Morton-White Pass junior big-man Josh Salguero scored a game-high 25 points and the Timberwolves held on to a big second-half lead to come away with a 61-51 road victory over Rainier in Central 2B League action Monday.
“Josh is Josh. He’s always going to be a force,” MWP coach Chad Cramer said. “I was happy to get a road league win, but it was one of our poorer offensive outings. We didn’t shoot well and we left a lot out there.”
It was a slow start for both teams, but especially for the T-Wolves, who were held scoreless for the first four minutes of the game and trailed Rainier 10-7 at the end of one quarter.
“Credit Rainier for forcing us into stuff we weren’t mentally prepared for,” Cramer said.
But MWP woke up in the second frame, reeling off a 21-5 run to take a 28-16 lead at the break.
“Offensively, we went cold in the second quarter,” Rainier coach Ben Sheaffer said. “We needed to see a shot or two to go in to stay in the game and it just never happened.
The Timberwolves led by as many as 18 in the third quarter and Rainier never cut the deficit to single digits the rest of the way as Morton-White Pass flew to a double-digit victory.
“Credit to MWP,” Rainier coach Ben Sheaffer said. “They were able to pound the ball inside and we didn’t really have an answer for Salguero. We tried to front him, but he is strong and skilled and made us pay.”
Salguero was 11 for 17 at the line, while Leytan Collette added 10 points and Gary Dotson and Jace Peters each contributed seven for MWP. The T-Wolves also won the rebounding battle 40-30.
Cramer praised the defense of Dotson and Collette for their defense on Rainier star Ian Sprouffske, holding him to just 14 points. Freshman Josh Meldrum led the Mountaineers attack with 21 points.
Rainier (7-4, 1-3 C2BL) hosts Toledo on Wednesday. Morton-White Pass (8-4, 3-1 C2BL) heads to Toutle Lake on Wednesday.
