The Sequim boys hoops team fought hard for come-from-behind victories during each of its three games this weekend, but was shut down by taller, foreign offenses.
The Wolves narrowed the oppositions’ early leads to within a few points in each of the games at the third annual Crush in the Slush Basketball Tournament but were unable to pull off a victory before year’s end.
In game one, on Dec. 27, the Wolves faced an Australian team, the Kilsyth Cobras. The final score was 66-60, although the Sequim boys took the lead in the second half of the third period.
The Cobras were fueled by a lineup that included 6’5" and 6’4" forwards who ran a series of baseline cuts that overpowered the Wolves’ offense in the first half.
But behind Ary Webb’s three-point shooting and hard-headed play at both ends of the court by Nic Thacker, the Wolves came back to take the lead. However, late in the fourth, the Australian team’s squad played the baseline for lay-ins to win the game. Thacker was the game’s leading scorer with 17 points.
The Sequim boys’ second game left the team behind by two points to the South Whidbey Falcons after the first half. Sequim coach Greg Glasser came out in a 3-2 zone in the second half to control the Falcons’ offense, initially gaining momentum for the Wolves. However, by the fourth quarter, the Falcons had gained a 10-point lead.
Glasser changed his defense again in the fourth to man-to-man coverage, which forced turnovers allowing the Wolves to pull within five with minutes left to play in the game. Sequim fouls, however, stopped that trend. The game ended with the Falcons on top 51-43. The Wolves’ top scorer was Thacker, with 21 hard-earned points.
The boys’ final game on Dec. 29 was against a 2A division school in the Duvall area, the Cedarcrest Red Wolves. The Red Wolves outscored the Sequim Wolves 73-52 after four quarters of play. The Wolves staged a comeback, which put the Sequim boys within five points in the fourth quarter but did not successfully take the game. Sequim’s Webb finished with a game-high 21 points before he was named to the All-Crush Tournament Team.
