Mac-Hi 3-Pointers Sink Cards

MILTON- FREEWA­TER - McLouglin High School's gym roof leaks. Of that the Waitsburg- Prescott boys basketball team is certain, after a night that the Pioneers rained 11 3-pointers down on the Cardinals. Mac-Hi scored three fewer points in the first half than the Cardinals scored in the entire game as the Pioneers shot down the Cardinals 76-45.

WP jumped out to an early 7-3 lead on the strength of an Owen Lanning lay-up and two Seth Deal jump­ers- one from behind the arc-while employing an aggressive full-court press. Mac-Hi called timeout at the 5:52 mark to set up their press break and never looked back after that.

The Pioneers exploded out of the pause with a 10-0 run that took just over a min­ute and-a-half to complete. Even after WP coach Tavis Crittenden attempted to stem the flood with a timeout of his own at 4:17, Mac-Hi continued the run, scoring 11 more points to just two for WP. With just under a minute remaining in the first quarter, Mac-Hi held a 24-9 advantage.

WP didn't let the score get much farther out of hand the rest of the half, but still trailed going into the locker room 42-23.

The Pioneers hit nine of their 3s in the first two periods-five in the first quarter and four more in the second. Two of the final three Pioneer treys bordered on the ridiculous. Saul Ortiz banked in his third 3 off the glass, and Dylan Shuler hit his only trey from eight feet behind the arc.

"( Mac- Hi) had 28 3-pointers on the year prior to this game," Crittenden noted ruefully. "Then they hit 11 tonight against us. They banked one in, they hit one from deep. They couldn't miss."

"We went to man-to-man in the second quarter to slow it down," Crittenden con­tinued. "In the second half it started to work, but then they changed up and isolated their big man. We knew that would be a problem because we were missing our big guy (Logan Dozier) to­night."

Lanning topped the scoring sheet for the Car­dinals with 16. Deal added 13 as the only other Card in double figures. Chance Le­roue grabbed double-digit rebounds with 10. Lan­ning nearly pulled off the double-double snagging nine rebounds of his own.

The Cardinals were without three of their play­ers Tuesday-Dozier, Nate Bartlow, and the still heal­ing Sterling Eastman. Crit­tenden expects Eastman back for Monday's game against Walla Walla Valley Academy. It will be his first game action in any sport since the WP football semi- final loss to Lind-Ritzville- Sprague.

The loss drops WP to 2-9 on the season.