WALLA WALLA — Blue Mountain Community College’s Shane Owens connected with 10:30 to play here Thursday to tie the game at 47-47 in NWAACC East Region men’s basketball action.
Walla Walla Community College responded with a 25-8 run to send the Warriors to 2-0 in East play with a 72-55 win.
“Take away the first minutes of each half, and we had a pretty good game,” Warrior coach Jeff Reinland said. “We got tied, hit a big three, got a nice stop, and we got up five. We got a little cushion from there. It was a good game overall. We really defended well.”
Dallas Reich’s turn-around jumper with 7:15 left in the first half marked the seventh and final lead change of the first half as the Warriors took a 23-22 lead. Reich’s bucket ignited a 14-6 Warrior run and WWCC went to the half up 37-28.
Case Rada hit two treys and scored 12 points, and Austin Nooner pulled down eight rebounds to lead the Warriors to the first-half lead.
“We started great at CBC (a win to open East play), and then went flat,” Reinland said. “We’re trying to not get so jazzed up to start the game. We’re trying to take the floor a little more even keel. But, (tonight) we took it a little too flat.”
Second half, same verse. Tyler Adams drained a 3 for the Timberwolves 30 seconds into the second half and the Timberwolves were off on a 19-10 run. Owens capped the run at the 10:30 mark to pull BMCC even at 47-47.
“We’ve been having trouble coming out of halftime,” Reinland said. “We don’t come out with that sense of urgency. We’ve got to keep working at it.”
The Warriors responded as Dylan Radliff found Reich in the far left corner, and the Weston-McEwen alum drained a 3-ball to give the Warriors the lead for good at 50-47.
“We settled for what we had at half time,” Radliff said. “Then coming back out, we were content with the lead. We’ve got to play hard the whole 40 minutes.”
Radliff hit a free throw, Rada converted from behind the arc, and Rada found Eric Harr for an open trey, Rada completed the 12-2 Warrior run with a deuce, and the Warriors led 59-49 with 7:00 to play. The Timberwolves never recovered.
“Coach told us we had to start playing better,” Radliff said of the Warrior surge. “We had to start playing harder and executing. We did that and it showed on the court.”
Rada and Radliff each finished with 18 points as Radliff scored 11 in the second half. Hunter Hahn and Harr each scored 10, and Reich hit for nine. Rada dished out a game-high seven assists.
“I try to get the ball to Eric (Harr) and Case (Rada),” Radliff said. “They are our go-to guys. They’ve both been shooting well and Dallas (Reich) has stepped it up and is shooting well. My job is first to look for them and try to get them open. Next is to try and create for myself.”
Nooner pulled down a game high 15 rebounds to lead the Warriors to a 52-45 rebounding edge.
“This is Nooner’s second start at the post,” Reinland said. “He’s a big strong kid and athletic. He’s going to be a good one.”
The Warriors travel to Treasure Valley Saturday.
Treasure is pretty good,” Reinland said. “It’s going to be tough over there, but we can go down there and get one.”
walla walla community college 72, blue mountain community college 55
BMCC (55) — Butler 7-20 0-0 14, Martin 2-10 2-3 6, Coleman 3-6 8-10 14, Abraham 1-8 0-0 2, Randall 0-1 0-0 0, Kiser 0-1 0-0 0, Hoisington 1-4 0-0 2, Adams 3-8 0-0 7, Walker 4-10 0-1 8, Owens 1-5 0-0 2. Totals 22-73 10-14 55.
WWCC (72) — Radliff 5-15 7-10 18, Rada 6-15 2-2 18, Mills 0-2 0-0 0, Reich 4-8 0-0 9, Hahn 5-8 0-0 10, Harr 4-7 0-2 10, Nooner 3-10 1-2 7, Kennedy 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 27-65 10-16 72.
Halftime — WWCC 37, BMCC 28. 3-point goals — BMCC 1-11 (Martin 0-1, Abraham 0-1, Randall 0-1, Kiser 0-1, Adams 1-5, Owens 0-2), WWCC 8-24 (Radliff 1-6, Rada 4-8, Mills 0-1, Reich 1-3, Harr 2-4, Hahn 0-2). Total fouls — BMCC 18, WWCC 16. Fouled out — none. Technical fouls — none. Rebounds — BMCC 45 (Martin 9), WWCC 52 (Nooner 15). Turnovers — BMCC 11, WWCC 13. Assists — BMCC 10 (Coleman 4), WWCC 13 (Radliff 7).
