Ephrata boys, girls rout Othello

OTHELLO — Othello is a good team and the last thing Ephrata wanted was to let them hang around long enough to get hot. The Tigers (6-3, 4-3) went on a 11-4 run to open the third quarter to run away from the Huskies 66-42 in their final Central Washington Athletic Conference boys game of 2016.

Cameron Clark finished with a game-high 21. Joshua Benthem added 11 and Caden Blankenship was good for 10, including a 3-pointer from the corner to kick-start the run in the second half.

“We play a fast tempo. We don’t mind beating the ball up against the gym wall every once in awhile. That’s our style,” said Ephrata coach Brandon Evenson. “Othello has been in a lot of games, so we wanted to keep a lead and get our post some balls. We really focused on defense tonight. We didn’t want to leave them in the game. We were able to get that run and have them chase after us a bit.

“But a road win is big. Any road win in the CWAC division is important.”

Othello (1-8, 1-10) trailed 37-23 at the intermission. Blankenship buried a three from the corner on the Tigers first possession to make it 44-25. But where the Tigers gained the separation they needed came at the 5:22 point when Othello’s Jonathan Garza was called for a technical foul.

Garza, who finished with 10 points for the Huskies, thought he got all ball on a block when Blankenship drove the lane. He was called for the foul and then ran off at the mouth a little too much on the protest for the referee’s liking.

Blankenship knocked down the two technical foul free throws and two more for the shooting foul. The Tigers made it a six-point swing with possession and another basket with 5:20 left in the third period.

“This is the first game we’ve played where the game has not been close,” Othello coach George Juarez said. “We just did not put the ball in the basket tonight. We had wide open looks, we just didn’t shoot the ball very well.”

Husky post Michael Gutierrez came down on an offensive rebound and scored on the put-back to make it 48-31 with a little under four minutes remaining in the third quarter. But the Huskies never did find the rhythm to climb back in.

“I was focused on dishing more tonight and getting my teammates involved,” Clark said. “We wanted to slow down and work on our offense a bit more tonight. It was just a great team win and a good way to go into the break.”

Gutierrez led the Huskies with 11 points and Garza added 10.

Girls basketball

Ephrata 59, Othello 45

OTHELLO — The Ephrata girls improved to 6-3 going into the break and more importantly, moved to 4-3 in the CWAC with an impressive conference win on the road.

Katelyn Ostrowski finished with a team-high 16 points to lead the Tigers. Kenedee Peters added 14 and Madison Martin chipped in nine for the Tigers, who led 55-28 midway through the third quarter.

“We put in some new offense over the Christmas break, so this was a chance to run some stuff,” Ephrata coach Aaron Ross said. “Overall, I thought we did a pretty good job of it. (Othello’s Macy Hampton) is a nice player. We talked about playing defense on her tonight, but we lost track of her a few times. Overall, I think we have some things in place for when we come back after the first of the year.”

Macy Hampton led all scorers with 19 points and Alexis Coronado finished with 14.

“Our team needs to learn to play four quarters, not just partial games. Once again we came out slow and then picked it up after half,” said Othello coach Josh Tovar whose team is 1-7, 1-6 in the CWAC. “I am most proud of that fact that our girls never gave up or stopped trying even after being down by 26 at one point. We will continue to grow from these games.”