By Michael Dashiell
Olympic Peninsula News Group
SEQUIM — Sequim got big contributions from team veterans and newcomers alike in their season-opener on Nov. 30, giving new girls basketball coach Larry Brown a win in his first game with the Wolves.
Seniors Adrienne Haggerty had a team-high 17 points and Ella Christiansen added 11 as the Wolves shrugged off a sloppy first quarter to dominate the visiting Chimacum Cowboys, 58-39.
“I thought we ran around a lot [and] tried to get the ball down-court,” Brown said.
“That 1-3-1 zone they played was great. Give Chimacum credit; they stumped us a bit. In the end, we did what we wanted to do.”
A foul-laden first quarter slowed the pace and left Sequim ahead by just two points (16-14), and the Cowboys took a brief lead in the second frame. But Carissa Leal hit back-to-back 3-pointers midway through the quarter, sparking Sequim’s 17-1 run to give the Wolves a 35-21 halftime lead.
Christiansen had a pair of key scores in the third quarter to push Sequim’s lead to 47-28, and Haggerty sank a 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter to spoil thoughts of a Chimacum comeback.
“We did a good job of working together as a team,” Christiansen said.
“It started flowing a little bit better once we finally settled down.”
Sequim got big contributions from a pair of freshmen against the Cowboys. Jessica Deitzman had eight points, four rebounds and three assists, and Hope Glasser added six points, three assists and a pair of steals.
“The freshmen both showed up,” Brown said.
“I thought we’d have a little more nerves.”
Christiansen said the team has a nice mix right now, with a good rapport between experienced varsity players and the youngsters.
“We took the freshmen with us to team camp [this past summer]; I think that helps,” she said.
Leal finished with eight points, not hesitating to take open long-range shot early in the shot clock — something Brown has been preaching in early practices.
Maddie Dowling had 15 points and Mechelle Nisbet added 14 for Chimacum.
“We still have a long way to go, a lot of work to do,” Brown said. “We’re going to get better as we go.”
Cowboys head coach Trevor Huntingford said his young team performed well for the most part.
“Despite the score I feel really pretty good about the performance tonight,” he said.
“We brought three girls with true varsity experience and I felt we competed well and went toe to toe with them until we gave up a run just before halftime.
“In the second half we may have worn down some given that we mostly played with six tonight… . “We have much to improve on but when I look at the intensity we could play with, I feel good moving forward as we starting getting kids back in the rotation.”
Coming up
The Wolves play the second of four consecutive home games beginning with the Bremerton Knights on Dec. 7.
Sequim takes on Olympic on Dec. 9 and Dec. 13 before playing their first road game of the season on Dec. 16.
During the winter holiday break, Sequim plays at the second-annual Battle of the Cove in Kingston on Dec. 28-29. The Wolves take on Olympia at 4 p.m. on Dec. 28 and Sammamish at 5:45 p.m. on Dec. 29.
The Wolves then host rival Port Angeles on Jan. 3 in a doubleheader with the Sequim and Port Angeles boys’ teams.
Chimacum (0-1) hosts Forks (0-2) tonight.
Sequim 58, Chimacum 39
Chimacum 14 7 7 11— 39
Sequim 16 19 12 11— 58
Chimacum (39) — Dowling 15, M. Nisbet 14, S. Nisbet 6, Trafton 4, Young 1.
Sequim (58) — Haggerty 17, Christiansen 11, Dietzman 8, Leal 8, Glasser 6, Green 4, Sparks 4, Armstrong, Shea
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Michael Dashiell is an editor with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach him at editor@sequimgazette.com.
