Thursday's Boys Basketball: Pirates Sail Past Timberwolves

ADNA — The Pirates started off hot and cooled down eventually but the damage was already done in a 63-34 win against Morton-White Pass in a non-league boys basketball game here on Thursday.

Adna’s Braden Thomas scored 23 points and grabbed nine rebounds. Chase Collins tallied 17 points and Abel Ingle added 12 points.

Gary Dotson led MWP with nine points. Hayden Young chipped in six points and Kayden Collette scored five points.

Adna shot 46 percent from the field while MWP shot just 25 percent.

The Pirates led 25-11 after the first quarter and extended the lead to 41-22 at halftime. The Adna defense held MWP to single digit scoring in the third and fourth quarters to secure the win.

“I’m pretty happy. It’s early, it was a good test this early on. All we talked about pregame is we have to have more energy,” Adna coach Luke Salme said. “We had to be the tougher team. We won in a lopsided win and we said don’t lose the energy fight and we did not. We came out making every shot that we took. It was a fun one. Defensively, we were really good for four quarters.”

Adna (2-0) hosts Mount Vernon Christian at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday. MWP (3-1) hosts Naselle on Tuesday in Morton.

Cardinals Use Big Dunk to Power Past Mules

CATHLAMET — Coleson Richendollar threw down a slam dunk for the Cardinals in the second quarter and they used that energy to power themselves to a 56-50 win against Wahkiakum in a non-league boys basketball game here on Thursday.

Richendollar ended the night with 13 points. Bryce Cline led Winlock with 24 points and Nolan Swofford tallied six points and eight rebounds off the bench.

Wahkiakum’s Jake Leitz scored 16 points. Logan LaBerge added 15 points and Brody Carlson totaled 12 points.

The Mules shot 50 percent from the field compared to the 46 percent shooting of the Cardinals. Winlock won the rebounding battle, 24-19.

The Cardinals jumped out to a 14-8 lead after one quarter. Winlock got the big dunk from Richendollar and rode that momentum to a 32-25 lead at halftime. Wahkiakum won the second half, 25-24.

“Both teams played pretty well. It’s a tough place to play. They do a really good job down there with their atmosphere. It was a full student section, the energy felt like a district game. It was impressive the way they brought it,” Winlock coach Nick Bamer said. “I’m happy we stepped up. In that first quarter, we scored but also turned the ball over. In the second quarter, Richendollar slammed it down. That really got us going and we just survived in the fourth quarter.”

Winlock (3-1) hosts Morton-White Pass on Wednesday in a non-league game.

Bearcats Dominate Chinooks

W.F. West scored 20 points in the first quarter and never looked back, cruising past Kalama 61-25 in a non-league boys basketball game in Chehalis on Thursday.

Tyler Speck and Easton Guerrero each scored 14 points to lead the Bearcats. Carter McCoy added 12 points as W.F. West shot 48 percent from the field.

Kalama’s Tommy Brandenburg scored eight points. The Chinooks shot just 20 percent from the field.

W.F. West led 20-5 after the first quarter and built the lead to 32-9 at halftime.

The Bearcats (3-1) play their first road game of the season next Tuesday in Longview against R.A. Long.

Toutle Lake Trounces Toledo

TOLEDO — Toutle Lake had four players score in double figures in a 77-37 win against Toledo in a non-league boys basketball game here on Thursday.

Carlo Arceo-Hansen led the Indians with 10 points. Walker Sorensen scored six points and grabbed six rebounds.

Toutle Lake’s Jackson Cox led all scorers with 17 points. Chase Hadaller totaled 16 points, Zach Swanson tallied 15 points and Broc Keeton added 14 points.

The Ducks shot 46 percent from the field, including 12 of 20 from behind the arc. Toledo shot just 33 percent and lost the rebounding battle, 33-24.

Toutle Lake led 14-7 after the first quarter but scored 26 points in the second and third quarter to pull away for good.

