Royal boys drop three more

ROYAL CITY - It is likely back to square one - the basics of shooting - at practice for the Royal High School boys basketball team this week.

The Knights were consistently off in their shooting all of last week as they dropped contests to Medical Lake, 56-34, Highland, 42-27, and Cle Elum, 56-35.

For the week, the Knights made 31 of 140 shots for 22 percent. That resulted in an average losing score of 32, leaving coach Pete Christensen dumfounded.

"We're not doing what I thought we'd be doing," he said.

But Christensen is undaunted. He believes in his boys and expects them to find some answers during the upcoming holiday break.

The run of poor shooting started in the second period of the Medical Lake game. The Knights produced only four points. They got only seven in the next frame.

The Knights were led by the eight points each of Aaron Johnson and Jonathan Partida. Kaden Jenks pulled down a whopping 16 rebounds.

Things worsened against Highland. The first three periods produced 8, 2 and 7 points. The shooting percentage for the game was 19.

Teddy Mead and Johnson led the scoring with 12 and 10 points respectively. Riley Lefler led with eight rebounds. Mead and Johnson had seven each, and Jenks had five.

On Saturday, Royal turned the corner, it seemed, with a 17-9 first quarter lead. Then the shooting woes came back. Cle Elum won the second quarter, 10-7, and pulled away.

Johnson was the scoring leader again with 11 points. Partida added seven. The leading rebounder, with eight, was Lefler. Partida and Johnson had five each.

The Knights will travel to River View on Friday and host Wahluke on Saturday.