MONTESANO — Mossyrock overcame its worst shooting performance of the year to put away North River in the second half during a 67-43 win in a 1B District IV loser-out match at Montesano High School on Tuesday.
Mossyrock struggled getting shots to fall in the first half, trailing 11-10 after one quarter. It wasn’t until the second quarter until the Vikings finally found their offense, as they went to halftime with a 29-25 lead.
Coming out of the half, the Vikings caught fire, scoring 25 points in the third and only allowing the Mustangs to score four points to create a comfortable cushion as the Mustangs’ offense fell flat.
“I’m happy we got the win, but if we come out like this against teams like Oakville, we are gonna get ran off the floor,” Mossyrock coach Adam Deck said, “We got to have better focus in practice. We were like 3 for 20 from the free throw line. That is uncharacteristic and frustrating because we can’t play like that against really good teams.
“I give all the credit to North River. They came out and smacked us around a little bit and got us to wake up, and we finally started playing our kind of ball in the second half.”
The Vikings had four double-digit scorers, led by freshman point guard Easton Kolb’s 17 points to go with eight rebounds, including six offensive.
Hunter Isom added 14 points and nine boards, while Keegan Kolb finished with 13 points, nine assists and five steals and Zack Munoz tallied 12 points and five assists.
Mossyrock now advances to play league rival Willapa Valley in a winner-to-regional matchup at 6 p.m., Thursday, in Menlo. The winner heads to the district championship game. The loser plays in a winner-to-regional, loser-out match.
