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SUNNYSIDE–The always-formidable Sunnyside Christian Knights took off in the second quarter and never looked back in a 79-33 win over Pomeroy May 20. The loss for the Pirates put them at 2-3 overall, 1-2 in the 1B Southeast League.

The Pirates hosted Oakesdale last Monday, falling short 60-49 and Yakama Tribal on Tuesday, the first of a four-game stretch that will wrap up the covid-shortened basketball season for 2021. The game Tuesday will be Senior Night. Wednesday's road trip to Liberty Christian is followed by the season finale at DeSales on Thursday, May 27.

"Sunnyside Christian is a team that plays in the state tournament nearly every year and looks like a team that would be there this year if they were having one," observed Head Coach Chris Wolf. The game was a teaching moment for the team as it demonstrated what level players need to reach for, he said.

"They pressed us and we were unable to break it consistently, but made strides throughout the game," Wolf said. "With the limited number of practices we have had for this season, we weren't ready for this going into the game. We have now had one more practice with the whole team than games played. This will be a game we can learn a lot from."

Top scorer for the Pirates was Trent Gwinn with 16. Sunnyside had three in double figures, Groenweg with a game-high 25, Van Weiringen with 18 and Moore with 16.

Sunnyside was within reach after the first quarter, 13-7, but their pressure cut the Pirates' scoring to nine points while they scored 24 for a 37-16 lead at the break. Sunnyside coasted through the second half for the lop-sided win.

Pomeroy 55, Colton 37

"We were able to get a win tonight despite being very sloppy on offense," Wolf said of the Pirates' 55-37 win over the Wildcats.

"We didn't execute our zone offense very well, but were able to score in transition," he said of his young Pirate squad. "We created a lot of turnovers tonight defensively and were able to get some easy baskets.

"We are a young team that is learning how to play consistently and how to play hard from start to finish," Wolf said.

Trevin Kimble hit seven buckets to lead all scorers with 18, Gwinn scored 14 and Ollie Severs nine.

Pomeroy held a nine-point lead after eight minutes, and built it to 33-18 at halftime. Wildcat adjustments in the third quarter made it more of an even stanza, Pomeroy scoring 13 and Colton scoring 10, and the fourth quarter was a 9-9 draw, underscoring the importance of the team's half-time lead.

Pomeroy 64, Touchet 42

The third quarter was the difference in the Pomeroy-Touchet matchup May 14. Trailing 24-21 at half, the Pirates came out with pressure in the third quarter.

"This was a very tough game," commented Wolf. "Touchet led at halftime 24-21. We came out in the second half and played very aggressive and created turnovers with our press."

The Pirates forced a total of 33 turnovers in the game and the payback was 33 points off of turnovers, he said.

Gwinn was the game-high scorer with 27 points and Kimble added 19.

"The whole team picked up the intensity in the third quarter defensively, and we won the quarter 32-7," Wolf said. "We shot 13-15 (87%) in the third quarter. This was a good win following a tough loss in a game we felt like we gave away against Gar-Pal."

Gar-Pal 45, Pomeroy 40

"This was a tough team to open the season against and they (Gar-Pal) had a game under their belts earlier in the week to work out some of the first game jitters and mistakes that we made tonight," Wolf said.

"This was a hard-fought game from start to finish," he said. "Neither team was able to establish any offensive rhythm throughout the game. Both teams played hard-nosed, man-to-man defense and it was a physical game throughout, with many players for both teams fouling out."

The Vikings' Austin Jones scored a game-high 30 points. "Austin Jones made some well-defended shots," Wolf said, helped by some Pirate miscues on inbounds plays that gave Jones a few open three-point attempts that he made.

Hard-fought, it was. The first eight minutes ended in a 9-9 draw. The second quarter was again a battle, the Pirates nudging ahead 21-20 at halftime.

But the Vikings came out swinging in the third quarter and jumped ahead with a 12-5 difference to lead 32-26 after three quarters, and that spelled the difference as the Pirates won the fourth quarter 14-13.

"We created 21 turnovers," Wolf said, "but weren't able to convert those into points. We had 19 more field goal attempts than Gar-Pal, but only shot 25% from the field. We missed several open lay-in attempts and this was the difference in the game.

