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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JANuARY 30, 2019
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Gary Henley | Sports Reporter
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SEASIDE TOPS BANKS
IN COWAPA SHOWDOWN
Gulls win state
championship preview
By GARY HENLEY
The Daily Astorian
EASIDE — Cowapa League boys
basketball, Banks vs. Seaside.
It’s roughly the Oregon high
school hoops equivalent of the colle-
giate Atlantic Coast Conference, and
North Carolina vs. Duke.
Tuesday night’s battle by the ocean
went to Seaside, which rallied from an
early eight-point deficit for a 60-51 win
at the Gulls’ Nest.
The victory puts Seaside back atop
the Cowapa standings, but before the
Gulls get comfortable in the No. 1 spot,
Tuesday’s contest was just the first of
three meetings between Banks and Sea-
side. The Braves will host the league
season finale Feb. 14, and — odds are
— both teams will be there, March 9
at Forest Grove High School, to decide
another state championship in another
sport.
“We’ll see them down the road
again,” said Seaside coach Bill Wester-
holm, whose team improves to 16-2
overall, 4-0 in the Cowapa League.
“We’ll see them in the playoffs. Should
be some exciting games.”
But at this point, there are no other
candidates. The Braves and the Gulls
are the class of Class 4A basketball.
Tuesday’s game had all the appearances
of a state championship preview.
Banks brought an 18-game win streak
into the game, while the Gulls had won
12 in a row, including a victory over
defending 5A state champion Thurston.
Banks was (and still is) rated No. 1
in the OSAA RPI poll, and Seaside is
ranked No. 1 in the 4A coaches poll.
So something had to give, and it
turned out to be the Braves.
Banks couldn’t handle the Gulls’
pressure defense, and had eight turn-
overs in the first half.
Combined with numerous missed
shots from close range, the Braves let
their 15-7 lead turn into a 16-15 deficit
late in the first quarter, following bas-
kets by Seaside’s Chase Januik, Ryan
Hague and Brayden Johnson.
A 9-2 run by the Gulls midway
through the second quarter gave Sea-
side a 34-27 advantage, but the Braves
closed the first half on an 8-3 run of
their own, even taking a brief lead.
Seaside’s final three points of the
half came the dramatic way, with Januik
sinking a shot at the buzzer from just
beyond the midcourt line.
Still, “We didn’t finish the half very
well,” said Seaside coach Bill Wester-
holm. “We should have been up six or
S
SCOREBOARD
PREP SPORTS SCHEDULE
TODAY
Girls basketball — Ilwaco at Ocosta, 7 p.m.
Wrestling — Astoria at Seaside, 5 p.m.
THURSDAY
Girls basketball — Knappa at City Christian,
6:30 p.m.
Boys basketball — Knappa at City Christian,
7:30 p.m.; Ocosta at Ilwaco, 7 p.m.
BOYS BASKETBALL
Seaside 60, Banks 51
BAN (51): Dakota Bunn 13, Vandehey 10, Gobel
9, Slifka 7, Evans 5, Exline 3, Markham 2, Klein 2,
Cameron, Hiestand.
SEA (60): Ryan Hague 20, Januik 16, Wester-
holm 10, Be.Johnson 6, Br.Johnson 5, Thomp-
son 3, Meyer.
Banks
17
18
12
4 — 51
Seaside
16
21
12
11 — 60
JV: Seaside 58, Banks 41
GIRLS BASKETBALL
Banks 50, Seaside 37
BAN (50): Aspen Slifka 24, Streblow 4, Hailey 4,
Belden 3, Toledo 3, Shook 3, Buliga 2, Hernan-
dez 2, Johnson 2, Kind 2, Merritt 1.
SEA (37): Morgan Blodgett 14, Taylor 6, Gar-
hofer 6, Kiser 6, Douglas 3, Turner 2, McFadden,
Goin, Zagata, Angulo.
Banks
9
18
6
17 — 50
Seaside
8
6
9
14 — 37
Warrenton 72, Taft 17
WAR (72): Claire Bussert 31, Diego 12, Alvarez 9,
Ramsey 9, Miethe 6, Kapua 4, A.Heyen 1.
Warrenton
21
21
17
13 — 72
Taft
4
9
0
4 — 17
Faith Bible 69, Knappa 36
FB (69): Izzy Steerman 32, Lohman 22, Bolton
9, Goodloe 6.
KNA (36): Sophia Carlson 15, Miller 6, Diet-
richs 6, McCall 4, Weaver 3, Corcoran 2, Walter,
Tischer.
Faith Bible
22
18
12
17 — 69
Knappa
11
8
9
8 — 36
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Payton Westerholm drives to the basket for Seaside.
eight. Instead we had two turnovers in
a row and they scored on both to go
up one, then Chase hits the half-court
shot.”
And the Braves had one more rally in
their system, in the third period.
A jump-hook by Blake Gobel and
a 3-pointer by Jarred Evans had the
Braves in front, 44-43, but that would
be their final lead.
Januik hit two free throws and scored
on a short jumper over the 6-foot-7
Gobel, and Hague converted an offen-
sive rebound for a 49-44 lead.
Banks was within 49-47 at the end
of the third quarter, but the Gulls scored
the first five points of the fourth, and
that was enough for the win.
Once Seaside had built a 51-47 lead
with four minutes remaining, the Gulls
simply played keep-away with the ball,
and allowed the Braves to score just
four points in the final period.
“The kids have been doing this since
they were in the fourth grade,” coach
Westerholm said. “They see they have
a lead, and they start milking the clock.
