By Bucky Beaver
The Ballard boys basketball team (10-11) opened up the Kingco tournament on the road last night at Redmond High School (16-5). Both teams battled back and forth in the first quarter with Redmond closing out the quarter with a 6-0 run to lead 17 to 10 after 1 quarter. Ballard put together a strong 2nd and 3rd quarter behind solid defense, good ball movement and hot shooting. Ballard outscored the Mustangs 30 to 16 in the 2nd and 3rd quarters combined. The 3rd quarter ended with Senior Domisi Thrash stealing the ball and hitting a 3 point shot at the buzzer to put the Beavers up 40 to 33 after 3 quarters. Ballard maintained the lead halfway through the 4th quarter until Redmond got hot and the Beavers shooting cooled off. Redmond went on to a 22 to 11 4th quarter for a final victory of 55 to 51. Ballard was led by juniors Johnny Verduin with 17 points and 4 rebounds and Seth Berger with 14 points and 4 rebounds. Senior Luke Beutjer chipped in 10 points and 6 rebounds.
Ballard now moves down to the consolation bracket to play Newport at 3:00 Friday at Juanita High School. This is a loser out game, meaning whoever loses has their season come to an end. The winner advances with still a shot of making it to the State tournament. Here is a link to the updated Kingco Tournament bracket (.pdf). (Photo of Johnny Verduin courtesy Ed Tanaka and BHS Athletics.)
