PORT ANGELES — Marshall Elliot, Easton Napiontek’s backup, ripped the nets for 24 points to spark the Port Angeles boys basketball team to the championship of its own tournament Thursday night.
Elliot, who was voted the tourney’s MVP, also grabbed 11 rebounds for a double-double as the Roughriders beat a powerful Anacortes team 61-56 and win the first Port Angeles Winter Classic.
“This was a coming-out party for Elliott, who was very aggressive and had a great effort on both sides of the court,” Port Angeles coach Wes Armstrong said.
The Riders improved to 9-1 overall with the victory. They are 6-1 in the Olympic League. Conference competition starts its second go-around this week.
“This was a big win for us because Anacortes is such a good team,” Armstrong said.
“I was proud of how we played [Thursday night]. We played a very physical Anacortes team and we probably had our best complete game of the year.”
Elliott, a 6-foot-4 junior, is the backup to Napiontek, a 6-8 senior who is nursing a sore back.
Armstrong is not in a rush to bring Napiontek too soon because the senior, who is playing competitive basketball for the first time in years, is dominating inside play when he’s in the game.
Also making the all-tournament team besides Elliott for Port Angeles is Keenen Walker, who brought down nine rebounds and had 11 points against Anacortes.
“Walker had a good tournament,” Armstrong said.
In the Anacortes game, Armstrong also was pleased with the play of point guard Cameron Braithwaite.
“Cameron had a great all-around floor game with six assists, and his defense was outstanding,” Armstrong said.
Braithwaite had the job of defending Anacortes’ top scorer, senior guard Matt Welliver, an all-state candidate.
“Cameron shut him down,” Armstrong said.
Welliver made the all-tournament team along with Billy King of Anacortes, Caleb Taylor of King’s and Dean Poplawski of Overlake.
King scored a team-high 20 points against the Riders while Welliver was held to 10.
The Riders went ahead of Anacortes early in the second quarter and stayed ahead the rest of the way.
“We held a six- to 10-point lead the rest of the way,” Armstrong said. “We played a great fourth quarter.”
King’s of Seattle beat Overlake of Redmond 71-46 for third place in the tourney while King’s won the JV bracket by beating Port Angeles 63-42.
It was the first loss of the year for the JV Riders, who are now 8-1.
The Riders varsity next play at Kingston in a crucial Olympic League contest this coming Friday night.
Port Angeles 61 Anacortes 56
Anacortes 14 8 14 20 — 56
Port Angeles 12 13 19 17 — 61
Individual Scoring
Anacortes (56)
Johnson 8, Welliver 10, Yost 6, hansen 6, D’Amelio 5, King 20.
Port Angeles (61)
Braithwaite 8, Walker 11, Burke 4, McCaftney 8, Uvila 6, Elliott 24.
Seattle Acad. 55, Chimacum 31
PORT TOWNSEND — Seattle Academy stopped the Cowboys’ winning streak at eight Thursday night.
The Cardinals (5-2) beat the Cowboys (8-1) for the Division 2 (small schools) championship at the sixth annual Crush in the Slush Tournament at Port Townsend High School.
“They played well and we didn’t play one of our better games,” Chimacum coach Jim Eldridge said.
“We struggled the whole game.”
Landon Cray and Quinn Eldridge scored 12 points each for Chimacum but the scoring pretty much stopped there.
Two other players combined for seven points and that was it.
“Seattle Academy played good defense against us,” Eldridge said. “They played tough.”
The Cowboys started the game fine and were behind just 11-10 at the start of the second period.
“We played real well in the first quarter and started the second quarter fine.”
But the Cardinals scored on a couple of 3s and it went downhill from there for the Cowboys.
“They got a rhythm on us and we couldn’t do anything offensively,” Eldridge said.
Daniel Davydov scored a game-high 16 points for the Cardinals while Colin Washington sank 15.
Chimacum next hosts Seattle Christian at home Tuesday night.
