1/13/18

Both the Women’s and Men’s stories are below and at the bottom a full picture gallery.

Women’s Game 

LC 74, Centralia 47

(Centralia, WA) The lady Blazers ran into 2 big issues early in this game and they were a hot shooting Red Devils squad while dealing with their own cold shooting. LC sprinted out to a 27-7 lead after the 1st quarter and that would prove to be more of enough cushion for the rest of the game.

Kenya Lorton an Adna graduate came back to haunt the Blazers hitting 6 3-balls and finished with a game high 20 for the Red Devils. Tywanna Abbott and Shana Dotson also finished in double figures for LC.

The Blazers did bounce back in the 2nd quarter outscoring the Devils 18-15 but another late 3 in the half set up by a questionable call extended the LC lead from 14 to 17 and took a bit of the wind out of the shift in momentum.

LC again exploded in the 3rd and much like the 1st quarter got rolling early and added to their lead. Centralia actually outscored LC a 2nd time in the 4th quarter but just 10-9 and was too little too late.

For Centralia Majesty Claybrooks had a big game off the bench leading the Blazers with 13 points, 8 rebounds, 2 blocks and an assist. This effort also earned our Awards West Printwares Blazer Player of the Game.

Centralia’s Kayla Howard added 8 while Devannie Kleemeyer, Kylie Smith and Jamie Connolly all chipped in with 6 points. The Blazers dropped to 0-2 in NWAC Western Division play and 7-8 overall. LC is now 1-0 and 11-6.

Scoring:

Centralia: Claybrooks 13, Howard 8, Kleemeyer 6, Smith 6, Connally 6, Elwood 5, Lancaster 3

LC: Lorton 20, Abbptt 18, Dotson 12, Niles 7, Daugherty 6, Wheeler 6, Crews 3, Howard 2

Men’s Game 

LC 79, Centralia 66

(Centralia, WA) This was a frustrating loss for the Blazers who battled hard with the Red Devils all through the 1st half and had the lead as late as 8 minutes left to play in the game and tied at 56 with 6 minutes to go. A combination of cold outside shooting, missed free throws and more than their share of questionable calls by the men in stripes who as erratic as the Blazers 3-point shooting ended in the loss to Lower Columbia.

In the 1st half both teams went back and forth but in the end LC held a 3-point advantage. Austin Curry led the Blazers in the 1st half with 11 while Tyler Meadows came off the bench scoring all 10 of his game points in the 1st half helping Centralia to bust out of an offensive slump and not allow LC to run off with a big lead.

In the 2nd half it was the Blazers making a run to begin with and quickly overtook the Devils and piled up as much as a 5 point lead at times. Lead the charge was Marqus Gilson who played from off the bench. Gilson can hit from behind the arc but was only 1-5 and decided to attack and scored 16 of his game high 21 in the 2nd half.

Collin Prangley also chipped in the 2nd half  with 6 of his 9. But LC’s Brandon Cotton got hot from the outside and finished the game with 29. Wesley Gilbert helped in the paint with 16.

In the final 6 minutes some inopportune and questionable calls took away a lot of the Blazer momentum but so did cold shooting. Centralia was 1-7 from behind the 3-point line in the 2nd half and although they were 19-26 from the line several missed front ends of 1-1’s didn’t help their cause late.

This says it all in how this game was lost and that was in the final 6 minutes the Blazers were outscored 23-10. The Blazers drop to 1-1 in the NWAC Western Division and 5-12 overall while LC improves to 2-0 and 10-6. Our Awards West Printwares Blazer Player of the Game went to Marqus Gilson who finished with 21 points, 7 rebounds and 2 blocks.

Scoring:

Centralia: Gilson 21, Curry 14, Meadows 10, Prangley 9, Donkor 6, Clarke 3, Filley 3

LC: Cotton 29, Gilbert 16, Sweet 11, Ford 8, Hall 6, Scott 5, Ali 3, Dennis 1

Both Games Photo Gallery