For the second time this season, the Battle Ground boys dominated the Prairie Falcons during a 91-63 victory on Friday, Jan. 27.
From the opening tipoff at Battle Ground, the Tigers could not be stopped. Ty Robertson led an energetic charge in the first quarter with a trio of deep threes as Tait Spencer hit a pair of threes and racked up six more points in the paint during the first quarter as the Tigers led 27-10.
The second quarter saw the Falcons struggle to guard the Tigers as Battle Ground secured 33 points.
Robertson nailed two more mid-range shots for his game total of 15 points. Spencer racked up 12 more points for a first half total of 24. Racking up another pair of threes, Spencer’s highlight of the game came with six minutes left in the second quarter with a steal and fastbreak dunk over a player from Prairie.
Battle Ground shared the space on the floor well by finding the open man, rebounding on both ends of the floor, and playing locked in defense.
“I told the boys just move the ball, you’re going to get offensive opportunities either way,” Battle Ground Head Coach Kevin Kalian said. “We’ve been stressing defensively. We played defense really well in that month of December that led to an eight game win streak, but we’ve kinda struggled in that field the last few games, but tonight we got back on track.”
The Tigers started the second half with a lead of 32. The third quarter witnessed “the power of the mullet” as Trey Spencer hit four threes along with a hard earned two points in the first three minutes and 20 seconds of the second half to extend the lead to 39 points.
Battle Ground’s leading scorers were Tait Spencer with 28 points, Trey Spencer with 17 points and Ty Robertson with 15 points.
About halfway into the third quarter, the starting players came out of the game and the bench platoon went in for Battle Ground. It wasn’t until the final couple of minutes that Luke Kostman drilled a corner three and fought for a rebound, putting it back up for five points in the last minutes. Those five points provided the student section and Battle Ground’s bench with their biggest energy of the night.
“That was (Kostman’s) first few points,” Kalian said. “He works hard in practice and it was nice to see him hit a three, get a rebound and put it back in for another bucket.”
The Prairie Falcons offensively finished the game with 63 points. Freshman guard Cam Newsome led Prairie with 21 points while senior guard Bailey Kousonsavath had 18 points of his own. The two guards combined for 39 of the 63 points for the Falcons.
“Defense has been a problem all year, but we are still in the playoff hunt with Evergreen,” Prairie Head Coach Jimmy Tuominen said after the game.
Prairie and Battle Ground both have key matchups this week. Prairie hosts Evergreen on Wednesday, Feb. 1 in a game that could determine the third place team in the 3A Greater St Helen’s League.
Battle Ground traveled to Union High School as Union sought redemption in a 4A GSHL game on Tuesday, Jan. 31.
