By Jeremy McDonald
jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– The Blanchet Catholic Boys Basketball didn’t go down without a fight Monday night against King’s Way of Washington.
Faced with the mounting momentum against them thanks to the Knights 19-0 run that put the Cavaliers down 32-18, Blanchet started a rally of their own.
It started slow. Blanchet got the game to 32-29 three minutes into the third quarter before King’s Way used a 8-1 lead to push their lead to double-digits with two minutes left in the frame. That was when Bill Riecke wheeled off six-straight points to help the Cavaliers build some momentum going into the fourth quarter.
The Blanchet senior scored 12 of his 17 points in the third quarter and 15 in the second half alone.
“I’m a leader on this team and I felt like I needed to step up in those crucial moments. Once I step up and get that energy going, everyone else can connect with me and get the energy up,” said Riecke.
The Knights got a late basket to close out the third quarter to push their lead to 42-36 after Riecke’s run, but the Cavs kept coming. They got it back down to three after an Adam Barnett three, then down to 42-41 with 4:48 left in the game. Blanchet and King’s Way traded baskets before the little things began to catch up with the Cavaliers.
Turnovers, fouls, missed opportunities that plagued them during that 19-0 run by the Knights came back around as King’s Way pushed their lead to 48-43 with 3:10 left in the game. Riecke hit a massive three with 2:43 left to make it a 48-46 game, but Blanchet weren’t able to stay out of their own way with errors to complete the comeback.
We needed to pick up our energy, that’s what was down. We got hit and we needed to hit back and I think we hit harder back. We didn’t hit hard enough. The little things, the turnovers, too many turnovers. We need to clean that up for sure,” Riecke. “It was an important game for us just to learn what we need to work on. It’s the second game of the season, we’re just going to work these next couple of weeks on what we need to do for league.”
Sam Mosar scored 13 points for Blanchet, who will head to Salem Academy Tuesday for a 7pm non-league game.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
