Onalaska Handles Foxless Rainier

The Onalaska boys looked sharp as they defeated Rainier 51-46 in a 1A Evergreen League game on Saturday. The loss was only slightly tempered by the fact that Rainier was playing without one of its best shooters in Jacob Fox and the fact that the two teams will meet again on Tuesday night at Rainier. In fact, Onalaska will play three games in four nights as they continue to make up snowed-out and flooded-out games from December and January.

Onalaska's Brady Stanley (#10) hit four threes and hit the last two free throws of the game for 14 points.

The Mountaineers stormed out of the locker room to a 15-9 1st quarter advantage, but Onalaska went on a 10-2 run to start the 2nd quarter and went into the locker room on a 7-3 flourish. Brady Stanley hit threes during the quarter and other points were contributed by Nick Modica, Eric Messal and Zack Barnes.

The Loggers employed an aggressive defense that resulted in several quick baskets after turnovers.

The Loggers largest lead was 41--30 after two Dalton Ritchey free throws with 6:55 to go in the 4th. Rainier went on a 6-0 run with a bucket and two free throws from Kyle North and two points from Bradon Franklin. After a bucket by Ony’s Jeff Swett, Franklin contributed three more free throws as he attracted the physical play of the Loggers and the lead dwindled to just 43-39.

Onalaska may not start any Seniors, but one plays an awfully big role on the team. Erik Messal hit a three with 4:02 to extend the lead to 46-39 and then a minute later he contributed another clutch 2 pointer. Rainier scored two more free throws by North and another bucket by Frankin, but it would not be enough.

Without fellow shooter and floor leader Jacob Fox, Kyle North (#14) kept Rainier in the game and was the overall high point man with 24 points.

Onalaska’s most productive five are juniors and sophomores with only two guys on the roster listed as a forward. The floor leader for Onalaska is Dalton Ritchey. “He missed a couple of early shots and got trying a little too much. But even on a bad night, he is good,” said Onalaska Head Coach Dennis Bower. “He is our floor leader, our emotional leader, he and Brady Stanley. He is just real solid and I feel comfortable with him, even when he is trying to do too much.

The aforementioned Stanley finished with 14 points while Ritchey had 10.

Dalton Ritchey ran the floor for Onalaska and added 10 points to the team's total.

The one senior on the team sits close to the coach though.

It was the performance of Eric Messal that caught the coach's attention. “The kid that hit the big shots down the stretch was a Senior” said Bower He is a great 6th man for us. He hit some big shots for us. Even when he was missing shots early, he hit the big shots.”

Onalaska Senior Eric Messal hit some clutch shots in the 4th quarter.

The Loggers are now 11-0 and 7-0 in league.

RAINIER-Jacob Fox 0, Delton Delio 0, Kevin Volaskey 6, Kyle North 21, Tyler Schaff 1, Mitch McComb 0, Matt Tietjen 0, Brandon Eygabroad 2, Bradon Franklin 9, Chris Ashby 5. FG — 14-41NA; FT — 12-18.
ONALASKA-Brady Stanley 14, Nick Modica 4, Dalton Ritchey 10, Eddie Miles 5, Cody Naillon 4, Eric Messal 12, Jeff Swett 2.

RAINIER 15 6 9 16 — 46
ONALASKA 9 19 12 12 — 51

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