PORT ANGELES — Port Angeles and Chimacum both got what they wanted in the second half.
The Roughriders wanted to play better, and the Cowboys wanted to face the Riders’ best.
Port Angeles outscored Chimacum 38-7 in the second half to turn a close, low-scoring first half into a 48-17 rout in nonleague girls basketball action.
The Riders tweaked their starting lineup Friday, beginning the game with usual starter Emily Johnson and Lauren Lunt, who plays a lot, alongside freshman Kyrsten McGuffey and sophomores Cheyenne Wheeler and Brennan Gray.
“I wanted to get some of those kids the experience of starting,” Riders coach Michael Poindexter said.“Starting the game out, trying to set that tone is a different experience.”
Port Angeles’ new lineup built a 5-0 lead by the time veteran starters, Nizhoni Wheeler, Hayley Baxley and Katyn Flores entered the game with 3:51 left in the first quarter.
The Riders and Cowboys played even the rest of the period, after which the Riders led 9-4.
Cheyenne Wheeler made it 11-4 with a steal and a score 1 minute, 36 seconds into the second, but those were the last points the Riders would score in the half.
Port Angeles continued using its veterans and underclassmen but couldn’t buy a shot in the second quarter.
Poindexter hoped to not use starting point guard Maddie Boe, who is dealing with a leg injury, in the game, but inserted her with three minutes left in the half.
“She provides a verbal on-court leadership for us,” Poindexter said.
“We have good leaders, but they tend to be lead-by-example kinds of kids or help-in-practice kinds of kids, and she’s a leader on the floor and we needed to fill that gap.
“So that’s a learning experience: how do we play with stability and calm with out her? We can, those kids are very smart, we just have to [say], ‘Oh, somebody’s got to fill that role.’”
The Riders still couldn’t score, and only made 1 for 13 field goals in the period.
Chimacum, meanwhile, finished the quarter on a 6-0 run that cut Port Angeles’ lead to 11-10 at halftime.
“Well, it’s a learning experience. For everybody,” Poindexter said.
“And I told them that that first half is on me. But it’s also on them, too, in the sense that no one but maybe Nizhoni played their usual game in that first half. She looked like herself; nobody [else] really looked like themselves.”
Boe, Lunt, Johnson, Baxley and Nizhoni Wheeler started the second half for Port Angeles.
Chimacum coach Trevor Huntingford wasn’t thrilled when he found out about the Riders’ different starting lineup, and wanted to force them to play their starters.
“We wanted that challenge, and they gave it to us, and they showed us they were the superior team,” Huntingford said.
Poindexter said no slight was intended, and that the plan was to insert the starters, other than Boe, into the game during the first quarter.
“We weren’t going to sit those kids on the bench all night,” Poindexter said.
“It wasn’t anything negative about [Chimacum]. It was no sign of disrespect because we think highly of the kids that [we had] out there — we’re not afraid to play them.”
Lunt made a 3-pointer, Johnson scored off an assist by Nizhoni Wheeler, Flores hit a jumper and Baxley drilled a 3 as Port Angeles began the third quarter with a 10-0 run.
In the first half, Chimacum gave the Riders a dose of their own medicine, a zone defense, and it caused Port Angeles problems.
“It’s not easy to play against a zone, and I think our less-experienced players struggled tonight with zone attack,” Poindexter said. “We’re witness to the fact that zones can be difficult if you don’t attack them right.
“And that’s another learning experience: we don’t face 1-3-1 [zones] very often.
“Chimacum did a good job with it.”
The Riders improved their execution against the zone in the second half. Poindexter said they attacked instead of watched.
“That was our thing at halftime: quit being spectators on offense,” he said.
“And the shooting got better, the passing got better, the dribble attacks got better, everything got better, and that’s who we really are — the second half’s who we really are, the first half’s a learning experience.”
The Cowboys never quite found their groove on offense.
“What bothers me is the failure to execute in areas that I can see us running stuff the way we’re supposed to, I can see it coming open and then we choose to make a poor pass instead of the easy pass, and that puts it right in their hand for more points,” Huntingford said.
“But, you know, it’s not a team that doesn’t give effort, so I’m not worried about that, but execution-wise, we really got to continue to clean up.”
Bailey Castillo led Chimacum with seven points and Mechelle Nisbet added six.
Lunt led all scorers with 14 points, highlighted by four 3-pointers.
Nizhoni Wheeler had nine points, seven rebounds and three assists. The three dimes tied for the team lead with Flores, who also contributed seven points.
Johnson finished with six points, seven rebounds and four steals.
Cheyenne Wheeler had seven rebounds to go along with four points.
Boe didn’t score but had four steals. She had to be carried off the court with six minutes left in the game after apparently aggravating her previous injury.
Poindexter didn’t know Boe’s status for Monday’s Olympic League 2A showdown between the Riders (5-0) and Olympic (2-0) in Port Angeles.
Chimacum (2-2) hosts Bremerton (1-2) on Monday, and then plays at rival Port Townsend on Thursday. I will be the Olympic League 2A opener for both teams.
“Our priority is what happens in our division,” Huntingford said in reference to facing Port Townsend. “That one’s important to us.”
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Sports Editor Lee Horton can be reached at 360-417-3525 or at lhorton@peninsuladailynews.com.
