River Hawks split with Warriors
Jan. 22—WHEATLAND — The Easton Valley varsity basketball teams had two very different endings on Friday night, traveling to Wheatland to take on Calamus-Wheatland in Tri-Rivers Conference action.
For the No. 9 ranked boys team took home a dominant 60-32 victory over the Warriors.
Easton Valley kept the Warriors off the board completely for the first six minutes of the game before they hit an outside shot. A late quarter three from Cayden Deardorff put the River Hawks up 16-5 at the quarter. Deardorff has been the one of the leading scorers all year, averaging 14.8 points per game.
The score was 33-10 by halftime.
The River Hawks worked a slow offense and found a lot of points off short jumpers from Deardorff in the paint. They also scored off of plenty of offensive putbacks from the likes of Dylon Dyson and Charlie Sandholt. Dyson leads the team in offensive rebounds, averaging nearly five per game this season.
The River Hawks pushed the lead up to over 30 by the time the fourth quarter was dwindling down, sending in some of the bench players to finish off the night.
Starting the night off, the varsity girls couldn't handle the conference-leading Warriors and fell to Cal-Wheat 58-19, never finding any offense to get going.
"I tell them I've seen you in practice, you've put the work in," head coach Trae Johnson said. "I tell them to go prove that. We're not the team that was just out there."
The River Hawks never put up more than single digits in a quarter, with Cal-Wheat holding them to just three points through the first eight minutes. That left the River Hawks trailing 14-3.
Even out of the gate in the second half the River Hawks were stalled on scoring until almost halfway through when Jaysie Wood drained a three-point shot. Wood also hit a free throw, and those four points were all the River Hawks could push across the board in the third quarter.
Easton Valley took a number of outside shots, including a three banked in by Kaitlyn Kuhl to end the game, but many didn't fall.
Their attempts to drive often were knocked out of their hands before they got to the rim.
"Nobody wants it," Johnson said. "I don't know if we overthink it, or if they don't want to be the one to miss or take that shot, it just gets out of whack and then we force up a shot. When things aren't rolling right it seems really hard for them to overcome."
Calamus-Wheatland (12-4) hasn't lost a Tri-Rivers East Conference game yet this season. They easily got the ball into their post players on Friday and Easton Valley had no answers for defense on the block.
"They just turned and shot," Johnson said. "I think we don't believe and I'm trying to get them to believe they can do it. If you don't believe it, you're never going to achieve it."
Johnson is in his first year at the helm of the program. With four wins on the season, he knows they're not necessarily going for an impressive record this season. He just wants to see positive movement forward.
"I keep preaching, get one percent better," Johnson said. "Pick something and keep working. We're not going to make and fix all of this overnight. But if we keep as a group and as individuals making one percent improvements all year each game and each practice, it's going to add up at the end. You're going to see the difference.
"By the end of the year I want them to be together and play like a family. I want them to believe in one another."
The Easton Valley girls (4-10) and boys (12-2) will both return home on Monday night, welcoming Marquette Catholic to their home court in Miles.
