Last Thursday afternoon, the Vashon High School boys’ varsity basketball team traveled for a friendly game against our southern district neighbors from the 1A Evergreen league, the Tenino Beavers.
Playing without any seniors, the smaller Tenino team could not find an answer on the court to either the tenacious Pirate zone defense or its proficient offense, as Tenino lost 63-19.
Vashon hit on 68% of its shots from the field, as a result of effective passing inside, creating easy shots near the hoop. Jahmiah Hoogen, Mr. Inside tonight, made the game look easy by catching passes at the high post, turning to the basket and finishing at the rim. Or in other words, two points — signed, sealed and delivered. He ended the night with 15 points, making 6 of 8 shots.
Tommy Delargy, moving as quickly as an electrically charged particle, generated Beaver turnovers that he repeatedly converted to points. He also hit from downtown for a total of 11 points.
In other Vashon scoring, Jacob Chavez hit 3 of 5 three pointers for nine points, and Mike Piatti was 3 for 3 from the field for eight points. Jeremiah Bogaard made three of four shots on strong moves to the basket and one brilliant reverse layup. Noah Edmonds scored six points early in the game, but after the Pirates posted a 43-9 half time lead, the starters mostly watched from the bench.
Vashon’s early season success has been due in large part to torrid 60 percent shooting and the fairly consistent execution of the team’s offensive strategy — that is to say, getting the ball to the person closest to the basket and finishing the play. Largely, that has been enabled by the relative inexperience and shorter opposition that both Chimacum and Tenino have provided.
Last Saturday, VHS played Archbishop Murphy (AM), a 2A high school from Everett, in a friendly battle at Highline Community College. AM was a little bigger and played more aggressively than VHS.
From the outset, the Pirates responded with tentative play, passing the ball into crowds and generally struggling to employ ball security. This was a large departure from the previous two games.
Luckily for Vashon, AM did not take full advantage of the early careless passing turnovers, and despite the bad start and after falling behind 16 to 9 after one quarter, the Pirates rallied to lead at the half 23-21.
This rally was helped by Tommy Delargy hitting two three-point shots and Mike Piatti penetrating the inside and getting to the free throw line.
The third quarter saw AM hit an opening three point shot and another basket to get the lead, but Piatti got to the charity stripe, and Delargy stole a backcourt pass to score and regain the lead. Later, the Pirates could not maintain an offensive attack and a late ten point run by AM put them on top 38-29.
Vashon put together a short rally in the fourth quarter, but the defense consistently let the AM big man slide to the hoop unguarded. He scored and got to the foul line frequently, and VHS lost 54-46.
Scoring for Vashon were: Delargy 12, Piatti 11, Jahmiah Hoogen 10, Noah Edmonds 6, Colin Pottinger 3, and Ethan Danielsen 2.
The varsity boys have a home game at 6 p.m. Friday, Dec. 15.
— Daniel Briggs is the father of a VHS varsity basketball player
