Richland vs Davis - By Hunter Graney
On Friday night, the Richland Bombers hosted the Davis Pirates for a nonconference basketball game and the Bombers’ first home game of the season. Richland sets foot in the new season after a strong last year but a disappointing finish where they came just shy of making the state tournament. Richland had an impressive 15-1 conference season last year, making them the Mid-Columbia Conference Co-Champions. The Bombers recently traveled to Utah for tough competition, coming home with one win and two losses. Davis enters this game 2-1 with a win over last year's MCC co-champs, Kamiakin, and a win over Chiawana. I spoke to senior Jase Vopalensky about his opinion for this season, and he had high hopes for this offense. Vopalensky said, “We had a fairly young team last year, and although we lost three seniors, it seems like everyone has taken a big step forward with their game which is promising.”
The Bombers’ starting five on Friday night were freshman Landon Northrop, junior Josh Woodard, senior Jordan Valencia, senior Jase Vopalensky, and junior Luke Westerfield. All five are players we can expect to see a stellar season. Richland’s highly anticipated offense took a bit to get going and had several minutes without a score once their first couple of points were on the board. Their defense came out firing, only allowing five points in the first quarter, ending the first quarter 16-5. Richland seemed to use 6’8” Luke Westerfield to their advantage, feeding him down low consistently. Davis’s offense still struggled, only scoring 11 points in the second quarter, led by Cesar Hernandez’s 6 points in the half. The Bombers wasted no time pulling ahead. Whether it was the Freshman Landon Northrop or big man Luke Westerfield, the bombers were clicking. Northrop had two threes and a 10-point half, making his presence known early, along with two blocks and two steals. Westerfield led the Bombers with 16 points at the half, putting them up 37-16.
What once was a one-sided game soon was no longer. Davis went on a 14-4 run in the first 4 minutes of the half. Davis shut down Luke Westerfield and was clamping Richland’s offense. On the other end, the Pirates had great ball movement and excellent shooting to close the gap. The Pirates guard Brandon Lee Jr was feeding Blake Garza and Finnegan Anderson down low. Those three players were leading the Pirates to what seemed like an epic comeback, hitting clutch threes and making shots down low off of great ball movement. Richland’s offense had been met with some great defense. Richland was held to 7 points in the 3rd quarter, and the home crowd was silenced. Davis put up 24 points in the third, cutting the lead down to four as the Bombers entered the 4th quarter up 44-40.
Just 30 seconds into the 4th, Davis’s Brandon Lee Jr hit a transition three off a steal from Cesar Hernandez, which put the Pirates ahead 45-44. The Bombers had been outscored 29-7 since the end of the first half. Davis’s small crowd seemed to be as loud as ever and fired up over their team's surge, while Richland’s massive crowd was in shock and didn’t know what to think. Both teams traded baskets for multiple possessions. Richlands stud defenders Jase Vopalensky and Jace Woodard put their defense into another gear, clamping two of the Pirates' best players and allowing the offense to get back into a rhythm. Richland grabbed all momentum with a 54-48 lead and forced Davis to call a timeout. Only up four with less than two minutes left, Josh Woodard found his brother Jace for a big three to put them up seven, a huge shot for the Bombers. Finnegan Anderson drew a big foul for the Pirates and cut the lead to five after making both free throws with only 1:19 remaining. After two made penalty shots from Richlands’ Valencia, Davis’s Brandon Lee Jr hit his fourth three of the game to make it 63-59, but only 28 seconds remained on the clock. The Woodard brothers hit three free throws to end the game 66-59 in a second-half thriller.
Davis's leading scorers were Brandon Lee Jr with 14 points, Blake Garza dropping 20 points, and Finnegan Anderson with 12. All three players played both sides of the ball extremely well and were firing on all cylinders in the second half.
Richland’s Luke Westerfield had 20 points, 16 of which were in the first half. Followed by Jordan Valencia with 11 points and a quiet night from Josh Woodard, who put up 9. An honorable mention to Jace Woodard, who put up 7 with a key three, free throws, and stellar defense to keep the Bombers from choking.
Some key takeaways from this new Bomber team were: Luke Westerfield showed a huge step forward from last year with great footwork and looked like he held much more confidence going up strong to the basket. The Bombers can still rely on Jase Vopalensky for phenomenal defense. Vopalensky showed off his consistently great defense, locking down key players in key moments. Landon Northrop is following in the footsteps of his brother, one of the all-time leading scorers for the Bombers. Landon is only a freshman and leads the Bombers in scoring this season, flexing the sharp shooting in his genes. Although Josh Woodard has had a quiet few games, we know what he is capable of. Once the shots start falling, Woodard will be back to his original self and could lead the Bombers and their potentially dangerous offense deep into the postseason.
