Wahluke girls top Royal 52-33 in prep basketball
Bianca Castellon of Royal attempts to force a turnover against Jessica Hernandez of Wahluke while Wahluke’s Claudia Ramirez tries to outmaneuver Guadalupe Guadarrama of Royal.
MATTAWA — Wahluke took the first girls high school basketball rivalry battle of South County last Friday, outscoring Royal, 52-33.
Saturday, the hot offense of Friday went south, and Wahluke dropped a 73-17 outcome to Naches.
“Not a good performance, but Naches is among the top 5-6 teams in the state,” coach Brock Anderson said. “They have eight seniors who are very good.”
In the game the Warriors won, they were quicker on defense and faster up and down the court. That led to several easy buckets at the offensive end of the court.
The Warriors jumped on top in the first quarter, 14-7, and led 25-14 at the half. Royal kept the deficit at 12 points with 14-14 third quarter, but Wahluke ran away with the fourth, 13-6.
The Warriors forced the Knights into 29 turnovers and held Royal to 15 percent shooting from the field.
“We got a great effort from our bench,” Andersen said. “A number of starters had to sit in the first half due to foul trouble.
Particularly effective handling the ball and scoring was Janeth Ramirez. She delivered 10 points. Jackie Hidalgo led the Warriors with 16 points and played a “great all-around game.”