By Kurt Howard
Bishop Blanchet Braves boys entered the Chief Sealth Seahawks gym for a basketball game Saturday night. Coming into the game Chief Sealth’s Metro Sound conference record was a respectable 5-1, 9-2 overall, while Bishop Blanchet’s Mountain Conference record was 0-8 conference and 1-11 overall.

From the beginning tip-off Chief Sealth used a full court press to put defensive pressure on Bishop Blanchet. Bishop Blanchet did not handle it very well as multiple turnovers were made, some resulting in Chief Sealth fast break baskets. Chief Sealth Coach Colin Slingsby said, “We scout each team and try to see them twice. We base what we’re going to run defensively primarily on what we see as well as just looking at their personnel with their strengths and weaknesses.”

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At halftime Chief Sealth had only a 29-18 lead over Bishop Blanchet, they just wouldn’t go away. “Rebounding has been a point of concern for us this year. We were better tonight, particularly in the second half” Coach Slingsby commented. “I wasn’t pleased with our rebounding in the first half but I thought we did a better job coming out after half time. We challenged them a little bit on that in the locker room.”

When Chief Sealth would take their time bringing the ball up court it turned into a much slower game, mostly passing the ball around the perimeter, looking for an open shot. “They (Bishop Blanchet) sat in a 2-3 zone the whole game and we got some points off of our defense on the break” Coach Slingsby said. “When a team makes a choice to do that to you that’s where you have to be able to execute. We’re a smaller team and so we have to sort out how we play against somebody that’s going to zone us. We have seen 85% zone this year in the eleven games that we’ve played and so we’ve certainly had a lot of practice but that’s an adjustment we just have to make.”

By the end of the third quarter Bishop Blanchet had narrowed the gap to only nine points. In the fourth quarter Chief Sealth took control, increased their lead and posted a 55-39 win.

When I mentioned I enjoyed watching Pepe’ Hernandez and his dunks off of alley-oop passes Coach Slingsby commented, “He’s a good leaper.”

Chief Sealth’s next game is on the road against the Franklin Quakers on Tuesday the 10th, at 7:30 pm. Franklin's conference record is 7-0, 10-2 overall.