Tigers bomb Vikings with 22 3-point field goals
Rodney Harwood/Columbia Basin Herald Ephrata guard Cameron Clark (44) drives through the Selah defense en route to a basket and a three-point play in Friday night’s Central Washington Athletic Conference game in Ephrata.
EPHRATA — The Ephrata Tigers rained down 22 3-point field goals and pushed hard toward the century mark in Friday’s 95-70 victory over Selah in Central Washington Athletic Conference action.
It was Tiger Bomb all night long and the Vikings didn’t feel a nice warm glow, they felt the heat as Ephrata poured it on from the perimeter.
Cameron Clark buried seven from beyond the arc and finished with a game-high 35 points for the Tigers, who improved to 2-2 in the CWAC and 4-2 overall. Caden Blankenship drained six 3-pointers en route to 20 points. Jake Oxos had six of his seven 3-pointers in the fourth quarter and was good for 21. Luke Vaughan threw in a couple more, as if that weren’t enough.
“That’s how I expect my team to play,” said Clark, who had five 3-point goals in the second quarter. “That’s how we practice, that’s how we play. Tonight I tried to drive it in and kick it out, taking it to the basket a little bit more than usual. It was a good team effort tonight.”
Ephrata had 10 treys in the first half, then really turned it loose in the fourth quarter when Oxos buried six from downtown to spearhead a 30-point scoring effort in the fourth.
“The perimeter game is what we do. We try to get it inside, but when the shots are open outside we like to shoot,” Oxos said. “We try to get everyone involved. I thought you could see Selah losing momentum with every 3 we made.
“Tonight, we hit our shots and played great defense. We like to mix our defense between a man and zone.”
Ephrata trailed 39-35 at the half, but the combination of sound defense, holding the Vikings to just 12 third-quarter points, and the offensive explosion from downtown was enough to hurtle them to a substantial lead.
Ephrata outscored Selah 29-12 in the third quarter for the runaway.
“Selah’s a good team. They came out here prepared and ready to go,” Clark said. “We like to mix our defense up with different styles. We were ready tonight. This is easily the best win we’ve had so far, so we’re getting better each night.”
Score by quarters Sealah 14 25 12 19 — 70 Ephrata 14 22 29 30 — 95