Treydyn Cornelison, a sophomore making a large impact for the Tiger varsity basketball squad, was hot at the rim early and played a crucial part of Battle Ground’s 62-54 win over Heritage High School on Thursday, Dec. 5.
Cornelison scored a total of 20 points with 12 coming in the first quarter. With a big momentum charge in the second half, senior Boston Walker racked up 16 points with six in the fourth quarter as Battle Ground outscored the Timberwolves 19-10 in the fourth quarter to claim the win.
With Cornelison leading an individual effort to start the game with consecutive baskets, he gave props to his teammates, adding that the squad needs to keep working to get better after picking up its first win of the year after a 88-61 loss to the Prairie Falcons on Tuesday, Dec. 3. Walker agreed.
“I think it was a good win. It was a good team win,” Walker said. “I think we played better as a team tonight. We fixed up stuff that we messed up against Prairie. We stopped [Heritage] in transition. That was a big part for us, just making them slow down and make them run their sets, make them uncomfortable.”
Walker found his rhythm in the second half and said his 6-foot-5-inch frame was a factor when deciding to attack the paint.
“I really just wanted to start to get going,” Walker said. “They had a lot of guys crashing in on me. They knew I was a threat to go to the paint a lot. I wanted to get my jumper going, but, you know, they didn’t have a single guy really over 6’3” so I had to make my presence felt in the second half, and I think I did that. I know we secured the W. That’s all that matters.”
As Walker headlines a small Tiger senior class of just three players, he said he is looking forward to being a leader for the underclassmen.
The Tigers followed up their first win of the year with a 69-54 loss to the Seton Catholic Cougars on Saturday, Dec. 7. They next played at Mountain View High School on Tuesday, Dec. 10, but results were unavailable at press time. The Tigers travel to W.F. West (Chehalis) High School on Wednesday, Dec. 11, for a 7 p.m. start.
