Royal boys win eighth straight game
Rodney Harwood/Sun Tribune Royal senior Owen Ellis (23) drives the baseline during the second half of Saturday’s SCAC East game against Warden.
Rodney Harwood/Sun Tribune Royal senior Gerrit Larson (32) blocks the shot of Dreyton Martinez (35) of Warden during first-half action of their SCAC East game in Royal City.
ROYAL CITY — The T-shirts in the stands read: “Straight Outta Warden” and “We are Royal,” but Saturday night’s runaway freight train collision was all Knights, who rode an eight-game winning streak to a 75-50 win over the Cougars.
With consecutive wins over Connell, Cashmere and now Warden, Royal (12-4, 7-1 SCAC East) set itself up for a shot at the SCAC East championship with four games left on the regular season.
The much anticipated matchup between 6-foot-4 Sawyer Jenks and Warden’s 6-5 Jack Hardman didn’t come to pass. The Warden senior tweaked a knee and sat out Saturday night.
“We’ll sit him again in the non-league game with Cascade on Tuesday and hope to have him back by either Kiona-Benton (Jan. 25) or Connell (Jan. 26),” Warden coach Wes Richins said.
Jenks ended up with a game-high 20 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks for the Knights, who haven’t lost since the King’s Way Tournament before the first of the year.
“We run a lot of our offense through Owen (Ellis), he’s definitely our best player. We go to him whenever we get the chance. I thought we did a nice job on the defensive rebounds tonight,” Jenks said. “We had a few second-chance points, but we controlled the defensive end and held them to just one shot.”
Royal controlled the game from the opening tip, blowing out to a 21-9 lead early, then making it 43-24 by the intermission. Some of that was set up by the pressure defense, even though the Warden ball handlers were able to break the press fairly consistently. But it was that early stretch of the second quarter that set the tone.
The Knights held the Cougars (7-8, 5-4) scoreless through the first two minutes of the second quarter, then jumped it up to 34-13 with just under five minutes in the first half.
“It felt good tonight and it all started with our defense,” said Tyler Allred, who finished with 13 points, including three baskets from 3-point range. “We really like to get up in their face and try to be aggressive with defensive style.
“We were definitely trying to create turnovers and score off our defense. I thought it helped us on the transition.”
Royal kept up the pressure in the second half, taking a 23-point lead with just under four minutes remaining in the third quarter, then ran away from the Cougars, who went into the game having won three of their last four.
Zach Richins led the Cougars with 14 points. Dreyton Martinez finished with 12 and Kaden Skone added 10.
Owen Ellis had 16 points and eight rebounds for the Knights and Allred added 13.
Royal is at River View on Friday. Warden has a non-league match-up with Cascade (Leavenworth) on Tuesday and a big SCAC East weekend at home against Kiona-Benton Friday and at league-leading Connell on Saturday.
Warden 11 13 13 13 - 50
Royal 21 22 18 14 - 75
Warden - Jesus Mercado 7, Michael Egia 3, Kaden Skone 10, Wade Visker 2, Zach Richins 14, Riley Skone 2, Dreyton Martinez 12.
Royal - Angel Farias 6, Cooper Christensen 2, Sawyer Jenks 20, Gage Christensen 8, Caleb Christensen 7, Luke Bergeson 3, Tyler Allred 13, Owen Ellis 13.