SEQUIM — Same game, opposite result.
The Sequim boys basketball team topped Port Townsend 39-36 on Friday, claiming an offensively challenged Olympic League affair that was eerily similar to last year’s game at Rick Kaps Gymnasium.
Yet rather than the Wolves’ desperation 3-point try clanging off the rim as time expired — as was the case in Port Townsend’s 35-33 win in 2008 — it was the Redskins’ Evan O’Brien who just missed a long-range bomb at the buzzer.
Wolves senior Michael Dunning scored 12 points, hitting 3-of-5 three-point attempts, John Textor added 10 points and Frank Catelli hauled in 12 rebounds as Sequim overcame a Redskins team still looking for its first league win.
“It’s a big win,” Sequim coach Greg Glasser said. “Every league game you play against the 1As and 2As is big.
“There’s only two berths to state [in the 2A West Central District] this year, and you don’t want to come in as the third seed.”
Weak shooting
Neither team shot the ball well on Friday.
Sequim (2-1 in league, 2-2 overall) hit just 14-of-44 shots from the field and 7-of-16 free throws.
The Redskins (0-3, 1-4) struggled even more, making only 14 of its 57 field goal attempts.
That included a 1-for-11 fourth quarter that saw the Sequim defense limit Port Townsend to four points.
“We didn’t really change anything [defensively],” Dunning said of the fourth quarter.
“We just knew what we had to do, and everybody stepped up and locked down their man.”
Dunning scored 8 of his 12 points during a 13-10 Sequim third quarter.
The 6-foot shooting guard nailed back-to-back three-pointers early in the second half, ending a 13-0 Port Townsend run between the second and third quarters that gave it a 24-17 lead.
Dunning tied the game at 28 a few minutes later after Corbin Webb found him all alone on a back door cut.
It was one of six assists for Webb on the night.
“I challenged [Dunning] in the second quarter,” Glasser said. “I told him he needed to come off screens looking.
“He made the adjustment in the third quarter.”
Pick and roll play
Port Townsend took the lead three more times, the last on a pick and roll play from Seiji Thielk to Jacob DeBerry for 34-33 edge with 5:30 left in the game.
It was Port Townsend’s last field goal of the game.
DeBerry finished with 8 points, while Eric Thomas had nine and O’Brien a game-high 14.
“We weren’t getting into sets in the fourth,” Port Townsend coach John ÂStroeder said. “I think we were a little fatigued and missed some shots that should have went down.
“You’ve got to give them credit though. [The Wolves] are a good, scrappy team.”
Sequim went back ahead 35-34 on a pair of free throws from Webb.
After the teams exchanged several misses, Sequim executed a back-door curl out of a timeout that resulted in a layup for Textor and a 37-34 lead with 2:15 to go.
Missed free throws from the Wolves — 5-of-11 from the charity stripe in the fourth — left the door open for Port Townsend
O’Brien even got a good look at a game-tying three-pointer in the final moments, but his shot bounced off back rim to preserve Sequim’s victory.
“It was a good win for us, but there’s also a lot we can improve on,” Dunning said.
“A win is good. We’ll take them as we get them.
“But hopefully our shots will start falling later in the season.”
Sequim 39, Port Townsend 36
Port Townsend 8 14 10 4 — 36
Sequim 6 11 13 9 — 39
Individual Scoring
Port Townsend (36)
Thomas 9, Robinson 5, O’Brien 14, DeBerry 8.
Sequim (39)
Dunning 12, Webb 4, Camporini 5, Textor 10, Oliver 3, F. Catelli 5.
Girls Basketball Port Townsend 55, Sequim 43
SEQUIM — Brooke Little picked a good time to have a breakout game.
The Port Townsend senior scored 10 of her team-high 14 points in the fourth quarter to boost the Redskins (1-2, 1-4) to a sorely needed victory Friday night.
“This was huge for us in two ways,” Port Townsend coach Randy Maag said.
“One, it was against a 2A, and two, we were 0-4. We really needed to play well.”
Little’s scoring outburst, along with Bella Fox’s 14 points, also helped extend the Sequim girls’ losing streak to 27 games.
“That was our best game so far,” said Little, who knocked down 3-of-4 field goals attempts and 4-of-4 free throws in the fourth.
“We weren’t playing as a team [earlier in the season], but we were playing as a team tonight.
“We weren’t panicked at all. We just played our game.”
Sequim (0-3, 0-5) was just five points down at 47-42 with 2:30 to go.
Little then knocked down a pair of free throws followed by a 12-foot jump shot, and the Wolves got no closer than seven the rest of the way.
“We’ve been kind of waiting on her,” Maag said of Little. “She’s been an absolute scoring machine on our JV team the last couple of years.
“That was not an aberration. This is something she can do on a nightly basis.”
Other scorers
Kerri Evalt added six points and 10 rebounds for the Redskins, while Caroline Dowdle had eight points and Kiley Maag seven.
It was enough to overcome a frenetic effort from the Wolves, led by guards Lea Hopson (17 points) and Rylleigh Zbaraschuk (12).
“I’m pretty impressed with my girls tonight,” first-year Sequim coach Stephanie Lewis said.
“The past couple of games we haven’t been running the ball much up and down the court. But tonight we were back to normal.
“Free throws down the stretch is kind of what got us.”
Port Townsend 55, Sequim 43
Port Townsend 16 10 12 17 — 55
Sequim 8 16 9 10 — 43
Individual Scoring
Port Townsend (55)
Evalt 6, Russell 4, Dowdle 8, Little 14, Barnett 2, Fox 14, Maag 7.
Sequim (43)
Balkan 2, Hopson 17, Soha 5, Ruiz 1, Wiker 2, Harrison 2, Ignani 2, Zbaraschuk 12.