Perhaps inspired by a thrilling junior varsity game taking up the majority of the 7 p.m. hour at Ridgefield High School, the varsity Spudders boys basketball team put together a four-quarter beatdown of the highly touted Woodland Beavers.
The Spudders grabbed a 14-4 margin at the end of the first quarter, a shocker to most in the crowd as the Beavers entered the Thursday, Jan. 15 affair 6-1 in league play while Ridgefield sat far behind at 3-4. At halftime, the Spudders went to the locker room with their heads high as they extended their lead to 27-18.
With the Beavers seeking a turnaround to start the second half, the Spudders squashed those hopes as the third quarter ended 43-29 with the Spuds leading. The fourth quarter did get a little interesting at times, but a constant foul-fest and a free-throw showdown kept Ridgefield ahead. A late-game technical foul and regular foul by the Beavers flattened their sails as Ridgefield’s Henry Wikstrom sank all four free throws with possession to nab another two points, leading to the 62-46 Spudder win.
“I’ve been waiting for a while for us to kind of piece together four quarters of basketball and, you know, minus some missed free throws and some turnovers, that game would have been a lot different, I think, scoring-wise,” said Spudder head coach Jason Buffum after the victory. “So I’m proud of the effort. … We just needed a win, you know. We had some tough games, lost to a Washougal buzzer beater here at home, and we put ourselves in a hole in the first half of the league, and now we need to start fighting and claw back out of it.”
The Spudders were led by Jamison McCann’s 16 points and Wikstrom’s 14 points, including going a perfect 8 for 8 at the free-throw line in the final quarter.
The win may mark the point of a total turnaround in the season, Buffum hopes.
“High school kids are funny, and we talk every day about trying to take a step forward, but every time we take one step forward, we take two steps backwards,” he said. “So, I’m hoping that this is a turning point where we start to realize, like, ‘hey, we’re capable.’ We just have to continue to do it and continue to battle.”
After the win, the Spudders hold fifth place at 4-4 in league play, with aspirations to achieve the top three in the 2A Greater St. Helens League, which is in reach with six games to play. One of those six games included a crucial one on Tuesday, Jan. 20, against Columbia River High School — the current third-place squad — but results were unavailable at press time. The Spudders next travel to Mark Morris High School in Longview on Thursday, Jan. 22, at 7 p.m.
The Woodland Beavers still held on to second place in the 2A GSHL after the loss with a 6-2 league record. The Beavers next played Mark Morris High School on Tuesday, Jan. 20, but results were unavailable at press time. The Beavers next travel to Hockinson High School on Thursday, Jan. 22, at 7:30 p.m.