Seattle Academy 55, Chimacum 31
Chimacum 10 8 3 10 — 31
Seattle Acad. 11 19 9 16 — 55
Individual Scoring
Chimacum (31)
Cray 12, Q. Eldridge 12, Pagasian 2, Glessing 5.
Seattle Academy (55)
Washington 15, Doss 4, Davydov 16, Perlin 2, Musin 2, Hobbs 12, Shier 4.
Forks takes third place at tourney
NORTH BEACH — The Forks Spartans split two games at the North Beach Christmas Classic on Thursday and Friday to claim third place.
On Thursday, the Spartans lost 49-38 to Raymond in the opening round and then they defeated host North Beach 39-25 Friday night.
Friday’s game was sloppy by both teams, Forks coach Scott Justus said.
The Spartans led 23-13 at halftime and never looked back.
Braden Decker sparked Forks with 15 points while Brady Castellano was right behind with 14 to outscore North Beach by themselves.
The Spartans (7-2) have an important game against Montesano at home Tuesday night in SWL-Evergreen Division action.
“We shot just 28 percent [Thursday] and 49 percent [Friday], and we will have to do a lot better than that against Monty on Tuesday,” Justus said.
“I hope we got the poor shooting out of our system because Monty is really hot right now.”
Montesano is scoring in the high 50s and 60s whilethe Spartans haven’t gotten into the 50s recently,Justus noted.
On Thursday, two 6-1 teams faced off in the opening round of the two-day North Beach Christmas Classic Tournament.
Raymond happened to come out on top in this battle of strong teams.
The Gulls improved to 7-1 while the Spartans dropped to 6-2.
“There’s no way around it, we absolutely stunk,” Justus said.
The Spartans put up 50 shots to the Gulls’ 31 but shot only 28 percent from the field while Raymond shot 51 percent.
“We couldn’t throw the ball into the ocean, literally,” Justus said.
“We had two good practices but I gave them five days off [during Christmas break]. It was the first time I had done that, and it will be the last time.”
Decker had a team-high 10 points for the Spartans while Carte Bisbee led the Gulls with 17.
Raymond 49, Forks 38
Forks 10 10 9 9 — 38
Raymond 17 9 16 7 — 49
Individual Scoring
Forks (38)
J. Penn 6, T. Penn 3, Castellano 4, Press 2, Harris 4, Decker 10, Dean 5, Leons 4.
Raymond (50)
So 7, Bisbee 17, Oatfield 6, Lundy 3, Ratsavongsy 6, Hamilton 10.
Kingston JV 69, Crescent 65
PORT ANGELES — Three players scored in double figures for the Loggers as the 1B varsity team came close to upsetting 2A Kingston’s JV at the Port Angeles Winter Classic tourney Thursday.
Derrick Findley lit up the scoreboard with 25 points while Kai Story added 18 and Joel Williams scored 10 for the Loggers.
Williams also brought down a team-high 12 rebounds while Findley had 11 and Story and Josh Sowders grabbed five each.
Kingston also had three players score in double figures as Hans Schippers made 18 points, Henry English had 15 and Nathan Carleton scored 13.
“It was two good teams playing,” Crescent coach Darren Heaward said.
“Our kids played hard. It was a good experience for us to play the bigger schools.”
The Loggers next are trying to set up a game with Lake Quinault on Tuesday. If that falls through, their next scheduled game is Jan. 6 against Clallam Bay.
Kingston JV 69, Crescent 65
Crescent 19 7 18 21 — 65
Kingston 12 22 18 17 — 69
Individual Scoring
Crescent (65)
Walker 8, Fadness 2, Findley 25, Story 18, Williams 10, Sowders 2.
Kingston (69)
Chiquiti 8, Shuey 3, Rabedeaux 7, Sagdahl 4, Worland 1, English 15, Carleton 13, Schippers 18.
PORT ANGELES — Three players scored in double figures for the Loggers as the 1B varsity team came close to upsetting 2A Kingston’s JV at the Port Angeles Winter Classic tourney Thursday.
