Naselle basketball starts season hot

The Naselle Comets are off to a good start in both boys' and girls' basketball, as both teams came away with wins in their first conference games of the year, and the girls also won the local cross-county rivalry against the Wahkiakum High School Mules.

The boys and girls conference games were each played against Taholah on Dec. 13.

Boys basketball beat Taholah

The boys came away with a strong 68-47 win against the Chitwins, powered by strong performances from Trajen Ford and Leith Chadwick, who led the Comets in scoring with 19 points apiece.

The 20-point victory was fueled by a potent first half scoring the ball, with the team scoring 37 points. The pace of play was relatively frenetic, with both teams looking to get out in transition when they could. In the half-court, both teams relied on matchup defending to try and limit the other team. Though Taholah had some talented shooters putting the ball in the basket, they couldn't match the Comets' aggressive offense in the second half.

Other Comets who came up big for the team were Jacob Lindstrom and Jack Strange. Though Strange has generated a lot of attention for his exploits on the gridiron, he is also a significant contributor on the court. Strange contributed 10 points in the game and was one of four players scoring double digits. Lindstrom was the final Naselle player to eclipse ten points, and he finished the game with 16.

The Comets will next take the court against Chief Leschi away on Dec. 18 and will play their next league game against Willapa Valley on Dec. 20.

Comets come home with KM Trophy

The girls team also came away with a win against Taholah in its first conference game of the season, 36-30 on Dec. 13, but they also won a trophy this week, coming away with the KM Trophy after beating the Wahkiakum Mules on Dec. 16.

The KM Trophy is the prize for the winner of games between the two programs and is the symbol of their rivalry. This year, the trophy went home with Naselle, who beat the Mules 38-33 in a hotly contested matchup.

Naselle forward Aubrey Katyryniuk led the way for the Comets, streaking to the hoop and dropping in moonshots from three to reach a game-high 17 points. Wahkiakum came into the game riding high off a 49-12 conference win against Three Rivers Christian on Dec. 12.

It was a tight game in the early going of the game, with Naselle leading 8-6 after the first quarter. In the second, Naselle began to execute on a higher level, with Katyryniuk dropping eight points in the quarter. Brooke Davis was another vital piece of the Comets' success on the night, as she scored 10 points.

In the second, Naselle's defense stymied the Mules' offense, holding Wahkiakum to four points in the quarter while the Comets racked up 15 points to go into half up 23-10.

Both teams went back and forth in the third quarter, with Naselle just outscoring Wahkiakum 11-10. Despite the 34-20 lead entering the fourth, the Mules proved to be stubborn and mounted a challenge down the stretch.

In the final quarter, Wahkiakum finished the game on a 13-4 run down the stretch and brought the game closer than the Comets probably would have liked near the end. Despite a valiant effort from their rivals, Naselle ended up hoisting the KM Trophy and came away with the coveted bragging rights.

Naselle will be back in action against Willapa Valley in an away conference game Dec. 19.