was just the first step.
“I have basketball players, they were just being timid,” Bannish said. “As coaches, we had to make it more fun and understand that if we’re going to be good, we have to put the time in.”
