The lopsided win highlighted La Conner’s showing at the three-day event, which featured games at the Mount Vernon Christian Gym and here at the Landy James Activity Court.
The Braves, due to illness, injury and family winter break trips, were minus six players who have started at least one game, used the Dec. 29-31 tourney to develop roster depth ahead of their Jan. 9 home tipoff with league foe Coupeville.
La Conner (7-4 overall) faced Forks and the Lynden Christian junior varsity on the girls’ side of the holiday bracket. The Braves fell 63-23 to Forks and were defeated 49-18 by Lynden Christian.
Defense dictated the outcome of La Conner’s double-digit win over Orcas Island. The Braves held Orcas to just 14% shooting from the field and forced 18 turnovers.
Point production was a challenge in La Conner’s losses to Forks and Lynden Christian, however. The Braves trailed Forks 17-0 in the first period before freshman Sophia Edwards got La Conner on the board with a perimeter trey.
Senior Isabelle Villard added a layup in traffic off a feed from Della Damien and freshman Mia Delage drained a long three-pointer for La Conner, but the Braves still faced an insurmountable 36-8 deficit at the break.
Against Lynden Christian, Villard paced La Conner with seven points, all but two in the second half. Edwards and Delage again hit three-pointers while Finley Hancock and Yami Ocampo Contreras chipped in two points each. Helen Joe rounded out La Conner’s scoring with a free throw.
Lynden Christian’s Maryn Camping led all scorers with 11 points.
The La Conner boys weren’t at full strength, either, for the tournament, which drew entries from several enrollment classifications across western Washington. Holiday absences led to some reshuffling of the Braves lineup for games opposite Willapa Valley, Mount Vernon Christian, and Orcas Island.
Fortunately, La Conner had senior Hadden Zimmerman available after he missed the end of the soccer season with a knee issue. Zimmerman led the Braves with 13 points, including a long trey, in La Conner’s 66-25 setback to Willapa Valley.
Kaleb Otis led six La Conner point-makers in the Braves 79-19 loss to Mount Vernon Christian. Otis tallied seven points, including a pair of three-balls in the first quarter. He was joined in the La Conner scoring column by Keaton Bailey (4), Kamien Lopez (3), Landon Stevens (2), Zimmerman (2), and Ryan Reynolds (1).
Orcas, which had downed La Conner 69-28 Dec. 19 on the island, forged a 58-18 tourney triumph over the Braves on New Year’s Eve. Tim Malo and Joe Stephens paced the victors with 12 points apiece.
Zimmerman (10), Bailey (4), Otis (3), and Brent Bobb (1) scored for La Conner, which looks to break into the league win column when the Braves entertain Coupeville in a 6 p.m. home clash.
The Jan. 9 La Conner-Coupeville junior varsity games are set for 4:30 p.m. The girls’ junior varsity action takes place in the middle school gym. The boys’ junior varsity matchup is slated for the Landy James Activity Court.
The La Conner teams resume their home schedule with Jan. 12 league tests against Friday Harbor. The boys’ junior varsity and girls’ varsity games are scheduled at 4 p.m. in the middle school and high school gyms, respectively. The girls’ junior varsity and boys’ varsity games follow at 5:30.
Bill Reynolds is a general assignment reporter for La Conner Community News.
