1/11/17
River Ridge 78, Renton 69
(Lacey, WA) The River Ridge Hawks looked like they had turned around their season in late December when they beat crosstown rival North Thurston by 1 in the Rams Holiday Invitational and reeled off 3 straight wins. Then this past Monday they laid an egg to say the least at Steilacoom and the Sentinels handled the Hawks 66-48. RR Heasd Coach John Barbee was so teed off with the effort that he cancelled practice on Tuesday and told his team “if that’s how you’re gonna play there’s no point in practice.”
Barbee was then surprised and pleased that his team decided on their own their effort on Monday was not acceptable and got together on their own and practiced on Tuesday. The effort and re-focus paid off big time Wednesday night as they knocked off 1st place Renton for the 2nd time this season. The Hawks jumped out strong with a 20-12 lead after the 1st 8 minutes and extended that lead to 49-34 at the half.
RR was led by Trey Dorfner’s 14 1st half points but the scoring was well spread out as a total of 7 different players would score including DeNero Washington and Kolton Knox who combined for 14 points off the bench while starting big guys Kelle Sanders, Josh Kennedy and Jordan Skipper-Brown knocked down a total 18 points. Alex Coleman would hit the only 3 point shot in the game for the Hawks in the 1st quarter.
Renton would not give in and came back strong in the 3rd quarter trimming 9 points off the deficit to pull within 6 after 3 61-55. Dabreon Waters-Mitchell scored 13 of his game high 22 in the 2nd half but the Indians scoring was also spread out with 8 different players scoring. Taheem Jones and Damarco Williams were big off the bench for 17 to help close the gap. The Indians would actually take the lead at the 4:33 mark of the 5th quarter when Edward Barquet put one in from the paint to go up 67-65.
The Hawks Kelle Sanders answered immediately to tie the game at 67. The Hawks then went on an 11-2 run to finish the game pulling away for the critical win. The 6’7 Josh Kennedy made the play of the game during this run when he stole the ball just over half court and took off the other but got too far under the hoop when he reached back and somehow between defender’s arms was able to bank the shot in which won our ProActive Physical Therapy Play of the Game.
With the win the Hawks swept Renton and handed the Indians their 2nd league loss who drop to 7-2 but hold on to 1st place over the Hawks by a half game. Ridge improves to 6-2 in SPSL 2A play and 10-4 overall. Our Tommy Lowe of Greene Realty Players of the Game went to the Hawks’ Kelle Sanders and Renton’s Dabreon Waters-Mitchell.
Scoring
River Ridge: Trey Dorfner 18, Josh Kennedy 17, DeNero Washington 14, Kelle Sanders 12, Jordan Skipper-Brown 8, Kolton Knox 6, Alex Coleman 3
Renton: Dabreon Waters-Mitchell 22, Taheem Jones 9, Damarco Williams 8, Malik Coats 8, Jaden Locke 7, Edward Barquet 6, Mussie Teclemariam 3, Jaloni Garner 2
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