Columbia High boys basketball handily beats Seton for first Trico win

At King’s Way 51, Columbia 32: The Trico-leading Knights outscored the Bruins 16-2 in the fourth quarter last Thursday to clinch the win.

King’s Way led 9-6 after one quarter, 27-20 at the half, and 35-30 after three quarters.

“The fourth quarter was the worst we’ve played all year, and when we couldn’t run our offense, the game got out of hand quickly,” said Bruins Coach Dave Garwood.

Defensively, King’s Way clamped down on Ryan Lock-man, CHS’s leading scorer, and held him to 10 points (about half his average), “and nobody else could step up to provide a lift.”

Jabal Gilbert scored nine points, Miguel Gomez had five, Ulices Isordia added four, and Blake Walker and Aidan Trummel each chipped in two.

Garwood said Gilbert’s presence inside on offense and defense helped keep the Bruins in the game — until Gilbert was limited in the fourth quarter by cramping.

For the game, the Bruins tallied two 3-pointers and made 7-of-19 free throws.

The Knights, led by 6-8 Kienan Walter’s 22 points (7 in the fourth quarter), knocked down eight 3-pointers and 10 of 12 from the foul line.

At La Center 63, Columbia 44: The Bruins managed to keep the Jan. 5 Trico game at their tempo for most of the first quarter, which ended in a 14-14 tie.

In the second stanza, shots stopped falling for the Bruins, while the Wildcats reached for another gear.

La Center outscored CHS 17-4 in the second quarter to take a 31-18 lead into the intermission.

The Bruins prevented the Wildcats from running away with the game in the second half, but neither could they close the gap.

“We just don’t have the firepower to come back from that kind of deficit,” Garwood said. Still, “I was pleased with the performance of the team, and thought we did a decent job of keeping the game at our pace, except for a few lapses here and there.”

Ryan Lockman led all scorers with 21 points. Tanner Rabinowitz scored seven, Miguel Gomez had six, Blake Walker added four, Tristan Bond chipped in three, and Sam Rowlen logged two.

Jabal Gilbert, CHS’s second-leading scorer, missed the game because of the flu.

Noted Garwood, “It was our fourth game of six of not having Ryan and Jabal in the game together, which doesn’t help.”