WHITE SALMON — Columbia High School’s boys basketball team won two of three games this past week, moving into a three-way tie for fifth place in the Trico League standings.
The Bruins (4-10 overall, 2-6 league) opened the week on Jan. 13 with a 64-44 win over Castle Rock, following that victory with another by the same score against Stevenson two days later. King’s Way Christian ended the Bruins’ modest two-game win streak with a 73-62 win in Vancouver on Jan. 17.
The Bruins are at Kalama Jan. 21, when they will try to improve on their seven-point loss to the Chinooks back in December.
Against Castle Rock, the Bruins built a 15-8 first-quarter lead behind an aggressive zone defense and the nine points of Hunter Wang. The hosts then used a 19-12 scoring advantage in the second period to build an insurmountable margin. Columbia extended its defensive pressure and was able to force turnovers and convert at the other end numerous times in the period.
A three-pointer by Caleb Reynolds from the top of the key pushed Columbia’s lead to 45-22 and led to a Castle Rock timeout. The Bruins led by at least 14 points the rest of the game. Wang finished with 25 points to lead all scorers.
The Stevenson game took a similar track, with Columbia taking advantage of its aggressive defense to outscore the Bulldogs 18-6 in the second period en route to a 32-16 halftime lead. Columbia had four players hit first-half three-pointers — Wang, Jordan MacCormack, Aiden Hainline, and Reynolds — which loosened up the Bulldog defense.
The Trico contest was played before a capacity crowd and had all the trappings of the neighborhood rivalry game that it is. Stevenson quieted the home crowd and pulled within 38-25 in the third period on Cameron Engel’s corner 3-pointer, but a 6-0 CHS scoring run gave the Bruins an insurmountable lead.
Wang led Columbia with 31 points and Hainline added 11.
Commented
Sorry, there are no recent results for popular commented articles.