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A pair of double-digit wins over league rivals last week clinched a No. 1 bi-district tournament seed for the La Conner High School girls’ basketball team. La Conner (14-7 overall; 7-1 in league) closed out the regular season, defeating Coupeville 46-30 Feb. 6 at Landy James Gym and winning 41-29 at Friday Harbor on Saturday. With the wins, the Lady Braves secured the top seed to the bi-district tournament, which opened last night at home opposite Northwest Christian of Lacey. La Conner moves on to the second round Thursday in Coupeville a...
C.J. Edwards scored a season-high 17 points to go along with his usual deft passing in leading La Conner to a convincing 56-39 NW2B/1B boys’ basketball win over Mount Vernon Christian at a packed DeKok Court on Jan. 30. Edwards, the reigning Skagit Valley Herald Boys’ Athlete of the Week, threw several dazzling overhand baseball passes from backcourt to ignite a lethal La Conner transition game that was especially effective in the decisive second half. The 5-10 junior point guard drained two of his three perimeter treys during a 16-7 fou...
C.J. Edwards is used to making his teammates look good, repeatedly feeding them for baskets as the La Conner High School boys’ basketball team’s assists leader. Edwards is looking pretty good himself these days as the Skagit Valley Herald’s Boys’ Athlete of the Week award recipient. Edwards, a 5-10 junior who runs the point for his team, received the SVH honor after scoring seven points and dishing off six assists in a 77-69 league triumph over Orcas Island on Jan. 23. He followed that up with a season-high 17-point effort Jan. 30 at Mount Vern...
Youth will be served. Sometimes, but not last week. The La Conner High School girls’ basketball team, with several eighth graders in key roles, fell 56-30 to a solid and veteran Mount Vernon Christian lineup before a large Jan. 30 Senior Night crowd at MVC’s DeKok Court. La Conner has no seniors. It started eighth graders and sophomores against the Lady Hurricanes, who enjoyed a considerable size advantage across the front line. MVC bolted to an 11-0 first quarter lead and never looked back enroute to the NW2B/1B triumph. Senior Allie Heino led...
The La Conner High School girls' basketball team enjoyed a banner night on Friday, routing The Northwest School of Seattle 64-11 in non-league hoops action. So did a group of special guests at Landy James Gym. The members of La Conner High School's undefeated 1968 football team and their families and friends were honored during halftime ceremonies highlighted by the unveiling of a banner bearing a photograph of the players and their coaches, the late Jim Frey and Vince Sellen, who now resides...
Braves hoop team blister nets, win 2 With a frigid winter cold snap outside, the La Conner Braves turned up the heat inside gyms at Coupeville and Darrington for a pair of key NW2B/1B high school hoops triumphs last week. Fittingly, given the plunging temps, La Conner’s 69-68 victory at Coupeville Jan. 16 was a classic barnburner. The Braves then scorched the nets Friday night enroute to a lopsided 76-35 decision at Darrington. “It was a good conference win after two days off for weather,” coach Lance Lopez told the Weekly News after the route...
The La Conner High School girls’ basketball team saved its best for last at Coupeville. Entering the fourth quarter deadlocked, the Lady Braves finished with an 18-4 spurt that secured a 46-32 NW2B/1B triumph Jan. 16, extending their winning streak over the hosts to 11 games dating to 2018. Coupled with a 51-25 road victory over Darrington Jan. 19, the team is unbeaten (5-0) in conference play before last night’s clash with Orcas Island. For La Conner, the road trip to Coupeville was Valentine’s Day a month early. With head coach Joe Harpe...
Brayden Pedroza has been a scoring machine for the La Conner High School boys' basketball team this season. He is also scoring points with the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association leadership. Pedroza was selected as one of its Athlete of the Week Award recipients after he meshed 22 and 27 points, respectively, in Braves' victories over Concrete and Sound Christian Academy the weekend of Jan. 5-6. Pedroza, was named a Skagit Valley Herald Athlete of the Week in December. He is...
