By Michael Carman
Peninsula Daily News
PORT TOWNSEND — Chimacum showed balance offensively with three players in double figures in scoring as the Cowboys rolled up rival Port Townsend 58-22 in an Olympic League girls basketball contest Friday.
The Cowboys controlled the game from the start — a tough matchup for a young Port Townsend squad lacking in ballhandlers facing a Chimacum team that feeds off pressure defense.
But it was a bit of a slow start as the Cowboys came out a little keyed up.
“A little overhyped there,” Chimacum coach Trevor Huntingford said. “A little too excited our shots were going long.”
An exception was senior Grace Yaley who put in nine of her 12 points in the first quarter as the Cowboys led 19-5 after one quarter.
“Grace was the only one really hitting their shots, and they tried a box-and-one on Mia [McNair]. “I knew that was coming from somebody at some point. They watched Mia go for 30-something at Klahowya, so I assumed somebody would try that.”
Port Townsend’s focus on McNair, coupled with trouble getting into halfcourt sets, helped Chimacum’s transition game all night long.
“Really, there’s a lot of kids that can score in that group,” Huntingford said. “Grace can score, both the posts [Jadeah Nordberg and Diamond Young] can score if we feed them the ball. Jada Trafton is always going to get some points on steals and runouts. So we have multiple people that can score the ball and they showed that tonight.”
Trafton had 14 points on the night for Chimacum.
Early foul trouble to the Redhawks’ primary ballhandler Sorina Johnston did not help Port Townsend keep the game close.
Posts Gina Brown and Izzy Hammett are both strong, effective rebounders and scorers offer the Redhawks a solid inside presence, but they were forced into duty moving the ball up the floor against Chimacum, taking them out of their games.
Katie Clark came on strong just before halftime for the Cowboys, getting to the free throw line for a pair of scores and driving to the rim for a layup with 0.1 seconds remaining in the second quarter to give Chimacum a 32-14 lead in the locker room.
Huntingford said the halftime message centered on staying in command.
“We can’t get out of control if they get out of control,” Huntingford said. “We want them out of control, that’s fine, but we can’t sink into that and have the reaching and the grabbing.”
McNair broke out in the second half to help Chimacum, getting out in transition and scoring 11 of her 16 points.
“Mia did a good job of not forcing it, and when you’ve been scoring like that [61 points combined in her last two games] it can be really easy to want to force the issue,” Huntingford said.
Port Townsend freshman Aurin Asbell played well in her first Redhawks-Cowboys rivalry game, hitting two 3-point baskets to lead the team in scoring.
Huntingford enjoyed the full crowd for the first edition of the Quimper Quarrel this season.
“It’s always a fun environment for these games,” Huntingford said. “But we’ve talked about it, every game has to be preparation for going beyond regardless of who our opponent is.The bottom line is we have to practice, we have to work, we have to get better. We can’t get sloppy because [the opponent] aren’t as good as us.”
Chimacum (2-0, 3-3) visits Forks on Tuesday in a rematch of the Spartans’ 43-32 season-opening win back on Nov. 28.
Port Townsend (0-2, 1-2) visits South Whidbey on Wednesday.
Chimacum 58, Port Townsend 22
Chimacum 19 13 13 13— 22
Port Townsend 5 9 3 5— 58
Chimacum (58) — McNair 16, Trafton 14, Yaley 12, Clark 8, Young 5, Noble 2, Horner 1, Fisher, Nordberg, Huntingford.
Port Townsend (22) — Asbell 8, Brown 7, Hammett 5, Ballard 2, Johnston, Dow, Salmon.