“Every time we got an inch of momentum, they would knock down a three. It wasn’t a good night. They’re a good team, they came out and proved it for sure,” Toledo coach Grady Fallon said. “We’ve been successful the last couple years. Everyone is going to want to give us their best game. We’re getting everybody’s best game. I told my guys, that tells us where we’re at. We’ve got some work to do, we can do something about it.”

Toledo (1-2) travels to Adna next Wednesday for a non-league game.

R.A. Long Runs Rochester Out of Town

By Jordan Nailon

jnailon@chronline.com

LONGVIEW — The Lumberjacks tried to shoot the lights out here at the Lumberdome on Thursday before switching strategies and working the paint for all it’s worth. In the end, both approaches paid dividends for R.A. Long as they defeated Rochester 80-52 in a 2A non-league boys basketball affair.

R.A. Long hit eight three pointers in the first half alone as they ran out to a 39-19 lead at the intermission. That output included a 26-11 advantage in the first quarter as Ryan Plampin, Cavin Holden, and Jamond Harris tested the capabilities of their long range arsenal to maximum effect.

Plampin finished the game with 12 points, Cavin Holden finished with nine points, and Harris wound up with six points.

“We really want to establish the inside game,” said R.A. Long coach Jeray Key. “The first couple of games we didn’t shoot too well. We only made four 3’s and two 3’s, or so. To have a night like this and hit nine 3’s, which we are capable of doing, was good to see. But we definitely want to start with the inside and then out.”

Leading by 20 points at the half wasn’t enough for Key, though, and he challenged his team to get better at running sets that would get the ball into the hands of their Twin Towers, Aaron Ofstun and Jadon Williamson.

“I went in the locker room and I ripped those guys and told them all we’re doing is shooting 3’s, even though we were making them. But I’ve got a couple of 6’5” guys and I wanted to get it to them inside and score down low,” said Key. “In that third quarter they started using those guys and getting it to them down low so it was nice to see them follow the game plan.”

Williamson, Ofstun, and Cameron Holden each scored eight points in the third quarter as the Lumberjacks outpaced Rochester 25-14. Ofstun finished the contest with a game-high 16 points. Williamson scored a career-high 11 points and Holden chipped in 10 points in the win.

Rochester coach Derrick Pringle noted that once R.A. Long started working the ball inside, his team was at a loss for an antidote.

“Our biggest problem is height. We don’t have hardly any height. Our tallest guy is about six foot,” said Pringle. “They run their sets well and they are very unselfish. They find the open man and get their shot off and they get after the ball. That’s what I like.”

Rochester was led in scoring by Landon Hawes and Caleb Vanderhoof who each notched 11 points. Kade Yakovich added eight points for the Warriors.

“We’re very young. This is a brand new teaching moment for us. We’re trying to teach them to play as a team,” said Pringle, who has been encouraged by the strides that Hawes, a sophomore, has made so far this season. “He got a little bit of varsity time last year so I’m working with him as my point guard. I’m teaching him how to drive the car. That’s how I look at it. We are in Drivers Ed so by about midseason I can let go and say here’s the keys and go.”

With the outcome salted away before the end of the third quarter R.A. Long was able to utilize a long bench down the stretch with several JV and C-Team players finding their way onto the hardwood. All told a dozen Lumberjacks were able to score in the contest. No player drew a more spirited reaction from the crowd, or the home bench, than sophomore Jeremiah Elliott who graced the Lumberdome with a flurry of hustle, a spot-on jump shot, and a couple of flexes to the fans in black and red for good measure in just a few fleeting minutes of action.

“Those guys worked really hard in that third quarter and pushed it out and then when I was able to get those guys in they were cheering real loud for them in that fourth quarter,” said Key.

R.A. Long (2-2) will host Seton Catholic on Friday and W.F. West on Tuesday.

Rochester (0-5) will host Tenino on Friday and Orting on Monday.