RAINIER — Ben Sheaffer yelled to his players in the first quarter to leave Tyce Vigre open in the perimeter.
“Let him shoot that. See if he can hit it,” the Rainier head coach directed.
Turns out, Vigre can hit it.
Napavine’s senior guard overcame a cold first half and caught fire in the third quarter to finish with 18 points in the Tigers’ 73-49 win over Rainier Wednesday night. Vigre tallied 12 points in the third and drilled four of Napavine’s 11 triples.
He heard Sheaffer’s call and the Rainier fans jawing at him after a couple of misses in the first half. Vigre ignored them and let his game do the talking.
“I was having a bad shooting night at the beginning, but I talked to my coach and he said, ‘It’s OK. Just keep shooting them. They’ll fall,’” Vigre said.
Shots were falling for Peyton Sheaffer and the Mountaineers early in the first quarter, as the junior got to the basket at will and scored eight of Rainier’s first 10 points. A Cal Bullock jumper midway through the first quarter gave Napavine its first lead, and the Tigers led 15-14 after one.
Napavine’s offense was efficient in the second quarter. The Tigers extended their lead to double digits thanks to triples by Eric Bullock and Hudson Chambers, as well as an and-one layup by Cal Bullock. After the margin grew to 16, a Sheaffer triple at the buzzer gave Rainier some momentum at the halftime break trailing by 13.
Rainier left Vigre open from deep to start the second half, and he started canning those open looks to help Napavine blow the game open. Napavine made five treys in the frame to open up a 63-36 advantage heading to the fourth, and despite some fight from Sheaffer and the Mountaineers, the Tigers put them away by 24 points.
Across the second and third quarters, Napavine scored 48 points with seven makes from behind the arc in the 16-minute stretch. Its defense also forced 16 Rainier turnovers, many of which led to open looks in transition.
“I think it helps when your defense helps you get involved on offense,” Napavine head coach Kayden Kelly said. “And Tyce couldn’t really get it going in the first half and then he started banging some 3s. Once you start hitting 3s, they’ve got to get out on you and they’ve gotta guard you. It opens things up.”
Vigre’s 18 paced Napavine (5-0, 3-0 Central 2B League), while Hudson Chambers delivered 14 points on four 3-pointers. Eric Bullock tallied 11 points, Layton Griffith added 10, and Cal Bullock and Landram each provided nine.
Sheaffer scored a game-high 28 points for Rainier (3-4, 2-2 C2BL), while Jordan Pringle and Jacob Hanson each recorded nine points. After a 3-0 start to the season for the young Mountaineers, they’ve now lost four straight. Three of those losses were by at least 21 points, and the other saw Rainier lose a 10-point fourth-quarter lead against Toutle Lake.
Despite the 24-point loss to Napavine, which marks 10 straight losses in the series between the C2BL foes, Ben Sheaffer appreciated his team’s competitive spirit and effort.
“They can just really shoot the ball,” he said of Napavine. “I was proud of our effort defensively. I thought we were really physical and rose to the occasion. We got after it. Those guys should beat us, but we continued to battle until the final horn.”
Rainier heads to Randle to face Morton-White Pass (0-5, 0-3 C2BL) Friday night, and Napavine will not play again until Jan. 2 against MWP. Unbeaten through five games, Kelly likes what he’s seen from his squad so far.
“I like where we’re at, as far as energy and culture. Everybody’s buying into what we’ve got going on in that we’re going to work hard and we’re going to get after it,” he said.