Ivory Damien has a name not easily forgotten. But it is his polished game on the court that has given La Conner High School boys' basketball fans plenty of lasting memories. Damien, a guard equally adept at passing and scoring, made a name for himself beyond La Conner with his outstanding play at Concrete and against Sound Christian Academy. The Braves' senior netted 24 points in a 59-31 NW2B/1B win Jan. 5 over the Lions, then added another 21 the next afternoon when La Conner defeated...
La Conner had the home court advantage, but North Mason had the student enrollment edge when the schools’ basketball teams tipped off at Landy James Gym last Friday. The hosts came up on the short end of both non-conference tests, though the boys had a potential game-winning shot at the end of regulation before falling 82-72 in overtime. North Mason is a 2A Olympic League high school with over 700 students. La Conner enrolls less than 500 students in grades K-12. Still, the boy Braves had the higher numbers on the scoreboard through a s...
The La Conner Braves slayed Lions twice in hoops action last weekend. La Conner defeated the NW2B/1B rival Concrete Lions 59-31 on the road Friday, then returned home to Landy James Gym Saturday for a 67-52 non-league win over the Sound Christian Academy Lions. With the wins, the Braves improved to 8-4 overall and 2-0 in league play. Ivory Damien (24) and Brayden Pedroza (23) combined for 47 points at Concrete, which was celebrating the 72nd anniversary of the opening of its storied gymnasium. T...
They were in a foul mood throughout, but the La Conner High School Lady Braves were able to smile after grinding out a 57-29 NW2B/1B for a smashing hoops win at Concrete Friday night. La Conner (7-4 overall, 2-0 in league) won by double digits despite being assessed 21 fouls. Maeve McCormick led nine La Conner scorers with 15 points, including the team’s lone three-pointer. Jacqui Lam, Nora McCormick, Kim Williams and Kiana Jenkins – all eighth graders – finished with eight points apiece for the victors. Another eighth grader, Abi Poult...
The La Conner High School boys’ basketball team got pounded in Seattle over the weekend. But not on the scoreboard. The Braves split two closely fought, loosely called holiday tournament games with teams from larger schools, each contest decided in the final seconds. Ivory Damien and Brayden Pedroza scored 16 points apiece as La Conner edged The Northwest School, the tourney’s 1A host team, 44-41 on Friday night. The Braves led during much of Saturday’s matchup with 2A Black Hills, but fell 44-42 in Saturday’s title round of The Top of the Hil...
History stands to repeat itself in Concrete on Friday. Just as was the case in 1952, when the Concrete High School gymnasium first opened, visiting La Conner hoop teams will take the floor Jan. 5 in a rivalry that precedes the Great Depression. Members of the 1952 Concrete and La Conner teams will be honored as part of a “70-plus Years Anniversary” celebration at the iconic Concrete gym. The night’s events will also include a brief historical presentation and introductions of all-time Skagit County scorers Gail Thulen and Andy Otis of La Conne...
In recent months La Conner has leaned heavily on Langley as a model for community livability issues, from tiny homes and affordable housing to parking. Last Friday it was La Conner's turn to school Langley – on the basketball court. The high school girls' team drubbed South Whidbey 73-34 that afternoon at Landy James Gym while at the same time the high school boys routed the 1A Falcons 60-23 in Langley. "It was a good game on the road while on the holiday break," first-year Braves coach Lance L...
It was junior cheer night at Landy James Gym last Friday. And the La Conner High School girls’ basketball team gave both the youth cheerleaders and a large crowd plenty to applaud. Maeve McCormick scored a game-high 26 points, Shaniquah Casey filled the stat sheet with 16 points, six rebounds, six steals and two assists, Nora McCormick added six points and a half dozen steals and Jackie Lam finished with six points and eight boards in drubbing 1B Oakville 56-35 to improve to 5-2. Alyssa Forsythe and Laela Baker scored 10 points apiece for t...
