Brown Finishes Tough Mountaineers

The Winlock Cardinals went on an 11-3 run in the last 3:15 to nail down a 44-34 SWW 1A Evergreen Conference win over a scrappy visiting Rainier team.

6’9” Winlock Senior post Jake Brown was responsible for seven of the final 11 points as the Cards salted the game away. “They were starting to panic because we came out strong “ Brown said of the 4th quarter run by the Cardinals.

Scoring in this game came slowly with a first quarter advantage of 11 to 6 for Winlock. There were plenty of opportunities, but Winlock shot for just 35% in the first half. Rainier’s 6’5” Senior Bradon Franklin scored from underneath to tie the game at 14 with 1:11 to go befor the break. At 50 seconds, Jordan Davis hit the only three of the night for the Cardinals to take the 17-14 advantage into the locker room.

Franklin scored the first bucket of the 2nd half then Rainier’s 5’10’ shooter Jacob Fox hit a three to tie the game at 19 after a Jordan Davis bucket. The Cardinal’s Tyler Diamond grabbed a rebound and scored a put-back before the Jordan Davis show began.

The 3rd quarter featured a scoring drought of nearly four and a half minutes after Tyler Diamond scored two of his six points and grabbed one of his 11 rebounds. “He played great,“ said Winlock Head Coach Gary Viggers Sr. “We told him all along that is going to happen. They are always going to put their weakest guy on him. You have got to really work hard and be prepared.”

Winlock's Jordan Davis shoots a free throw early in the game. Davis finsihed with 16 points and half of those came in a 70 second period during the 3rd quarter.

When the drought came to an end, the weather-maker was Davis, Jordan Davis. In a 71 second period, the Winlock Senior had two steals and 8 points to power a 10-0 Winlock run that gave the Cardinals a 29-19 lead at the end of three quarters.

Rainier's Jacob Fox (#4) finished the game with 13 points, most of which were from beyond the arc.

Early in the 4th quarter, the Mountaineers rode back, with Franklin working for two, Fox hitting two threes and Kyle North scored on a transition steal to even the score at 29 with about six minutes to go. While it was Davis in the 3rd, Jake Brown took the game over with about four minutes to go. He put an exclamation monster jam with 45 seconds to go.

Winlock's Jake Brown was named the "Player of the Game" by Comcast Sports who were on hand broadcasting the game for distribution on Varsity Sports.

Tyler Hertz had five assist for Winlock while Brown had 5 blocks. Hertz and Junior MikeKent also had three steals for the Cardinals.

It wasn’t a thing of beauty for the 4th ranked Cardinals, and you almost saw relief on Viggers face. “We were just a little too keyed up,“ he explained. “We were standing around watching each other when they shot and that is what we went over at half time. We got to play our basketball“.

More Winlock basketball will be played at Montesano on Monday where the Carinals (10-1, 4-0) will play the Bulldogs. Rainier (6-3, 3-1) will visit neighboring Tenino on Monday.

Rainier 6 8 5 15-34
Winlock 11 6 12 15-44

RAINIER-Chris Ashby 2, Brandon Eygabroad 4, Brandon Franklin 9, Mitchell McComb 0, Kevin McCrea 0, Kyle North 6, Alex Proffitt 0, Tyler Schaff 0, Matt Tietjen 0, Kevin Volesky 0, Jacob Fox 13, Dalton Delio 0
WINLOCK-Nathan Booth 5, Jake Brown 15, Jordan Davis 16, Tyler Diamond 6, Tyler Hertz 2, Tyler McCarthy 0, Angel Sanchez 0, Nick Hoven 0, Mike Kent 0, Bryson Coleman 0, Collin Kupers 0