The plan seemed clear enough Tuesday night to the fifth-ranked Auburn High boys basketball team.<\/p>\n
Stop Kentwood junior Joshua Smith \u2014 the South Puget Sound League North Division\u2019s leading scorer and rebounder \u2014 and the Trojans would be home free with a victory over the ninth-ranked Conquerors.<\/p>\n
That plan, however, left one thing unaccounted for: Kentwood\u2019s 3-point shooters. The Conquerors connected on 7 of 16 from behind the arc, three from Alec Wilson and two from Tre Tyler, on the way to a 64-43 SPSL North thumping of the Trojans at Kentwood High.<\/p>\n
And though Auburn (4-2 in league, 6-2 overall) slowed down Smith, particularly in the first half when he scored just four points, they weren\u2019t able to contain Kentwood\u2019s dominating force the entire game. Smith finished with 16 points, 14 rebounds and four blocked shots.<\/p>\n
\u201c(My teammates) know every game I won\u2019t be able to score 30 or something like that,\u201d said the 6-foot-9, 285-pound Smith, who came into the night averaging 25 points and 15 rebounds per game. \u201cI tell them, \u2018If I\u2019m getting double- or triple-teamed, I\u2019m going to look to pass the ball.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The Conquerors (4-1, 5-3) did just that on offense, working the ball around to everyone on the floor until someone had an open shot.<\/p>\n
Kentwood hit on 18 of 33 from the field and 7 of 11 from the line. But more importantly for a team that\u2019s relied heavily on Smith all season, four different players connected for at least one 3-pointer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we shoot the ball like that, we\u2019re a pretty tough team to beat,\u201d said Kentwood coach Michael Angelidis.<\/p>\n
Auburn\u2019s suffocating defense on Smith was a benefit to Tyler and Wilson, who scored 16 and 15 points respectively.<\/p>\n
But the Trojans\u2019 game plan wasn\u2019t a complete loss as they did hold Smith nearly 10 points under his season average.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were sagging off (on defense), giving a lot of attention to Josh. It was a difficult change of pace for the guys, I think. It kind of effected our energy,\u201d said Auburn coach Ryan Hansen. \u201cThese guys whole career, they\u2019re told to get out and pressure the ball, get after it defensively. And now, all of a sudden, we\u2019re sagging off and not doing that. Like I told the guys, I take a lot of the blame for our (lack of) energy in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Four Auburn players \u2014 Isaiah Johnson, Carlo Lavoie, Jay Payne and Jeff Gouveia \u2014 came into the game averaging double figures in scoring. Of those four, only Lavoie, who scored a team-high 13 points, reached double figures on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
And Johnson, Auburn\u2019s 6-6, 260-pound post who came in leading the team in scoring at 12.6 per game, was held to just two. Up against Smith all night, Johnson seldom saw the ball in the paint.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Smith\u2019s) obviously one of the best players, number one in the nation in his grade,\u201d said an exhausted Johnson. \u201cAnd he\u2019s big. Way bigger than me. I gave it my hardest fight. I think I battled pretty well against him, but there\u2019s not much you can do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnson left the game with two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter shaking his head. Smith, however, was impressed with the Auburn standout.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s just one of those dudes that I can\u2019t just muscle around,\u201d Smith said. \u201cHe\u2019s not one of those people I can just get in, run him over and get a call.\u201d<\/p>\n
Auburn\u2019s plan to focus on Smith slowed the game down and essentially played into Kentwood\u2019s hands. Meanwhile, the Trojans simply couldn\u2019t hit a shot, hitting just 2 of 15 3-pointers and 1 of 7 from the line.<\/p>\n
Despite their shooting woes, the Trojans held a 12-11 lead late in the first quarter. Kentwood\u2019s Tyler proceeded to feed Wilson for a layup to end the first quarter, then added a 3-pointer to open the second, giving the Conquerors a 16-12 lead they would not relinquish.<\/p>\n
Kentwood took a 23-17 lead into the half, then Smith came alive in the third quarter to help put the game out of reach. The Conquerors went on a 9-0 run to open the third quarter, getting six points from Smith and a 3-pointer from Henry Everette to take a 32-17 lead.<\/p>\n
Auburn didn\u2019t get any closer than nine points the rest of the night.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just didn\u2019t come out defensively like we usually do,\u201d said Auburn\u2019s Gouveia, who finished with eight points. \u201cWe had a different defensive game plan that we thought would work.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
ELSEWHERE<\/p>\n
\u2022 Kent-Meridian 57, Tahoma 42: The Royals (1-4, 3-5) spread the wealth as nine different players scored at least once in a win over the Bears (0-5, 0-9). Barento Ahmed led the way for K-M, pouring in 12 points while Marlowe Brim added 10. Tahoma\u2019s Christian Behrens, who came in averaging 22.4 points per game, led the Bears with 23 points.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Auburn Riverside 72, Jefferson 62: Ryan Rogers and Mitch Hagerty combined for 43 points \u2014 22 for Rogers, 21 for Hagerty \u2014 in leading the Ravens (3-3, 5-4) past the Raiders (3-3, 4-4). Jefferson\u2019s Cramer Doughty led all scorers with 26 points.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Federal Way 100, Kentlake 59: Jeff Budinich scored 18 points and Michael Salazar added 15, but it wasn\u2019t enough for the Falcons (1-4, 3-5) against the high-powered and third-ranked Eagles (4-1, 7-1). Jeff Forbes and Michael Hale scored 21 points apiece for Federal Way while Cole Dickerson added 20.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
GIRLS<\/p>\n
\u2022 Tahoma 61, Kent-Meridian 50: The Bears (2-3, 4-5) bolted out to a 37-14 halftime lead and never looked back. Four Bears reached double figures in scoring, led by the 13 points of Katie Buskey. Kent-Meridian\u2019s Briana Shannon led all scorers with 21 points.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Federal Way 59, Kentlake 43: Morganne Comstock (15 points), Riley Butler (10) and Cody Sisco (10) all reached double figures scoring, but it wasn\u2019t enough for the Falcons (3-2, 5-3) in a loss to the Eagles (3-2, 6-3).<\/p>\n
\u2022 Kentwood 75, Auburn 45: Kylie Huerta delivered a game-high 21 points, leading the second-ranked Conquerors (4-0, 7-0) past the Trojans (1-5, 3-6). Jessie Genger added 12 points for Kentwood while Sanda Milovic chipped in 10. Jennsyn Chaney led Auburn with 11 points.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Auburn Riverside 78, Jefferson 36: Mercedes Wetmore scored a team-high 14 points while Kara Jenkins (12) and Amanda Thomson (11) also reached double figures as the fifth-ranked Ravens (5-1, 7-3) ripped the Raiders (4-2, 7-2).<\/p>\n
\u2022 Curtis 32, Kentridge 29: The Vikings (2-3, 3-6) outscored the Chargers 16-8 in the decisive fourth quarter to pull out the nonleague win. Kelli Seguro led the Chargers (1-4, 2-7) with nine points.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The plan seemed clear enough Tuesday night to the fifth-ranked Auburn High boys basketball team.
\nStop Kentwood junior Joshua Smith \u2014 the South Puget Sound League North Division\u2019s leading scorer and rebounder \u2014 and the Trojans would be home free with a victory over the ninth-ranked Conquerors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":14136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-14135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14135"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14135"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=14135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}