NAPAVINE — Rex Stanley didn’t have to say much to get his Napavine boys basketball team ready to play against its rival Adna Thursday night in a key Central 2B League showdown in Tiger Town.
He said as much after the Tigers took a 32-10 lead to start the game and held on late in a 74-66 win against the Pirates.
“This is how these guys have played all year,” Stanley said. “You don’t have to fire these guys up to get them to play hard. I didn’t have to say anything to the guys to get them up for this game. We approached it like every other game, but the guys sure do like playing in this game.”
Led by a frenetic press that rattled the Pirates early in front of an absolutely bustling gym, Napavine got easy bucket after easy bucket on runouts in the opening frame and beginnings of the second quarter, led by Karsen Denault’s 10 points in the opening frame.
The Tigers were rolling so quickly that they built a double-digit lead before James Grose — who is averaging nearly 32 points a game this season — even scored.
“It was 100% their press,” Adna coach Luke Salme said of his team’s poor start. “We prepared for that press, and were successful in practice against our subs, but it was a little different against those guys.
“They’re great athletes and made us look silly for 10 minutes.”
Jarin Prather also got hot from the outside, scoring 18 first half points on four made 3-pointers, helping the Tigers total seven total in the opening half.
Though once the Pirates settled in, starring a 22-point deficit midway through the second quarter, things got more interesting. Adna brought the Napavine lead to 17 heading into the final quarter, and finally started to string together some stops.
That, and the Tigers started to miss after a torrid start from outside.
“At no point did we feel comfortable,” Stanley said. “At any point they could go on a run, and they did. Against those guys you have to keep playing, cause you never know when they’ll come back at you.”
The Pirates chipped, chipped, and chipped away in the fourth, bringing the lead down to 10 with 3:50 left, before an Eli Smith bucket and a Braeden Salme 3-pointer made it a 68-63 game with just under two minutes to play.
Though Grose and Prather carried the Tigers to that point, with Grose scoring a game-high 23 points on 30.7% shooting from the field, it was Cayle Kelly that made the shots when it mattered most.
Kelly responded to Salme’s 3-pointer with a deep ball of his own with 1:13 left that gave Napavine a comfortable enough lead late to win it
“He’s capable of it, Kelly is a really good shooter,” Stanley said. “He’s trying to figure out his role on the team, it's a new group altogether this year. This is a whole different approach, fitting new guys in, but if you give Kelly open 3s he’ll knock them down. Karsen, Jarin, and Cael Stanley all chipping in, that’s what we need. James is going to be James, and everyone else showing up is going to be big for us.”
Denault added a 14-point, 12-rebound double-double, and Cael Stanley had 11 points, six assists, and six boards, as well.
For the Pirates, Thursday night’s game will be another learning opportunity for a team that plans to be in the mix for a district title come February.
Though it took awhile to warm up, Smith and Salme each finished with 20 points, and Seth Meister added another 15. Lane Johnson had 12 rebounds, and Asher Guerrero gave the Pirates a spark with six points off the bench with four rebounds.
“The togetherness and toughness that my guys showed was great,” Luke Salme said. “I love these guys. We hate losing this, but in the grand scheme of things we’ll see them again down the road. They’re good, they’re really good, and I’d like to think we’re going to be pretty good, but we can’t have a quarter like that."
The Pirates will get another chance at a signature win when they play host to Morton-White Pass on Tuesday, while Napavine takes on Onalaska.
