Playing for the final time at their home gym as high school athletes, the W.F. West boys showed up in the Southwest Washington Senior All-Star Game on Saturday in Chehalis.
Playing with the very best of the area, Dirk Plakinger, Seth Hoff and Evan Tornow saved their very best for last, with Plakinger leading the way for the Blue team to defeat the Gold team, 119-107.
In a defense-optional affair, Plakinger scored a game-high 48 points, which included three thunderous dunks and seven 3-pointers. Hoff torched it from the outside, scoring 21 points and hitting six shots from deep in the first half alone, and Tornow added eight points.
For his efforts, Plakinger was named MVP by The Chronicle for his efforts.
It feels pretty good,” he said. “There wasn’t a lot of defense played, but it was just a fun game. Everyone got to shoot a lot.”
The Blue team, which featured the W.F. West trio, Black Hills’ Luke Ellison (2 points) and Andre Byoune, Adna’s Chase Collins (9 points) and Aaron Aselton (6 points), Centralia’s Brandon Yeung (11 points), Morton-White Pass’ Kysen Collette (9 points) and Tenino’s Takari Hickle (6 points), got out ahead early thanks to a barrage of 3-pointers.
Hoff had the hot hand early, pulling up from long range at will and even staring down the Gold team bench after a make in the first half, helping the Blue team to a double-digit advantage at the half.
But the Gold team, led by Raymond’s all-time leading scorer Tre Seydel, got back into it, in large part due to the Seagull scoring machine.
Seydel led the Gold team with 23 points, and Shelton’s duo of Tyler Ireland and Charles Thompson scored 18 and 15 points, respectively. Rochester’s Tony Groninger added 15 points, and Carson Olmstead scored 12.
Centralia’s leading scorer Landon Kaut finished with nine points, Morton-White Pass’ Gary Dotson had six, Pe Ell’s Jesse Zard had six, and Willapa Valley’s Tyler Adkins had four points.
For Kaut, who grew up around basketball and watching these kinds of all-star games, it was fun to compete in one himself.
“It’s a lot of fun getting to meet all these good players around this area,” he said. “It was a lot of fun to get to play with them. There was definitely a different mindset, most of them I consider my rivals but today we got along just fine.”
But in Chehalis, it was all about Hoff in the first half, and Plakinger in the second, as the pair combined for 69 of Blue Team’s 119 total points.
“I was just getting open shots and couldn’t miss,” Plakinger said. “It was really fun to get to play with a lot of my old select teammates from Adna and other schools.”
