CLALLAM BAY — Two weeks into the North Olympic League basketball season, there’s little doubt who the favorites are.
The same ones as just about every other year.
The Neah Bay boys and girls cemented their status as NOL standard bearers with a pair of blowout victories Friday night against the Clallam Bay Bruins.
Both teams nearly doubled up their Bruin counterparts — each of whom came into Friday’s doubleheader tied atop the NOL standings with Neah Bay — to grab sole possession of first place in league.
The Red Devil girls rolled to a 60-31 victory as winds howled outside the Bruins’ remodeled gymnasium, then the boys ran away with a 84-47 triumph.
Boys game
The Clallam Bay boys (1-1 in league, 9-4 overall) made the mistake of trying to run with Neah Bay (2-0, 9-2) on Friday night.
Predictably, that played right into the Red Devils’ hands as they harassed the Bruins into 43 turnovers and 17-of-51 shooting from the field.
Drexler Doherty scored a game-high 19 points, Titus Pascua added 18 and Zeke Greene had 15 points and four assists to lead a group of eight Red Devil scorers.
“I think we’re actually coming along really great as a team for having Gerrad [Brooks] as our coach for the first year,” Pascua said.
“There’s a lot of new people coming up to varsity with us and I think we’re working together as a team very well.”
The Red Devils displayed that teamwork throughout Friday night’s victory while playing their typical up-tempo style.
Neah Bay dished out 21 assists and turned the ball over just 19 times, breaking open a 16-16 first quarter tie with a 17-0 run fueled by 11 points from Doherty.
Pascua knocked down two of his team-high three 3-pointers near the start of the third quarter to cap a 9-2 run for a 49-24 edge, and the Bruins never got closer than 23 points the rest of the way.
“I told them I wanted to slow it down a little bit, because Neah Bay runs, and we didn’t slow it down,” Clallam Bay coach Cal Ritter said. “Each one of them tonight tried doing everything by themselves. It didn’t work very well.”
Jacob Portnoy led the Bruins with 18 points, hitting 7 of 11 field goal attempts, while Kyle Hess had 16 points and six rebounds.
Still, the Bruins were out-rebounded 39-36 on the night despite attempting 35 less shots than Neah Bay.
Johnny Smith had a team-high eight rebounds for the Red Devils and dished out four assists, and senior post Eli Monette added 12 points, five assists and seven rebounds.
Throw in the massive turnover differential (43-19 in favor of Neah Bay), and Friday night’s game had all the makings of a blowout.
“We like to push the pace and get a lot of steals and we’re a faster team,” said Brooks, now midway through his first year at the helm of Neah Bay’s boys basketball team.
“We can play really fast and we usually cause teams to play out of their comfort zone.
“We did it better in the second half than the first half. The first half I wasn’t pleased at all with our execution. Our effort was there but our execution wasn’t there.
“The second half, we picked up a lot more.”
The Red Devils averaged 2.6 shots per minute while hitting 38.4 percent of them (33-of-86).
The Bruins’ attempts to keep up fell flat, due in large part to all of the turnovers Neah Bay’s pressure defense forced.
“We just didn’t get the ball down low like I wanted to and we didn’t take good shots,” Ritter said.
“I know we’re a better team than what we played tonight, by far.”
NEAH BAY 84, CLALLAM BAY 47
Neah Bay 24 16 22 22 — 84
Clallam Bay 16 4 13 14 — 47
Individual Scoring
Neah Bay (84)
Jimmicum 6, Manuel 4, Greene 15, Doherty 19, Pascua 18, Halttunen 2, Monette 12, Kallappa 8.
Clallam Bay (47)
Teachout 1, Welever 1, Ky. Hess 16, James 11, Portnoy 18.
Girls game
NEAH BAY 60, CLALLAM BAY 31
CLALLAM BAY — The Red Devils just might roll through this year’s regular season slate like they did their last.
Judging by the way they dispatched the Bruins (1-1, 8-3) on Friday night, another undefeated regular season doesn’t seem too far-fetched for the Red Devils (2-0, 11-0).
Cherish Moss had a game-high 16 points and five assists, while fellow junior Rebecca Thompson added 14 points and three assists to lead Neah Bay in its 18th straight NOL win.
“Our main goal is getting to state and placing at state,” said Red Devils coach Lisa Halttunen, whose teams have reached state each of the past four years.
“As long as we keep that in mind and we’re focused on that when we’re playing these games that will get us there,” the team shouldn’t lose its edge.
“There’s always things we can improve on.”
Neah Bay’s defense didn’t looked like it needed too much tweaking Friday.
Neah Bay’s full-court press gave the Bruins fits all night, leading to 35 Clallam Bay turnovers and numerous fast break opportunities.
The Red Devils cashed in on many of them, shooting 41.6 percent from the field (25 of 60) while dishing out 13 assists as a team.
At one point between the second and third quarters, the Red Devils rattled off 18 unanswered points to take a 28-4 lead that would never be challenged.
“I thought we played really well,” said Thompson, undefeated in NOL play in her three years on varsity. “We were passing the ball around a lot, did a lot of teamwork.
“We work on that over and over in practice, working the ball and pushing it up the court and then setting up our plays. We know later on in the postseason, that’s what we’re going to need most, is working our plays and stuff.”
Thompson sank 7 of 9 shots from the field as part of a group of four Red Devils in double figures.
Cierra Moss added 14 points and eight rebounds and Merissa Murner 10 points and nine rebounds.
“They’re so athletic,” Clallam Bay coach Kelly Gregory said. “They killed us in their transition because they are faster and we can’t get back.”
Kirstin Erickson scored 10 points and grabbed five rebounds to lead the Bruins, while Jazzmin Randall had six points and 12 rebounds.
Of course, that wasn’t near enough against Neah Bay, which limited the Bruins to 29.8 percent shooting (14 of 47) on the night.
“Overall, I thought they did a pretty good job,” Gregory said. “It’s a big improvement from the first time we played them [a 57-16 Neah Bay win].”
NEAH BAY 60, CLALLAM BAY 31
Neah Bay 12 17 17 14 — 60
Clallam Bay 4 6 14 7 — 31
Individual Scoring
Neah Bay (60)
Thompson 14, Murner 10, Sones 2, Tyler 2, Winck 2, Ch. Moss 16, Ci. Moss 14.
Clallam Bay (31)
Willis 4, Herndon 2, Randall 6, K. Erickson 10, Parker 6, Welever 2, I. Erickson 1.