SEQUIM — The Port Angeles girls basketball team plays has come to expect chaotic games this season.
Such was the case Friday when the Roughriders defeated rival Sequim 48-18 in a game in which neither team established much of an offensive rhythm.
“We’ve had several of those,” Roughriders coach Michael Poindexter said after the game.
“The Bremerton game was messier than this; North Kitsap was a messy game.
“It has kind of been the theme of our year.”
The other constant for Port Angeles this season has been winning.
Friday’s victory was the Riders’ seventh straight and kept their undefeated Olympic League (7-0, 7-1 overall) record intact.
Madison Hinrichs and Macy Walker, two of Port Angeles’ top scorers, only scored one point apiece, though neither seemed to be aggressively looking to score.
Mariah Frazier was the game’s high scorer with 11 points. Payton Lee was the other double-figure scorer with 10 points and Shayla Northern added nine.
“That kind of defines us: any given night, you don’t know who is going to score,” Poindexter said.
“We have many capable scorers. We were unselfish with the ball [Friday], we moved the ball well.”
The Riders struggled to get the ball in the hoop in the first two quarters. They only scored nine points in the first quarter and eight in the second period before finally getting going in the second half.
Poindexter said the Wolves deserve a portion of the credit for his team’s slow shooting start.
“I think we were a little nervous,” he said. “And with the rivalry and the crowd — we wanted to perform well.
“We were tight. We were missing shots, and we start to worry when that happens.
“But Sequim defensively is impressive. When we shot the ball, they contested us.”
Offensively, the Wolves missed Alexas Besand, who was out with an ankle injury sustained in Sequim’s loss to North Kitsap earlier this week.
Along with scoring, the Wolves were short on experience without Besand, a junior, especially compared to the senior- and junior-laden Riders.
McKenzie Bentz, a freshman, led Sequim with five points. Sophomores Hailey Lester and Elise Beuke each added four points. The only junior to score for Sequim was Melanie Guan, who had three.
Port Angeles next plays Friday at home against Burlington-Edison and then faces W.F. West on Saturday. Both opponents are among the top 2A teams in the state.
“We’ll really find out who we are,” Poindexter said of the Riders’ upcoming games.
Sequim (2-5, 3-6) will participate in the Crush the Slush tournament at Port Townsend High School this weekend.
The Wolves face Australian team the Mornington Breakers on Friday morning and North Mason on Saturday morning. Sequim beat the Bulldogs 45-21 earlier this month.
Port Angeles 47, Sequim 19
Port Angeles 9 8 15 16— 48
Sequim 3 4 6 5— 18
Individual scoring
Port Angeles (48)
Frazier 11, Hinrichs 1, Northern 9, Walker 1, Johnson 5, Jones 6, Lee 10, Jeffers 5.
Sequim (18)
Lester 4, Bentz 5, Guan 3, Wallner 2, Beuke 4.