Coming off his selection as the Skagit Valley Herald Boys’ Athlete of the Week, La Conner’s Brayden Pedroza provided Braves fans an impressive encore at Landy James Gym Friday night. The junior guard dazzled with an array of shots on his way to a game high 33 points, 10 of which came in the pivotal fourth quarter, to lead the hosts to a 69-51 non-league win over 1B Oakville. Pedroza found the hoop on slicing drives through the paint, mid-range jumpers, three-point bombs and at the free throw stripe where he converted five of six attempts. But...
Sultan had trouble guarding one McCormick. Defending two proved impossible. Maeve McCormick scored a career-high 25 points, collected 11 steals and dished off a team-best three assists while Nora McCormick added 12 points, two steals and a pair of rebounds as La Conner breezed past the 1A Turks 48-28 in non-league high school girls’ hoops action at Landy James Gym Friday night. Each of the McCormick sisters delivered two perimeter treys. The home team led wire-to-wire, bolting to a quick 8-0 first quarter lead, to record its second straight h...
Brayden Pedroza has impressed La Conner High School basketball fans in the season's first couple weeks with his ability to defend, pass and score. They aren't alone. Pedroza has made an impression with his stellar play throughout the county. The junior guard was named Skagit Valley Herald Boys' Athlete of the Week after having scored in double digits in La Conner's first three contests. Pedroza scored 23 points against Oak Harbor, 18 opposite Sedro-Woolley and a game-high 25 in the dramatic...
The La Conner Braves basketball team are true road warriors. The team followed its convincing 65-44 NW2B/1B triumph at Orcas Island Dec. 5 with another all-day trip on Saturday – this time to 2A Kingston on the Kitsap Peninsula and likewise requiring a ferry ride. It was neither smooth sailing on rainy, wind-swept Puget Sound nor in the Buccaneers’ gym for the travel-weary Braves, however. Kingston was able to withstand another big scoring night by La Conner’s Brayden Pedroza, the Skagit Valley Herald Boys’ Athlete of the Week, to post a 64-56...
New La Conner High School boys’ basketball coach Lance Lopez said before the season tipped off that two goals for his team were to be competitive and draw large crowds to Landy James Gym. He achieved both in just the Braves’ second home date. La Conner (1-2) fought back from an early double-digit deficit to edge 1B power Lummi 62-58 in overtime Saturday night. The Braves, trailing much of the contest, forced the extra session when Corran Eisen took a side inbounds pass from C.J. Edwards and drained a long three-point jumper as time exp...
She was the driving force behind the La Conner High School girls' basketball team's convincing 63-36 non-league home win over Lummi last Saturday. But outside Landy James Gym, Kim Williams can't drive at all. The eighth grader is too young. But Williams had license to motor down the lane and from baseline to baseline against the Lady Blackhawks, delivering a game-high 26 points, including a trio of outside treys. Making her second career varsity start, Williams shot 11 of 22 from the floor and...
The loss of more than 50 points per game to graduation will be a tough task for the La Conner High School girls' basketball team to surmount this season. But second-year head coach Joe Harper, who guided La Conner to a fourth place finish at the Washington State Girls' 2B Hardwood Classic in Spokane last March, has crafted what he and assistants Scottie Miller and Roger Valentine hope will be yet another winning formula. The key terms in that equation are speed and defense. "Speed and defense,"...
They didn't win a single match this season, but Black Bird Landscaping U-11 girls' soccer players were champions, nonetheless. And not just here in town, but across the entire county. That's because the La Conner team was honored at the end of the regular season with the Skagit Valley Soccer Association's coveted Sportsmanship Award. On that score, it wasn't even close. During the season, referees assigned to youth soccer matches submitted scores for sportsmanship for each team on a 1-5 scale....
Strategic planning and chaos aren't mutually exclusive. That is the approach taken this coming high school basketball season by new La Conner Braves hoops coach Lance Lopez. Lopez, who has served on coaching staffs in various sports at Mount Vernon, Sedro-Woolley and his alma mater Burlington-Edison – larger schools – will employ "borderline chaos" to control tempo and take advantage of a versatile, athletic boys' roster this winter. "I'm very familiar with the group we have here," Lopez tol...
