Pirates cap non-league stretch with blowout win over Spudders

By Dylan Wilhelm / dylan@chronline.com
Posted 1/6/25

ADNA — When the Adna Pirates faced King’s Way Christian on Dec. 4, it was the first of 10 consecutive matchups against teams from a higher classification.

Adna coach Chris Bannish …

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Pirates cap non-league stretch with blowout win over Spudders

Posted

ADNA — When the Adna Pirates faced King’s Way Christian on Dec. 4, it was the first of 10 consecutive matchups against teams from a higher classification.

Adna coach Chris Bannish said the scheduling was intentional, as he wanted to test the fortitude of his squad early and often against tough competition.

“We’ve done our best to schedule as good as we can for these guys,” Bannish said.

Just over a month later, on Monday the Pirates passed the final test of that stretch with flying colors, dominating Ridgefield and running away with a 80-23 victory. 

It pushes Adna’s record to an impressive 9-1, the lone loss coming to 3A White River, which sits at 7-2.

“I’m proud of them,” Bannish said. “We did it to see how they would react when things don’t go our way. And they responded.”

It took the Adna offense a few minutes to get going against Ridgefield, as the unit scored just 10 points in the first seven minutes of the game.

A Karsyn Freeman flurry in the final 40 seconds of the quarter kickstarted the unit, though, as she scored six points in that time frame before Adna put up 49 points in the next two quarters.

The Pirates earned several second, third, and fourth chances, grabbing offensive rebounds almost at will. Freeman grabbed multiple offensive rebounds herself while leading the offense, finishing the first half with 22 points and 12 rebounds.

“I told her ‘when you’re usually one of the better athletes on the floor, you can go steal rebounds,’” Bannish said. “I thought she did a great job with that.”

As a result, Ridgefield didn’t have as many possessions as it would have hoped, but the Pirates weren’t allowing much of anything at all anyway.

The Spudders put up just 10 points in the first half, and their best stretch of the night came in the third, where they doubled their point total.

Bannish said that there were a few times the Pirates got caught getting back slowly on defense, noting how it’s those little things that they’ll have to continue to work on as they get into league play.

“Those are things we did when we were in third and fourth grade,” Bannish said. “We’re just trying to make these kids tougher individually mentally … If these guys can do those things, the rest is gonna take care of itself.”

Freeman went on to finish with 30 points, 17 rebounds, six steals, and five assists, while Danika Hallom added 10 points, three assists, two rebounds, and two steals.

McKenna Torrey and Gaby Guard both tallied nine points, and Torrey also had five steals, three rebounds, and two assists. Guard had four assists and two steals.

Bailey Chapman scored seven points while controlling the paint defensively with five blocks, and Alyssa Carroll added seven points of her own. 

Ava Humphrey added six points and seven rebounds, and Kendall Humphrey scored two points while logging five rebounds, dishing out four assists, and nabbing three steals.

Adna does have two non-league games left (Auburn Mountainview on Jan. 18 and Cle Elum-Roslyn on Feb. 1), but they are in the middle of Adna’s league schedule, which begins Friday at home against Rainier.

“It’s league time now,” Bannish said. “It’s just fun to play, and it’s like that because that’s what people want to see.”