The WWCC men’s basketball team continued its undefeated start to this season as they improve to 4-0 overall with a win over Bellevue Community College this past Saturday by the score of 85-76.
“We were up 51-32 at half and then came out flat in the second half,” Warriors coach Jeff Reinland said. “We need to work on sustaining our effort throughout the game.”
Damen Thacker led the way for the Warriors with a game high 36 points on 9-of-22 shooting from the field, and getting to the foul line 19 times to make 15 of those.
On the other side, Ting-Jhao Jian for Bellevue went for 30 points on 11-of-18 shooting, and was 7-for-7 from the foul line.
“They had two really good players on their team who were tough to guard — Jian, who went for 30, and Warren, who had 16,” Reinland said. “It was a very interesting game, but overall a good win for us.”
The WWCC men will travel to Bellevue to compete in the Bellevue College Tournament on Friday, Dec. 7 and will take on Whatcom College first. That game is at 3 p.m.
In Friday’s 92-76 first-round victory over Mount Hood, the Warriors outscored the Saints 48-0 from behind the 3-point line and overcame a sluggish start to the second half in which they blew a 16-point halftime lead.
WWCC, which led 49-33 at the intermission, knocked down 16-of-34 shots from behind the arc while Mount Hood was a cautious and ineffective 0-for-4 from downtown.
Nevertheless, the Saints rallied for a 68-67 lead midway in the second half before the Walla Wallans regrouped and won the contest going away.
“We came out really hot,” WWCC coach Jeff Reinland said. “We were up by 16 points at the half, but we had a bad start to the second half and a lot of things didn’t go our way.
“But after they went ahead of us with about seven or eight minutes to play, we got hot again and blew them out from that point.”
Jake Albright
Damen Thacker led the Warriors in scoring with 27 points, Forrest Smith tallied 21 and sophomore post Jake Albright had a monster game with 18 points and 18 rebounds.
David Howard came off the bench and also contributed 18 points.
Kahlon Whitley led the Saints with 21 points.
“Mount Hood is a tough team with some pretty good guards, and they can shoot it pretty well,” Reinland said. “But we hurt them pretty bad inside with Albright.”
The game was the Warriors’ first this season against a fellow NWAC opponent after opening the season two weeks earlier with home victories over the Fairchild Airforce Base and a club team from Gonzaga University.
The loss was the Saints’ third of the season in five outings.
