DECEMBER 24, 2021, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A27
McNary gets blown out by Crescent Valley
M C N AR Y
HOOPS
McNary guard Tyler Cleveland gets past a defender with a hesitation move.
BY MATT RAWLINGS
Of the Keizertimes
After an impressive first quarter,
the McNary boys' basketball quad got
boat-raced by Crescent Valley for the
remainder of the contest.
The Celtics held a 12-8 advantage
after eight minutes of play, but were
outscored by the Raiders 52-20 in the
final three quarters as Crescent Valley
defeated McNary 60-32 in the second
day of the Capitol City Classic on
Monday, Dec. 20.
It was the least amount of points
McNary has scored since the 2012-13
season.
McNary was without two of their
best players in senior guards Gunner
Smedema and Evan Cornell, who
missed the game due to injury. Even
with being undermanned, McNary
head coach Ryan Kirch didn't make
any excuses for the poor play he saw
from his team.
“I don't quite know where to begin.
We came out with the intention to play
basketball like we normally know how
to do, but after about several minutes,
we looked like we have never played
before, in every facet. I really don't
have any answers,” Kirch said. “Being
outmanned is one thing, but it was cer-
tainly much more than that.”
McNary jumped out to a 6-0 in the
Photo by MATT RAWLINGS of Keizertimes
first quarter thanks to a deep triple
from Jando Gonzalez and a jump hook
by Carson Long. Crescent Valley came
back to cut the lead to two later in the
period, but a tough hoop by Jabol
Balos put the Celtics up by four at the
end of the period.
The Celtics however, suffered a
number of defensive lapses in the fol-
lowing quarter and struggled to get
good looks on the offensive end, allow-
ing Crescent Valley to outscore them
27-4 before halftime.
The Celtics stepped up their defen-
sive effort to begin the second half,
but still couldn't muster any offensive
momentum. McNary trailed by as
much as 33 in the second half before
eventually suffering a 28-point defeat.
When asked if there were any pos-
itive takeaways from the game, Kirch
simply replied “No.”
“We just need to decide whether or
not we want to play. You're never upset
with losing, but our mental engage-
ment with everything we do is poor. It's
like looking at blank faces. We need to
challenge guys on whether they want to
be here or not. We kind of have to start
from ground zero. I'm not sure why we
are at this point, but we are,” Kirch said.
We just need to figure it out.”
McNary returns home on Tuesday,
Dec. 28 to host Parkrose at 7 p.m.