Fans of each school had something to celebrate and something to lament at the end of a Class 2A Greater Spokane League basketball doubleheader between the Pullman Greyhounds and the host Clarkston Bantams on Tuesday.
The unbeaten Pullman boys handled the Bantams 83-54 to get things started, then the Clarkston girls pleased the home crowd with a 61-32 rout of the Greyhounds.
Hounds turn up heat; Bantams can’t crow
The Bantam faithful were in a frenzy when a tight opening quarter concluded with the boys teams knotted at 16 after a 3-pointer by Clarkston’s Xavier Santana connected as he fell backward to the floor to evade a Greyhound defender. Their volume diminished somewhat after Pullman (12-0, 3-0) stormed out to an 11-0 run in the first two minutes of second to build a 27-16 lead, establishing a scoreboard separation that Clarkston (5-6, 1-2) would never again come near closing.
The Greyhounds turned up the heat further with a massive 32-point third quarter, during which the Pullman duo of Champ Powaukee and Jaedyn Brown outpaced Santana in a long-range shooting slugfest. Having built a 30-point lead through three at 73-43, the Pullman offensive machine cooled off somewhat in the fourth, but the Bantams could not make significant scoreboard headway in the closing stages.
Matching 34s for Powaukee, Santana
Pullman’s Powaukee and Clarkston’s Santana mirrored each other with 34 points apiece to lead their respective teams.
Powaukee, who assessed the showing as “one of (his) best,” seemed to do whatever he wanted to with the ball — and he did it with great efficiency, going 5-for-8 from 3-point range, 7-for-9 on 2-pointers and 5-for-6 from the foul line.
“He was hitting 3s, he was posting up, he was finding guys with assists, and he did a great job of rebounding also,” Pullman coach Craig Brantner said of Powaukee. “Really solid game all-around; a little bit of everything, and a lot of scoring.”
Santana was more specialized, overwhelmingly gunning from the outside to total nine 3-pointers on 22 attempts, just 1-for-3 on field goals inside the arc, and 4-for-5 from the line.
It was offensive depth that separated the two teams in the end. No Clarkston player other than Santana scored more than four, while Powaukee was backed up by another big-shooting performance from Brown (28 points) and a further double-digit showing from Dane Sykes (10).
The Hounds have scored at least 60 points in every game played so far this season, winning all of them by margins of at least 17, and are currently tied for second in the most recent Washington Class 2A state media poll.
Bantam girls assert league supremacy
Clarkston and Pullman entered the girls game 2-0 in league, with the Bantams’ victory pushing them to the top of the standings.
After a cold start for both teams, standout Kendall Wallace sparked the Bantams (9-3, 3-0) with a hat-trick of 3s late in the first quarter to help establish a commanding 17-6 Clarkston advantage. She would finish with 11 points — a number matched by sophomore Ryann Combs, who stepped up in the latter stages of the game to make this her highest-scoring performance to date.
“She’s definitely capable of this and more,” Clarkston coach Debbie Sobotta said of Combs. “We have a few sophomores on this team — we have four actually. Lexi Villavicencio put a lot of pressure on their guards and created some turnovers, which led to some of those (points off) fast breaks.”
The Greyhounds (2-7, 2-1) were balanced, but short on offensive threats that could keep them in contention, with Meg Limburgh, Lacie Sines, Suhailey Reyes and Ryliann Bednar each putting up five points to lead the way. Benefiting from what Sobotta called “moments of greats energy,” Clarkston totaled 20 steals and 38 rebounds as a team, only committing 13 turnovers.
BOYS
PULLMAN (12-0, 3-0)
Logan Thompson 1 0-0 3, Jaedyn Brown 8 9-12 28, Tanner Barbour 2 0-0 5, Champ Powaukee 12 5-6 34, Alex Bickelhaupt 0 0-0 0, Cade Hill 0 0-0 0, Caleb Northcroft 0 0-0 0, Dane Sykes 5 0-0 10, Austin Hunt 1 1-6 3. Totals 29 15-24 83.
CLARKSTON (5-6, 1-2)
Xavier Santana 10 4-5 34, Landon Taylor 1 0-0 3, Nathan Sommers 0 0-0 0, Mason Brown 2 2-6 4, Xander Van Tine 0 0-0 0, Dominic Paulucci 1 2-2 4, Carter Steinwand 2 0-0 4, Dustin Beck 0 4-5 4, Kameron Blunt 0 0-0 0, Josh Hoffman 1 0-0 2. Totals 16 12-18 54.
Pullman 16 25 32 10—83
Clarkston 16 11 16 11—54
3-point goals — Powaukee 5, Brown 3, Thompson, Barbour, Santana 9, Taylor.
GIRLS
PULLMAN (2-7, 2-1)
Meg Limburgh 1 2-3 5, Jennabee Harris 0 0-0 0, Sophie Armstrong 2 0-2 4, Lacie Sines 1 3-4 5, Lillian Cobos 1 0-0 2, Marissa Carper 0 2-3 2, Brianna Rasmussen 0 0-0 0, Suhailey Reyes 1 2-4 5, Sehra Singh 1 2-6 4, Ryliann Bednar 2 1-2 5. Totals 9 12-24 32.
CLARKSTON (9-3, 3-0)
Kendall Wallace 4 0-0 11, Olivia Gustafson 1 1-2 3, Ryann Combs 5 0-0 11, Taryn Demers 0 0-0 0, Sophie Henderson 0 0-0 0, Eloise Teasley 4 0-1 8, Ella Leavitt 2 3-4 8, Alahondra Perez 3 0-0 9, Samara Powaukee 1 0-0 2, Joey Miller 0 0-0 0, Alexia Villavicencio 4 0-0 9. Totals 24 4-7 61.
Pullman 6 4 10 12—32
Clarkston 17 17 9 18—61
3-point goals — Wallace 3, Perez 3, Combs, Leavitt, Villavicencio.
Wendt may be contacted at (208) 848-2268, or cwendt@lmtribune.com.
