Clarkston Bantams experience highs and lows of Avista Tournament

Dec. 29—For the Clarkston faithful in attendance Thursday at the 11th annual Avista Holiday Tournament at the P1FCU Activity Center, there were highs and lows.

The highs came first when the Bantam girls downed the Richland Bombers 60-47. The lows capped off Day 1 of the tournament with a 76-34 setback for the Clarkston boys against the Rocky Mountain Grizzlies of Meridian.

The girls' win sends them to today's winner bracket semifinal at 7:30 p.m. against the Downey Vikings (Calif.), who beat Lapwai on Thursday. The boys will also face Downey, which lost to the Lapwai boys Thursday in the first round.

"I think we just got mentally beat down," Clarkston boys coach Justin Jones said. "And we need to learn how to get over that. ... For our program, this is a little bit of new territory for us. And we're learning how to navigate through that."

Here's how Thursday's games played out:

Girls come back in second half

Both Richland (4-2) and Clarkston (7-0) deployed nearly identical defenses to start the game. They began trying to use full-court traps in an effort to create more possessions to build an early lead.

The Bombers' full-court pressure proved to be more effective in the first half. They forced the Bantams to commit several key turnovers and limited Clarkston's opportunities on offense.

For Richland's offense, the Bombers were getting better looks from 3-point range, were winning most rebound battles and getting to the line more frequently.

But the Bantams didn't let the game get out of hand early and trailed just 19-15 after the first quarter, eventually tying the contest 28-28 going into halftime.

Then, Clarkston adjusted.

The Bantams pulled their trap defense back to halfcourt, swarming whoever was bringing the ball up as soon as they crossed the midline. Suddenly, it was Clarkston who ended up forcing turnovers and getting to the free-throw line. The Bantams outscored Richland 18-2 in the third quarter — and they did it in style.

Jaelyn McCormack-Marks scored on a reverse layup early in the third quarter with her back to the basket. That gave Clarkston a 30-28 lead, which it never gave up.

"We really did try a lot of different things in the second half," Clarkston coach Debbie Sobotta said. "Every time (Richland) called a timeout, we just switched it up. Just tried to keep them off guard — for the most part it worked for us."

Alahondra Perez led the Bantams with 11 points to go with six rebounds and three assists. Preslee Dempsey was second on the team with nine points, all coming from 3-pointers.

Boys suffer tough loss

Clarkston (4-4) was down three players coming into Thursday's game against Rocky Mountain (3-5).

For the first eight minutes of regulation, that didn't seem to matter.

The Bantams and the Grizzlies were knotted up 12-12 after the first quarter and Jason Rinard accounted for eight of those points, six of them coming from 3-point range.

Rocky Mountain's advantage became apparent in the second. It didn't allow a field goal to Clarkston until 1:21 remained in the first half, which was also scored by Rinard, and held the Bantams to just four points in the frame while putting up 20.

The Grizzlies were able to take advantage of Clarkston's collapse defense and kicked out to the shooters from beyond the arc on several drives in the paint — often to an open player on one of the corners.

The 32-16 halftime disadvantage got worse for the Bantams after the intermission.

Rocky Mountain's 3-point shooting refused to cool, Clarkston's attacks in the post were rebuffed and, as is the case on some nights, open looks just weren't falling through the net.

This didn't stop the Bantams from continuing to fight. In a game where it would be easy to just hang their heads and give up, they continued to be vocal and aggressive in the fourth quarter, despite their 61-22 deficit going into it.

The Bantams will now turn toward today's win-or-go-home game against Downey.

"It doesn't get any easier," Jones said. "(Downey) is going to play with a lot of energy. And they're going to be very fast. What a great challenge for us, as a relatively young team, to see how we bounce back from not a great performance for three quarters. What I challenged them with as we left the locker room is we've got to uphold the alumni of this program close to our hearts. We have to be able to represent them much better than what we did."

Rinard led Clarkston with 10 points in the loss.

Players of the night

Five of the 12 Bantam girls to see playing time Thursday registered eight or more points. Jaelyn McCormack-Marks, Kendall Wallace, Dempsey, Ryann Combs and Perez all reached that mark.

Perez added six rebounds and three assists to her 11 and McCormack-Marks added six assists and five rebounds to her eight points.

Tanner Sweney led the Grizzlies with 15 points on 6-for-13 shooting.

GIRLS

RICHLAND (4-2)

Kylee Kukes 2 0-0 5, Kaylani Reyes 0 0-0 0, Jazmyn Soldat 2 0-1 6, Ryanne Stottlemyre 0 0-0 0, Kaya Chang 1 3-4 6, Macie Milum 1 3-4 6, Maya Rowe 3 4-4 10, Mackenzie Shulz 7 3-8 17. Totals 16 10-19 47.

CLARKSTON (7-0)

Jaelyn McCormack-Marks 3 1-1 8, Jordan McCormack-Marks 0 0-0 0, Kendall Wallace 4 0-0 8, Olivia Gustafson 0 0-0 0, Preslee Dempsey 3 1-3 9, Ryann Combs 4 0-0 8, Aneysa Judy 1 0-0 2, Eloise Teasley 2 2-6 6, Ella Leavitt 2 1-5 5, Alahondra Perez 5 0-1 11, Joey Miller 0 0-0 0, Lexi Villavicencio 1 0-0 3. Totals 25 5-16 60

Richland 19 9 2 17—47

Clarkston 15 13 18 14—60

3-point goals — Soldat 2, Kukes, Chang, Milum, Dempsey 2, Ja. McCormack-Marks, Perez, Villavicencio.

BOYS

ROCKY MOUNTAIN (3-5)

Carson Adams 1 0-0 2, Braxton Hansen 5 0-0 13, Carson O'Very 3 0-0 6, Machaon Savedra 2 0-0 5, Zach Seeger 3 1-1 9, Josh Lunt 2 0-0 6, Wesley Thompson 1 0-0 2, Kaiden Turner 4 1-1 11, Carter Coppeiters 1 0-0 2, Tanner Sweeney 6 1-1 15, Brock Stevens 2 0-0 5. Totals 30 3-3 76.

CLARKSTON (4-4)

Isaiah Woods 2 2-2 6, Marcisio Noriega 0 0-0 0, Logan Hornby 1 0-0 3, Niko Ah Hi 0 0-0 0, Carter Steinwand 4 0-0 8, Jason Rinard 4 0-0 10, Ian Moore 2 1-2 5. Totals 13 3-4 34.

Rocky Mountain 12 20 29 15—76

Clarkston 12 4 6 12—34

3-point goals — Hansen 3, Seeger 2, Lunt 2, Turner 2, Sweeney 2, Savedra, Stevens, Woods 2, Rinard 2, Hornby.

Kowatsch can be contacted at 208-848-2268, tkowatsch@lmtribune.com or on Twitter @Teren_Kowatsch.