At one point down eight in the fourth quarter to the defending Evergreen League champions, the Warriors couldn’t get a game-changing shot to fall and lost to the Bulldogs 64-41 on Friday night at home.
Even in defeat, under second-year head coach Caleb Sells, Rochester will be in the Class 1A District 4 tournament. It will be at worst the No. 4 seed and play in the pigtail, but could get to the No. 3 seed by winning the final two games.
“It was going to depend on the freshmen,” Sells said when asked if the playoffs were a possibility. “I felt this group had the talent to do it, they’ve taken the punches and learned from them. Any given night, we can play with just about anybody.”
Rochester (2-14, 2-4 Evergreen) was only down three after one, but the deficit was extended to 12 at the half and 14 after three. All three of their bigs – Marshall Turnquist, Peter Hayden and Zander Miller – fouled out.
Tyson Canales finished with 12 points and Emmitt Mancuso added nine plus Le’Shawn Hines chipped in eight. The Warriors will take on Tenino on Wednesday in the second installment of the Scatter Creek Showdown.
