Garfield-Palouse continues to run the court

PALOUSE — The Garfield-Palouse (Gar-Pal) Vikings boys and girls remain at the top of the League as they continue through the regular season.

The Viking boys narrowly fell to 2B opponent Asotin Panthers on Tuesday, Jan. 7, before winning a pair of League matchups against the Waitsburg Cardinals on Friday, Jan. 10 and the Dayton Bulldogs on Saturday, Jan. 12.

The Gar-Pal girls went 3-0 last week as they defeated the Panthers, Cardinals and Bulldogs on the same nights.

Girls undefeated in League play

The Gar-Pal girls remain unbeaten in League play and continued their run of the court as they defeated the 2B Asotin Panthers, 81-32, on Tuesday, Jan. 7, before besting the Waitsburg Cardinals on Friday, Jan. 10, and the Dayton Bulldogs, 60-13, on Saturday, Jan. 11.

Against Asotin, the Vikings scored 20 points or more in three quarters while tallying 18 in the final frame to dominate the Panthers, 81-32.

Gar-Pal scored 20 in each of the first two quarters and held Asotin to eight in the first and 10 in the second to take a 40-18 lead at halftime. While scoring 23 in the third and 18 in the fourth, the Vikings held the Panthers to eight in the third and six in the fourth for the dominating win.

The Vikings were led by junior Morgan Lentz with 20 points on eight field goals and shooting a perfect 3-for-3 from the free-throw line. Junior Elena Flansburg added 19 points on eight field goals and also shooting 3-for-3 from the charity stripe. Eighth grader Ellie Collier added 11 points on four field goals and hitting 2-for-2 from the line.

The Vikings totaled 19 field goals and hit 19-of-22 from the free-throw line for an 86.4 free-throw percentage.

Gar-Pal went on to dominate the Waitsburg Cardinals, 83-11, on Friday.

The Vikings scored 38 points in the first quarter alone while holding the Cardinals to four. The Gar-Pal defense held Waitsburg to one point in each of the second and fourth quarters while only allowing five points to be scored in the third. Meanwhile, the Vikings offense scored 16 in the second, 21 in the third and nine in the fourth for the win.

“We did a good job forcing turnovers, our defense led to some easy baskets on the other end,” said Gar-Pal coach Garrett Parrish. “We always like to pressure the ball and do it without fouling. That was our goal tonight and I thought we did a good job of that.”

Eleven Gar-Pal players got on the board in the game with Flansburg leading with 13 points on five field goals. Freshman Taia Gehring added 12 points on five field goals and shooting 2-for-2 from the free-throw line. Sophomore Kyra Brantner added 10 points with eighth grader Ellie Collier and junior Morgan Lentz each adding nine. Sophomore Kaydence Kivi and junior HettyLee Laughary each scored eight points for the VIkings with freshman Molly Huffman adding six.

“We have a good group, we’re all pretty young, but we have a good group that doesn’t get to play a lot,” Parrish said. “It was good to have them go out and get a chance and I thought they did well.”

On Saturday, Gar-Pal defeated Dayton in a Southeast 1B League matchup.

“Dayton is having a good year, they are a lot better than they were last year,” Parrish said. “They will battle for a playoff spot so we will have to go down there and earn our victory.”

The Vikings defense shut out the Bulldogs in the first quarter and held them to five points or less in each of the remaining quarters. Gar-Pal scored 19 in the first, 18 in the second, five in the third and 18 in the fourth while the Bulldogs could only manage four in the second, five in the third and four in the fourth.

Flansburg and Lentz led the Vikings with 15 points each with Collier scoring 10. Gehring and Huffman each scored six with Kivi and Brantner each contributing four points for the Vikings.

Gar-Pal boys go 2-1

The Viking boys just barely fell to 2B opponent Asotin Panthers, 53-32, on Tuesday. Late in the fourth quarter, the Panthers set up a play for the layup to send Asotin over Ga-Pal by one point.

It was a close matchup early with Asotin taking a 22-20 advantage at the end of the first quarter. The Vikings fought back and built a 31-28 lead at halftime.

With Asotin regaining the lead in the third, outscoring Gar-Pal, 13-8, the Vikings mounted a comeback and scored 13 in the fourth while holding Asotin to 12. With the final layup by Asotin, the Vikings fell.

Vikings junior Lane Collier led his team with 15 points, followed by senior Landon Orr with 14. Senior Bryce Pfaff scored nine and senior Brendan Snekvik added seven.

The Vikings went on to defeat the Waitsburg Cardinals on Friday.

Gar-Pal handily defeated Waitsburg, 65-27, in the matchup, taking a 25-4 lead to end the first quarter and holding a 38-15 advantage at halftime. The Vikings scored 18 points in the third and nine in the fourth while holding the Cardinals to seven in the third and five in the fourth for the win.

Collier led the Vikings with 17 points and junior Liam Cook added 14, each hitting seven field goals. Orr scored 11 points in the game.

Finishing out the weeking and rolling through the Southeast 1B, the Vikings defeated Dayton on Saturday.

Gar-Pal handily defeated the Bulldogs by scoring double digits in each quarter while holding Dayton to single digits in each frame.

The Vikings led, 26-5, to end the first quarter and held a 40-7 lead at halftime. With Gar-Pal adding 20 in the third and 11 in the fourth and Daytong only managing four points in the third and six in the fourth, the Vikings gained the decisive victory.

Gar-Pal senior Macent Rardon led the Vikings with 16 points on eight field goals with Cook adding 11 and senior Kieran Snekvik scoring 10.