SEQUIM — Pay up, Mr. Principal.
Sequim’s Jackson Oliver converted a breakaway one-handed slam dunk during a 15-0 second-quarter scoring run that pushed the Wolves to a 63-42 boys basketball win over Klahowya.
Oliver’s dunk energized the Rick Kaps Gymnasium crowd and his teammates while also fulfilling a good-natured bet between himself and Sequim principal Shawn Langston.
“The principal and I had a little bet going that I wouldn’t dunk it by the end of the season, and so that was my first career dunk. It felt good,” Oliver said.
Oliver led all scorers with 21 points.
The Wolves held a 12-11 lead after one period, all 11 Klahowya points coming from Payton Ryen.
After a Troy Potter bucket gave the Eagles a 13-12 advantage early in the second quarter, Sequim buckled down defensively and on offense began to find room in Klahowya’s 2-3 zone defense
“We really just wanted to start penetrating because we hadn’t been able to get the ball in to our bigs,” Oliver said.
“The key was finding those gaps and getting the defense moving.”
And keeping the basketball moving around and through the zone, according to head coach Greg Glasser.
“I believe we called a timeout about halfway through the first quarter and challenged them to share the ball a little bit,” Glasser said.
“I felt after that timeout they really started to move the ball.
“There was a couple of little hiccups, some places where we could have made the extra pass, but it was a different game tonight [than Sequim’s season opening loss to Mount Tahoma].”
Sequim is a mixture of seniors such as Oliver, and underclassmen, with three freshmen (Nate Despain, Riley Cowan and Kyler Rollness) and a sophomore (Payton Glasser) seeing significant playing time in Friday’s game.
“The challenge with any team that we have here is trying to put some pieces together and figuring out how all those pieces fit,” coach Glasser said.
“Tonight was part of the process. They made a step in the right direction.
“We challenged them after the first time out to share the ball a little bit, and tonight you saw the ball pop around a little more.
“It’s really important that we trust our teammates.”
Baskets from Jack Shea, Oliver and Glasser, along with free throws from Despain and Cowan, opened the second-quarter scoring spurt for Sequim.
“We started to move the ball a lot better and we emphasized playing as a family and not as individuals,” Oliver said.
“I think as the season progresses we will get better and better at that.
“There’s a lot of new guys and we have to learn to play together.”
Oliver pushed the Wolves’ lead to 10 when he stole the ball just across the midcourt stripe and raced down for a one-handed flush.
“I saw it coming at about half-court and I said, ‘Oh no,’” Glasser said with a smile.
Despain followed with a 3-pointer to put Sequim up 27-13.
“Nate, he’s solid,” Glasser said.
“He’s comfortable out there, and he can knock down an open jumper.”
Rollness added a buzzer-beating 3 to give the Wolves a 33-16 halftime lead.
Klahowya trailed by as many as 22 in the third before cutting its deficit to 45-30 with less than two minutes to go in the period.
But Sequim had an answer.
Glasser swung the ball across the court to an open Oliver on the right wing for a 3 to staunch a 10-3 Eagles run.
Glasser had 15 points and also did well distributing the ball in the high post against the Klahowya zone.
“It’s nice to be able to have a post player who you can throw the ball up to in the high post and trust to make a good decision,” Glasser said of his son.
The Wolves knocked down 24 of 50 shot attempts and were 6 of 18 on 3-point shots.
Klahowya, meanwhile, shot 17 of 51 from the floor, 3 of 20 from beyond the arc.
“We had the advantage on the boards,” Glasser said.
“Nick [Faunce] let the game come to him and was a beast on the boards, as well.”
Sequim (1-1) opens Olympic League 2A play at Bremerton on Tuesday, before hosting Neah Bay in a nonleague game Wednesday.
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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-452-2345, ext. 5250 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