Defensive mistakes were scarce, except the confusion that let Jones hit three-pointers on inbounds plays, Wolf said. "I was very pleased with the effort level and the attention to detail on defense we had for our first game."

Braden Mings carried the Pirates in the first half with 12 points and Gwinn heated up in the fourth quarter and finished with 13 points to lead Pirate scoring.

Gar-Pal 45, Pomeroy 40 (5-13)

Pom 9 12 5 14-40

GP 9 11 12 13-45

Pomeroy (40) Fruh 0 0-0 0, Gwinn 4 3-7 13, Bott 0 0-0 0, Kimble 1 5-5 7, Magill 0 0-0 0, B. Mings 5 0-2 12, J. Mings 0 2-2 2, Severs 3 0-0 6, Roberts 0 0-0 0. Totals 13 10-16 40. 

Gar-Pal (45) Merill 2 1-2 5, Hallan 0 2-4 2, Jones 7 13-16 30, Orr 2 1-4 6, Orfe 0 0-2 0, Bankus 0 0-0 0, Pfaff 1 0-0 2. Totals 12 17-28 45. 

3-point goals- Gar-Pal 4, Jones 3, Orr. Pomeroy 4, Gwinn 2, B. Mings 2. 

Pomeroy 64, Touchet 42 (5-14)

Pom 8 13 32 11-64

Tou 13 11 7 11-42

Pomeroy (64) Fruh 2 0-2 4, Gwinn 11 3-3 27, Bott 0 0-0 0, Y. Mings 0 0-0 0, Kimble 7 5-9 19, Magill 0 1-3 1, B. Mings 2 1-2 5, J. Mings 0 0-0 0, Severs 4 0-0 8, Slusser 0 0-0 0, Vecchio 0 0-0 0. Totals 26 10-19 64.

Touchet (42) Orozco 2 0-0 6, Martinez 1 3-7 5, Ogden 0 0-0 0, Zamora 1 0-0 2, Gonzalez 8 4-6 20, Zessin 2 0-0 4, Krumbah 0 0-0 0, Rincon 0 0-0 0, Kincaid 1 1-4 3, Huntley 1 0-0 2. Totals 16 8-17 42. 

3-point goals- Touchet 2, Orozco, Pomeroy 2, Gwinn. 

Pomeroy 55, Colton 37 (17)

Pom 15 18 13 9-55

Col 6 12 10 9-37

Pomeroy (55) Gwinn 6 2-10 14, Bott 1 0-0 2, Y. Mings 1 0-0 3, Kimble 7 1-1 18, Magill 0 1-2 1, B. Mings 2 0-0 5, J. Mings 1 1-2 3, Severs 2 4-6 9, Roberts 0 0-0 0, Vecchio 0 0-0 0. Totals 20 9-21 55. 

Colton (37) McCann 0 2-3 2, Wolf 1 0-0 2, Moehrle 3 6-10 13, Impson 0 0-0 0, Reisenauer 2 3-3 9, Arnhold 5 1-4 11. Totals 11 12-20 37.

Pomeroy 33, Sunnyside Christian 79 (5/20)

Pom 7 9 12 5-33

SC 13 24 20 22-79

Pomeroy (33) Fruh 1 0-0 3, Gwinn, 5 5-12 16, Kimble 2 1-2 6, Magill 0 0-0 0, B. Mings 0 0-0 0, J. Mings 2 0-0 4, Severs 2 0-0 4, Slusser 0 0-0 0, Roberts 0 0-3 0. Totals 12 6-17 33. 

Sunnyside Christian (79) Berg 0 0-0 0, Moore 7 0-0 16, Van Weiringen 7 2-2 18, Jech 1 1-1 3, Bosma 6 0-1 12, 0 0-0 0, De Boer 0 0-0 0, Groenweg 9 2-3 25, Roedel 2 1-2 5. Totals 32 6-9 79.

3-point goals- Pomeroy 3, Fruh, Gwinn, Kimble. Sunnyside Christian 9, Moore 2, Van Weiringen 2, Groenweg 5.