In
the first half of their opening round game at the Class 2A state
tournament, King’s struggled both offensively and defensively.
They shot just 38.1 percent (8 of 21) from the field, and were allowing
Ridgefield’s Troy Bleth to do pretty much whatever he wanted to.
At halftime, King’s coach Marv Morris told his squad that they were
playing rather so-so, to say the least.
“I told them that we were playing very poorly offensively, but we should
still be able to play defense,” Morris said.
The Knights responded to their coach’s criticism of their first half
play, and roared back with a huge second half to oust the Spudders 40-29
at the Yakima Valley SunDome.
Bleth, who finished with 14 points on 7 of 11 shooting in the first
half, scored only four points on 1 of 5 shooting in the second half
before fouling out.
“They had a very hard time with our defense in the second half,” Morris
noted.
On the other hand, after trailing 19-18 at halftime, the Knights’
offense suddenly appeared, outscoring Ridgefield 11-4 to in the third
quarter and 11-6 in the final frame.
Six-foot-8 Charlie Enquist had his way underneath the basket for most of
the game, finishing with 19 points on 9-of-15 shooting and 12 rebounds
to lead the Knights.
“We’ve got a lot of kids who have never been here before,” Morris added.
“But now they’ve got one game under their belt, and we should be fine
now.”
King’s will now face either Nooksack Valley, whom they defeated 43-34 in
district play, or Forks in the quarterfinals at 5:30 p.m. Thursday.
Besides Enquist and Bleth, no other player scored in double figures in
the game.
Jared Madrazo added eight points for the Knights, and Carson Bowlin had
seven.
Dwayne Farr had six points for Ridgefield, which falls to 14-10 and will
face the loser of Nooksack Valley and Forks at 10:30 a.m. Thursday.
