SILVERDALE — The Port Townsend boys had to go on the road to try and win a Olympic League 1A Division championship and overcame 10 Klahowya 3-pointers, coming away with a hard-fought 61-54 victory over the second-place Eagles to claim a first-round playoff bye and a No. 1 seed.
Saturday’s game was for all the marbles, as whoever won got to claim the Olympic 1A title.
“A league championship was our goal,” said coach Tom Webster. “One of the things we say is ‘commit to process, love the grind, win every day.’ These kids have really done that. They love the grind.”
While it would have been nice to win the title at home, it was especially sweet to win a championship on the road, Webster said.
Kaiden Parcher led the Redhawks with 20 points, eight rebounds and five assists, while Jackson Foster had a monster game, scoring 12 points and gobbling up 23 rebounds. “He was in beast mode,” said Webster. Foster’s work on the boards gave the Redhawks a much-needed 37-21 rebounding edge to overcome the Eagles’ outside shooting.
Noa Montoya added 12 points and four steals, while Jacob Boucher had seven points and four assists.
The Redhawks pressed early and were able to build up a 19-6 lead after the first quarter. The Eagles responded by hitting five 3-pointers in the second quarter to make the score 28-22 at the half.
Port Townsend built up a big lead again, going into the fourth ahead 46-33, then held on as Klahowya tried to come back in the fourth.
The Redhawks (7-2,11-8) get 10 days off to rest after a tough regular season. They begin postseason play in the West Central District 1A Tournament on Feb. 13, against the No. 2 seed from the Nisqually League, which will likely be either Cascade Christian or Bellevue Christian. That game will be held at 7:45 p.m. at Bremerton High School.
Port Townsend 61, Klahowya 54
PT 19 9 18 15 — 61
Klahowya 6 16 11 21— 54
Port Townsend (61) — Parcher 20, Montoya 12, Foster 12, Boucher 7, Hammett 4, Watkins 2, Baabahar 1, Lake 2.
Klahowya (54) — Hartford 17, Betzing 15, Coots 11, Kraft 2.
Girls Basketball
Port Townsend 39, Klahowya 36 OT
PORT TOWNSEND — The Olympic League 1A Division champion Port Townsend girls earned solid experience in having to win tough, going into the postseason with an overtime vicory over Klahowya 39-36.
After getting outscored by the Eagles 10-6 in the fourth quarter to force overtime, the Redhawks responded by giving up just one point in overtime. Meanwhile Kaitlyn Meek, battling foul trouble, hit a clutch overtime basket and Jaz Apker-Montoya hit a pair of clutch free throws in the extra period.
Coach Scott Wilson said Meek played the last five minutes of regulation and overtime with four fouls and managed to avoid fouling out.
Apker-Montoya led the Redhawks with 17 points, while Meek scored 14.
Port Townsend played a number of bigger schools in the pre-league schedule, including the equivalent of a 4A school from California. Wilson said those games helped the Redhawks Saturday and will continue to help in the playoffs.
“The girls are mentally tough. That’s something we emphasized all year,” he said.
Wilson also pointed that this might be the first time Port Townsend has won championships in all three winter sports — girls basketball, boys basketball and wrestling.
Port Townsend (7-2, 9-10) will be off until Feb. 14. The girls will be the No. 1 seed and won’t know until Saturday night who they play (it conceivably could be Chimacum). The game will be at 7:45 p.m. at Bremerton High School.
Port Townsend 39, Klahowya 36 OT
Klahowya 5 11 9 10 1 — 36
PT 13 7 9 6 4 — 39
Klahowya (36) — Bumbalough 15, Lueck 6, Fuller 5, Eberhard 4, Schultz 2, Cooper 2, Hendricks 2.
Port Townsend (39) — Apker-Montoya 17, Meek 14, Hammett 6, King 2.
Coupeville 36, Chimacum 29
COUPEVILLE — In what is likely the last league meeting between Chimacum and Coupeville, the shorthanded Cowboy girls were undone by a bad third quarter and struggles from the free-throw line in a 36-29 regular season-ending loss.
The Cowboys were outscored 10-0 in the third quarter. They came back in the fourth quarter, outscoring Coupeville 11-6, but were hurt by shooting 4 for 13 from the free-throw line.
The Cowboys played without Jada Trafton, one of their starters, who went out in their previous game with a serious ankle injury, The good news is that Trafton’s ankle is not broken, but the bad news is it is severely sprained and her basketball season is over. Trafton is a very good sprinter for the Chimacum track team and coach Trevor Huntingford said that hopefully with time and treatment, Trafton can return to run track.
Huntingford said that overall, it was a good, well-played game. The Cowboys lost their composure for a bit during the Wolves’ 10-0 third quarter but recovered well in the fourth. “It was just a little too little too late,” he said.
Diamond Young, a sophomore, played a big game, leading the team with eight points, while Mia McNair also had eight points and Jadeah Nordberg had six. Huntingford pointed out that 22 out of the team’s 29 points came from freshmen and sophomores.
The Cowboys (4-5, 7-12), the third-place team in teh Olympic League 1A Division, have to get ready quickly to play their opening round playoff game on Thursday. Chimacum will host Charles Wright at 6 p.m. in a pigtail, loser-out game. Chimacum played Charles Wright earlier this year, losing by eight points.
Coupeville 36, Chimacum 29
Chimacum 6 12 0 11 — 29
Coupeville 9 11 10 6 — 36
Chimacum (29) — Young 8, McNair 8, Nordberg 6, Dowling 5, Yaley 2.
Coupeville (36) — Roberts 10, E.Smith 10, Wright 7, Briscue 5, S. Smith 4.
