PORT ANGELES — The Roughrider basketball boys found themselves in a battle early against a good 1A La Center team.
But in the second half, the Roughriders simply ground down the Wildcats with their deep bench.
Without really going on a big run, the Riders pulled away from La Center for a 71-43 win. That final score makes it look like an easy win, but the Wildcats were down just seven points early in the third quarter. Port Angeles simply ground La Center down with its length as the Riders dominated the boards — And with its bench as 11 different Riders scored (as opposed to just five scorers for La Center).
It’s a formula teams can expect all season from the Roughriders — they’re going to pound the boards and wear teams down on defense with their exceptionally deep bench.
“Our focus is to play team basketball on each trip down the floor,” said coach Kasey Ulin. “Our defensive intensity was better in the second half.”
Anton Kathol had an outstanding all-around game. He led the Riders with 14 points, but his point total doesn’t show what a force he was inside as he tallied a slew of rebounds, assists and steals. Many of his baskets were putbacks after Riders’ misses. Ulin also said Dru Clark was “phenomenal” in this game.
Xander Maestas was also a force in the second half, hitting a 3-pointer and giving La Center fits on defense. In one remarkable sequence, Maestas nearly stole an inbounds pass, but the he couldn’t quite keep the ball inbounds. Two seconds later, he did steal the inbounds pass as La Center just couldn’t get the ball past him.
Though the Riders had a full week off for the holidays, Ulin didn’t see a drop in the team’s intensity. He said they get plenty physical in practise.
“We had a good week of practices. We had some very intense practices,” Ulin said.
“When we defend and rebound, we’re really good,” he said.
The Riders generally dominated this 6-2 1A team in the first half, but had trouble early pulling away from the Wildcats. Port Angeles hit just one 3-pointer in the first half and started off the game shooting 0-for-5 from the free-throw line.
After a Cedric Hubler basket for La Center, the Riders held just a 27-22 lead late in the second quarter. A nice flurry to end the half created some separation. Gary Johnson III started it with an old fashioned 3-point play on a drive and a basket. A steal on defense led to a basket by Luke Jarnigan and then Damen Ringgold got a rebound and a basket right at the end of the shot clock with just seconds left in the half to give the Riders a 34-24 lead at the break.
La Center hit a 3-pointer to open up the second half, but the Riders had a mini-run of 9-2 to finally open up some serious separation at 46-29. And they started hitting more 3-pointers as Port Angeles hit four shots from downtown in the second half. From that point on, the Riders never looked back as they allowed just four points in the fourth quarter as the Wildcats finally ran out of gas a bit.
Kathol had 12 points in the first half. Johnson and Brady Nickerson each had 10, while Chase Cobb scored eight and Dru Clark seven.
Port Angeles (3-0, 7-2) played another nonleague game on the road Saturday night after press deadline against Fife (4-1, 4-5), a powerful team out of the 2A South Puget Sound League that beat Sequim earlier this year and plays Sequim or Port Angeles most years at district playoffs.
The Riders will return to Olympic League 2A play with a game at home at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday against Olympic (1-2, 2-7).
Port Angeles 71, La Center
LaC 11 13 15 4 — 43
PA 17 17 21 16 — 71
La Center (43) — Ecklund 19, P. Ball 11, Norris 7, Hubler 3, H. Ball 3.
Port Angeles (71) — Kathol 14, Johnson 10, Nickerson 10, Cobb 8, Clark 7, Ringgold 6, Maestas 5, Vaara 4, Dunning 3, Jarnigan 2, Bowechop 2.
