Sumner High hosted the eight-team Wooden Way Round Robin Holiday Tournament Dec. 21 and 22 that saw among others Foster, Spanaway Lake, Cascade Christian, Peninsula and Bonney Lake dropping in to display their considerable hardwood skills.
The Sumner and Bonney Lake boys basketball squads shone brighter than any other teams as they both won their games by fair margins.
Bonney Lake seemed to finally get its offense on track in its first meeting with a run-and-gun Foster squad, as it matched the Bulldogs’ outstanding offensive output basket-for-basket and eventually pulled away, winning 80-74, behind the torrid shooting of senior, guard Ramsey Thoms.
In that first day of the tournament, Thoms poured in 28 points, going 12 for 24 from the floor.
In the second day’s rendezvous against Evergreen High’s Wolverines, Bonney Lake had fallen behind 43-37 by intermission against a speedy and opportunistic Evergreen club that took advantage of some early Panther miscues for a halftime lead.
Bonney Lake used the break to get everyone on the same page and quickly asserted itself in the second phase to enjoy what coach Rob Smith termed its best 16 minutes of basketball to date this season.
By the time the dust cleared in the fast-moving second half, the Panther cagers had scored 51 points to bury Evergreen 88-78 and each of Bonney Lake’s starting five had recorded double figures.
Senior, point guard Nathan Day was the top point-getter with 18. Ever-improving, 6-foot, 6-inch, junior, post Mike Gould was a close second with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Additionally, Mikey Berger, 15, Lawrence Williams, 11, and Thoms, 14, combined for 40 points. The conquest over Evergreen put Bonney Lake at .500 for the season with a 4-4 mark.
Not to be outdone by their Sumner School District neighbor, the Spartans put on a decent show on their home parquet beating Peninsula the first day 75-52 and Centralia the second afternoon 69-55.
Using the point production of Zeb Glissmeyer, Dan DeVries and Nick Fullmer against Peninsula, Sumner sprinted to a 56-40 upper hand after three stanzas of play and the Spartans never looked back as they finished strong to salt away an easy triumph over the Seahawks.
Entering the fray the next day against Centralia, brimming with confidence, the Spartan defense suffocated the Tigers with a stingy brand of first half defense, holding the Tigers to 19 points after the encounter’s first 16 minutes.
Centralia came out with both guns blazing in the second half, putting up 21 points in the third period.
It was to little too late as Glissmeyer and Joey Kendal began to exhibit a presence in the low post combining for 25 points. An inspiring DeVries went wild to spearhead the victorious effort with 24 points as the Spartans sealed the deal for the W to improve their overall mark to 4-3.
