KINGSTON — Ahead of their big Olympic League matchup coming up tonight, both the Port Angeles and Sequim boys basketball teams won league games Tuesday by big margins.
The Port Angeles Roughriders moved into a three-way tie for second in the Olympic League with an 84-55 win over Kingston, while Sequim kept pace by beating Olympic 68-52.
In the Riders’ win, Port Angeles actually got up 68-35 after three quarters, then sat their starters to give reserves a chance to play in the fourth. A total of 15 Port Angeles players got in the game.
Port Angeles was led by Gus Halberg, who hit four 3-pointers for a career-high 22 points.
The Riders got off to an 18-4 start and never looked back.
“We came out with good defensive pressure and were able to control the tempo of the game,” said coach Kasey Ulin.
Ulin said the Riders had 21 assists against four turnovers and he liked the team’s balance with six players scoring eight or more points.
Port Angeles also tallied 85 points with the team’s leading scorer, Parker Nickerson, only scoring five. Nickerson only took five shots all game as the Riders had control of the game early. Ulin gave him a lot of credit for not forcing shots.
“That says a lot about our unselfishness and depth,” Ulin said.
Kason Albaugh had 14 points, all in the first half, while Isaiah Shamp scored 14. Dallas Dunning scored 10 and 6-foot-10 freshman Brock Hope got in the varsity game in the fourth quarter and scored 10 points and pulled down six rebounds in five minutes of play.
Blake Sohlberg added eight points off the bench.
The Roughriders find themselves in a tie with Bainbridge and Bremerton at 4-2 in league. North Kitsap leads the Olympic League at 6-0. Sequim is right behind at 3-3.
Port Angeles (8-4 overall) travels to Sequim (7-4) to play at 5:15 p.m. today.
Port Angeles 84, Kingston 55
PA 20 22 26 16 — 84
King. 8 12 15 20 — 55
Port Angeles (84) — G. Halberg 22, Shamp 14, Albaugh 14, Dunning 10, Hope 10, Sohlberg 8, Nickerson 5, Townsend 3, Hoch 2.
Sequim 68, Olympic 52
SEQUIM — The Sequim boys basketball team moved to .500 in league play, scoring 27 points in the second quarter and getting 24 points from Keenan Green while dominating Olympic.
Green was all “4s.” He hit four 2-pointers, four 3-pointers and shot 4-for-4 from the free-throw line for his points. Solomon Sheppard added 16 points and Charlie Grider scored 15.
Sequim next hosts Port Angeles at 5:15 p.m. today.
Sequim 68, Olympic 52
Oly. 11 16 9 16 — 52
Seq. 14 27 15 12 — 68
Sequim (68) — Green 24, Sheppard 16, Grider 15, Melnick 7, Rapelje 6.
East Jefferson 81, Vashon 61
VASHON — East Jefferson’s Brody Moore had a huge 31-point game and Stuart Dow pulled down 21 rebounds as the East Jefferson boys basketball team got over the .500 mark with an 81-61 win Tuesday over Vashon.
Moore hit a pair of 3s and shot 12-for-27 from the floor.
“He’s got a motor that doesn’t stop. He’s a pretty tough kid to stay with,” said coach Emmanuel Abbott.
Meanwhile, the 6-foot-8 Dow added 12 points and six blocks to go with his rebounding. “Stuart is pretty tall with a lot of length … it’s kind of a luxury at times,” Abbott said.
Traycon Brown added 14 points and three steals, and 6-foot-7 Keidan Guzman played point guard with 12 points, 13 rebounds and six assists.
“Keidan also had a pretty darn good game being able to push the ball up the court, running point guard for us,” Abbott said.
With the win, East Jefferson improved to 4-3 in the Nisqually League (5-4 overall). The Rivals have a huge task ahead of them at home in Chimacum at 7 p.m. Friday, hosting first-place Annie Wright (7-0 in Nisqually, 9-2 overall).
East Jefferson 81, Vashon 61
EJ 22 20 15 24 — 81
Vashon 16 15 12 18 — 61
East Jefferson (81) — Moore 31, Brown 14, Dow 12, Guzman 12, Stepanski 6, Zambor 4, Morford 1.
