PORT ANGELES — The Clallam Bay girls basketball team was in full control from the opening moments against the Lopez Lobos and pushed to a 47-34 victory in a Class 1B Tri-District Tournament loser-out contest.
The Bruins (14-5) advanced to face Cedar Park Christian of Mountlake Terrace (20-1) on the road today at 5 p.m. in a winner-to-state regionals game.
Clallam Bay is now in the double-elimination portion of Tri-Districts and can lose today’s contest and still advance to the regional round with a win Saturday against the loser of Rainier Christian-Evergreen Lutheran.
Against Lopez, senior guard Mariah LaChester sank two early 3-point baskets to give the Bruins an early 8-2 lead three minutes in and Clallam Bay never looked back, preventing the Lobos from getting much of a rhythm offensively with some strong man-to-man defense.
LaChester tied with teammate Atokena Abe for the team-lead in points with 11 apiece.
Lopez, a team with just seven players, played a 2-3 zone defense against Clallam Bay.
“I think we attacked their zone pretty well,” coach Michael Maines said.
“We were shooting the ball pretty well from outside at the start, but I wanted to see the ball move in and out because you have to make that zone work no matter what. Our high-post offense they were kind of collapsing on that, so I wanted to get that open by moving the ball. If you can move the ball, somebody will get lazy defensively.”
Abe and senior post Molly McCoy also provided a big edge in rebounding for Clallam Bay.
“Our man-to-man [defense] kinds of leads us to some offense. I won’t take anything from those guys [Lopez], they played tough and got after it,” Maines said.
“But I liked the defense. With us, our defense leads to offense, and if we play that good get-after-it, hands in their face, rough, getting on the floor once in a while man-to-man defense it will lead to offense. So I really liked that.”
Clallam Bay led 23-13 at halftime. Sophomore substitute Hannah Olson sparked the Bruins with some scrappy defense and a layup in the second quarter.
Olson was an effective on-ball defender at guard and also hit some layups for the Bruins. She finished with nine points and seven blocked shots.
“Hannah was playing some solid defense for us,” Maines said.
“She’s really good at staying with her man and keeping in front of them. She has good footwork. She just got here, transferred over from Neah Bay as a sophomore, so we are looking forward to what she can do the next few years.”
Two jump shots by senior Jennica Maines gave the Bruins a 36-23 lead after three quarters. A bucket by Miriam Wonderly in the fourth quarter gave the Bruins their largest advantage of the contest, at 47-25 with less than three minutes to play. Maines substituted his starters at that point and Lopez finished the game on a 9-0 run.
Wonderly and Maines each finished with six points apiece, and McCoy scored four.
Clallam Bay allowed only three Lobos to score in the game.
Freshman Siri Dye scored 16 points and junior Jana Gruenwald added 13. Zoe Reinmuth scored five.
“I do think we have a tendency to play down [to the level of our opponent], but nothing against them, they came to play,” coach Maines said.
He recognized his squad will have to step their games up against one-loss Cedar Park Christian.
“I think we have it in us to compete with them,” Maines said.
“We have to play to who we are coming to play. I’ve watched three or four of their games already, I know what they like to do, who their scorers are, so we will come ready to play.”
Clallam Bay 47, Lopez 34
Lopez 8 5 10 11— 34
Clallam Bay 14 11 11 11— 47
Lopez (34) — Dye 16, J. Gruenwald 13, Reinmuth 5, S. Gruenwald, Velazquez, Scholz, Begman.
Clallam Bay (47) — LaChester 11, Abe 11, Olson 9, Wonderly 6, Maines 6, McCoy 4, Ritter, Willis, Anderson, K. Signor, R. Signor, Tyree.
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Sports reporter/columnist Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-417-3525 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News Clallam Bay’s Mariah LaChester, front left, and Molly McCoy, right, chase after a loose ball as Lopez Island’s Zoe Reinmuth looks on from behind during the first quarter of Tuesday night’s playoff game played at Port Angeles High School.
