Ridgefield’s junior guard Cole Chester led the way to a 54-30 win over the Hockinson Hawks on Thursday, Jan. 19, as he secured 15 points from behind the three-point arc.
The Spudders kept the lead throughout the home game with a dominant defense that made the Hawks go deep into the shot clock on almost all of their possessions.
Ridgefield’s defense turned into a high percentage offense as they racked up 11 three-pointers. The last match-up between the two teams saw Ridgefield win 73-54 in mid-December.
Ridgefield’s Sid Bryant held his own in the paint with multiple blocks. Bryant also showed great rebounding ability throughout the game to go along with his interior abilities. He finished with 13 points as he often found himself scoring on under the basket reverse lay-ins.
Colten Castro had a great performance as well as he secured 14 points, the second highest of the night.
“This was Colten Castro’s last game for us so it’s going to be tough moving forward to find baskets, but other guys got to step up,” Ridgefield’s Head Coach Jason Buffum said.
The Hockinson Hawks could be a team to lookout for in the future. Their varsity roster is filled with eight juniors and only four seniors. Only two juniors remain on their junior varsity roster. Senior point guard Igor Povazhniuk led the Hawks with 10 points.
“We’re playing a bunch of young guys, that’s part of the challenge,” Hockinson’s head coach Scott Weaver said. “The kids always play hard, we’re just not putting the ball in the basket for some reason right now. We will get back to skill work, back to practice and it’s a long journey.”
Behind Povazhniuk’s 10 points was fellow senior guard Logan Wall who added eight points toward the Hawks’ game total of 30. Following the game, Hockinson fell to 2-9 in league play in a stacked 2A Greater St. Helens League headlined by Longview’s Mark Morris and R.A. Long squads.
Ridgefield sat behind Mark Morris, R.A. Long, and Woodland in league standings but the coach said he is confident their postseason hopes remain alive.
“This was a big win. We had to have this one to stay in the hunt and the playoff mix,” Buffum said. “We gotta take care of business for us here. We have to go to Washougal. We got a couple of tough games coming up so we have to win one or two more to hang on to a playoff spot.”