That has nothing to do with me. With
just under four minutes left, we got
patient and took about a minute off the
clock.
“We knew they had to foul, so we
got to the free throw line, and shot free
throws pretty well in the fourth quarter.”
Seaside made just one field goal in
the fourth period, and did the rest from
the free throw line, making 9-of-14 to
finish the game 17-for-24 at the line, to
Banks’ 4-for-9.
Hague led Seaside with 20 points,
followed by Januik with 16 and Payton
Westerholm with 10.
Dakota Bunn had 13 for the Braves.
Gobel finished with nine, but the big
senior post made just one field goal
through three quarters, thanks in part to
a tough defense from Seaside’s Duncan
Thompson.
“Duncan is kind of an unsung hero,”
Westerholm said. “He only had three
points tonight, but we always give him
the opportunity to guard the 6-7 or 6-8
kid for the other team. And he’s a work-
horse. The success we’ve had comes
down to our little tiny post player.”
The coach said there were plenty of
accolades to go around.
“I was very proud of the kids, the way
they played full court,” he said. “We
went from baseline to baseline. We’ve
been in kind of a funk the last week and
a half. We didn’t play great tonight, and
we have a lot of room for improvement.
“We’ll have to improve a lot if we
want to win a league championship. We
have to play at Banks, and we have to
take care of Valley Catholic here.”
Overall, “I was proud of our effort,”
Westerholm said. “We ran a couple
plays for Ryan to start the game, and he
made them.
“The last game, Beau (Johnson) goes
for 18, and tonight Ryan goes for 20.
Chase is always going to have 14 to 20
points, and Payton can get his points.
They tried to slow us down with that
zone, so we got patient.
“And we got them out of sync a lit-
tle,” he said of the Braves. “If you go
half-court with those guys, they’re
going to ‘Gobel’ you to death.”
Instead, the Gulls “Chased” and
“Hagued” the Braves right out of the
gym.
HOOPS ROUNDUP
Slifka helps Banks slip past Seaside girls
kanie, which hosts the Warriors
in another crucial league contest
Friday.
The Daily Astorian
The Seaside Lady Gulls had
plenty of looks at their favorite
shot, firing up 24 3-pointers — but
only seven went in, and that wasn’t
enough to stay with the Banks
Braves in a Cowapa League girls
basketball game Tuesday night.
Banks led from start to finish in a
50-37 win over the Gulls, who oth-
erwise played a good game against
the No. 2-ranked Braves.
“I thought our kids played pretty
well,” said Seaside coach Mike
Hawes, “though Banks kept their
foot off the throttle somewhat, with
no full court press, which we’ll see
(Friday) against Astoria.”
Morgan Blodgett had 14 points
and 10 rebounds to lead Seaside,
which had 38 rebounds total.
The Gulls simply couldn’t keep
pace with the Braves’ Aspen Slifka,
who led all scorers with 24 points.
“We still have turnover spurts
where Aspen said ‘thank you very
much’ and then laid it in,” Hawes
said. “Without the turnovers (20) we
were pretty even in the half court,
but dang if they don’t count them.”
Taft upsets Warrenton
boys for second time
The No. 19-ranked Warren-
Warriors cage
the Tigers, 72-17
Warrenton jumped out to a 17-0
lead Tuesday night in a Coastal
Range League girls basketball game
at Taft.
And the 17 points would equal
Taft’s total for the entire game, as
the Warriors left Lincoln City with
an easy 72-17 win over the Tigers.
Warrenton’s Claire Bussert
scored 31 points in 20 minutes
of playing time, and Sagi Diego
chipped in a career-high 12 points
for the Warriors, who play Friday at
Clatskanie.
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Lilli Taylor, center, launches a shot
for Seaside.
Knappa boys keep pace
with first-place Knights
ton Warriors slipped below .500
mark in league play, following a
47-33 loss Tuesday night at Taft in
a Coastal Range League boys bas-
ketball game.
It was just the second win in
league play for the Tigers (2-7), both
victories over the Warriors.
Warrenton falls to 4-5 in league,
two-and-a-half games behind Clats-
With second place in the North-
west League standings locked up,
the Knappa boys basketball team
still has an outside chance at catch-
ing first-place Columbia Christian.
The Loggers remained within
a game-and-a-half of the Knights
following a 66-43 win Tuesday
over Faith Bible on Senior Night at
Knappa.
An upstart Falcons’ team — now
2-10 in league — trailed just 20-17
at halftime, before the Loggers out-
scored Faith Bible 46-26 over the
final two quarters.
Knappa plays Thursday at City
Christian, followed by a big show-
down Saturday at Columbia Chris-
tian. The two teams will also play
a third time in the league playoffs,
to decide the league’s No. 1 seed to
state.
Faith Bible defeats
Knappa girls, 69-36
The Knappa girls basketball
team came up short on Senior Night
in front of their home fans Tuesday,
as Faith Bible scored a 69-36 North-
west League win over the Loggers.
Kourtney Tischer and Jordan
Walter were the only two seniors in
uniform for Knappa, with Katie Pat-
terson still sidelined by an injury.
Faith Bible’s Izzy Steerman stole
the show for the Falcons, as the
sophomore scored a game-high 32
points. Freshman teammate Ashley
Lohman added 22.
Sophia Carlson led the Loggers
with 15 points and three steals, and
Aiko Miller added six points, five
steals and four boards.
Knappa plays Thursday at City
Christian.