Preparing For the Big Game - By Kendal Smith
Richland fans are always ready to support, so it’s no surprise that at the recent game at Southridge high school, all you can see is green and gold. In a cluster of neon, the Bomber student section hollers as the boy's basketball team hits the court.
It was a quick start to the game as the Bombers took the lead quickly, scoring 27 points in the first quarter, leaving the Suns with only 4. The second quarter was more of the same, with the Bombers extending the lead to 49-21 by the midpoint of the game. Freshman Landon Northrop took control of the first half scoring 11 points along with Junior Josh Woodard scoring 20 setting the tone for how the next three quarters were going to play out.
As the Bombers had a striking lead of 28 at half Jase Vopalensky says, “...some might think it’s hard to keep the intensity up. For us, coach Streufert usually tells us to just simply keep the intensity up, but he also tells us to keep playing. The game comes to us and we just have to keep doing our thing.” The objective for Richland during this game was to man-mark 1 to 2 players from scoring and to play hard for 4 minutes at a time. The Bombers are already good at playing hard so there are isn’t a lot of moments when they let up.
Over the next 16 minutes, the Bombers kept up the pace against the Suns, continuing the rain of baskets and keeping Southridge to only 41 points on the evening. The strong lead afforded an opportunity for a few more players than usual to see the court, with both Freshman Josiah Scacco and Sylen Kiesel-kauhane scoring (Sacco) 2 points and (Kiesel-kauhane) with 3.
As the Bomber cheer team lead the rowdy student section in the latest round of “I believe that we have won,” they closed the night with their thirteenth consecutive win. The success of the Southridge game sets up the Bombers as they prepare for what might be the biggest game of the season so far. February 3rd, against the Kamiakin Braves, as they seek to repeat the MCC championships and head to the regional tournament on a high note.
Questioned at the end of the game Woodard is optimistic about the upcoming battle against the Braves and tells how this game has prepared them for Kamaiakin, he states, “It helps us prepare for Kamiakin because we key in on certain players and do our best to lock them down and it also prepares us by being able to run our plays in a game.”
