Braves blast Concrete on road, drop two home contests

The La Conner Braves were truly road warriors last week.

The Braves played some of their best basketball of the young season at Concrete last Tuesday, posting an impressive 67-16 NW2B road triumph behind double-figure scoring from Isaiah Price, Miles Sydzik and Ivory Damien.

The La Conner trio combined for 44 points and led nine teammates in the scoring column.

Price paced all scorers with 20 points, including a perimeter trey. Sydzik delivered a game-high four three-pointers enroute to a 14-point effort. Damien finished with 10 points on three treys and a free throw.

La Conner (3-3) was solid at Concrete all night behind the trey arc.

“We were able to get it going from deep with 11 threes,” La Conner head coach C.J. Woods told the Weekly News afterward.

The visitors jumped out to a 19-2 first period lead and didn’t look back. The lead swelled to 40-7 at halftime.

Much of the Braves’ scoring came in transition, the result of creating turnovers on defense.

Scoring proved more difficult for La Conner, however, in weekend home setbacks to Mount Vernon Christian and Puget Sound Adventist Academy.

Points were especially hard to come by in the Braves’ 40-31 loss to Puget Sound Adventist, a SeaTac 2B entry, on Saturday.

“It was a tough game tonight,” acknowledged Woods, whose club trailed throughout. “It was a fun comeback, but we came up short at the end.”

The team was down 20-15 at halftime and faced a 27-19 deficit entering the final stanza.

Puget Sound’s Jacob Andino led all scorers with 18 points. His point total included a pair of outside treys. Andrew Bokov tallied 11 points for the Sharks, who remained unbeaten (2-0) on the campaign.

Damien topped La Conner with nine points. Price hit two three-pointers, adding another eight.

Sydzik and Isa Gonzales-Rojas each hit a three-pointer for the Braves.

La Conner was hoping to rebound from a 62-50 defeat to MVC (4-1) the night before.

“They play really well together and are extremely well coached,” Woods said of the Hurricanes. “They have an inside and outside presence that gives them some good options.

“I was proud of our boys tonight,” he added. “We played hard and always stayed competing.”

Woods said adjustments made at intermission allowed the Braves to outscore MVC in the second half.

“Although it wasn’t quite enough,” said Woods, “the excitement from competing and making adjustments feels good for our boys.”

Price and Sydzik had 15 points each. All of Sydzik’s points came on three-pointers.

Nick Wyatt led eight MVC scorers with 15 points.

The home team closed with a 21-14 run, narrowing what had been a 48-29 deficit through three quarters.

La Conner resumed action this week, hosting NW2B rival Friday Harbor on Monday and visiting league foe Darrington late Tuesday. The Braves are at Auburn Adventist tomorrow (Thursday) in a 6:30 p.m. tipoff.