The Enumclaw High’s boys basketball squad elevated its overall mark to an untarnished 5-0 when it outscored Eastlake High 22-12 in the fourth stanza of its first-round contest in the Bellevue Community College Christmas Classic Saturday evening.
The surging final frame helped the Hornets run away with a 63-51 victory that enabled them to reach the semifinal contest against Bothell High Monday night. The results of that tilt came too late to include here, but the winner of that game then went on to play in the championship clash with the winner of the Inglemoor-Mount Rainier contest to decide the winner of the holiday hoop festival.
While EHS coach Phil Engebretsen said his contingent was a bit rusty until the fourth period of the Eastlake battle, he said they were ready for a tough Bothell crew.
“The clash with Bothell should be a good test for our big junior center Tarren VanTrojen because the Cougars also have a guy that plays in the post in 6-foot, 6-inch Mike Hartvigson, who collected 15 boards against Kennedy to aid in beating the Lancers 57-47,” Engebretsen said.
Eastlake coach Pat Bangasser began to observe a discrepancy between the number of cagers on the two squads’ benches as the game wore on, but to he and his determined group’s credit, the Wolves were able to overcome a 30-27 deficit at intermission to nearly catch up to Enumclaw. At the end of the third quarter, the scoreboard read 41-39.
“Clearly the problem in that fourth quarter was that the Hornets were still playing in waves at 100 mph and we were just plain fatigued,” Bangasser said. “That team will go a long way this season because they have a deep bench and they substitute liberally because they don’t lose all that much when they use different people off the pines.”
While backcourt ace Riley Carel was the Hornets’ top scorer with 18 points, fellow juniors Taylor Myers and Coleman Clyde combined for 30 points – Clyde hitting four three-pointers to heat things up for the Hornets.
The Hornets will put their unblemished South Puget Sound League 3A record on the line at 7 p.m. Tuesday when they host Auburn Mountainview.
Reach John Leggett at jleggett@courierherald.com or at 360-802-8207.
