By Gerardo Bolong

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

TACOMA - Metro 3A West Seattle broke out of a first half lull to blast past Kingco 4A Newport 60-41 in a boys basketball game of the 2019 T-Town Throwdown at Wilson High School on Thurs., Dec. 26.

”We were in a lull because they controlled the pace with their zone and we missed shots,” said first year Wildcat head coach Dan Kriley. “In the second half, we went back to basics and our standard stuff of spacing.”

West Seattle established leads of up to nine points in the first half, but Newport stayed in range and trailed only 23-19 at the half.

The Knights kept jousting to trail by only 27-26 with 5:43 left in third quarter.

At this point, the Westsiders executed quicker passing and more movement without the ball.

WS Seattle also showed enough patience for cutters to clear for easy baskets.

Two eight point leads in the third quarter grew with great abundance in the fourth quarter as steady steals led to fast break layups.

West Seattle created leads of 18 points and a 21-point lead just before a game ending free throw from Newport.

In a game which featured contributions from many players, 6-foot, 6-inch Vladimer Salaridze scored a team high 15 points. Steady Sage Nelson added 14. Isaiah Watts also had a strong second half to post 13 points.

For Newport, freshman guard Samuel Chen notched 11 in the second half, mostly from outside shots, en route to a game high 18.