Mount Si boys run past Evergreen in season opener
December 10, 2008
By Ryan Piersol
It took the Mount Si boys basketball team just one game to showcase how explosive it can be.
It took Tanner Riley about two minutes to do the same.
The 6-2 junior guard scored 23 points in the first half to lead the Wildcats to a 68-57 season-opening win against Evergreen Dec. 4 at Mount Si. The team’s leading scorer a year ago, Riley finished with 30.
Mount Si’s Zander Nelson is fouled in the paint during the second half of the Wildcats’ win against Evergreen.
The Wildcats jumped on Evergreen quickly, scoring the game’s first eight points, and led by 10 at the end of the first period. Mount Si didn’t slow down from there, widening the gap to as many as 19 in the second quarter and leading 44-29 at halftime.
By that time, Riley had already displayed a variety of successful shots — the running layup, the fading jumper, the long 3-pointer, you name it.
“I was feeling my shot,” he said. “I’m more of a one-on-one player. So, it was fun coming off screens and taking shots off them.”
Aside from Riley’s 30, Mount Si also received 14 points from Dillon Shane and nine from Zander Nelson.
In the second half, Evergreen switched to a zone defense and managed to slow the Wildcats considerably. Mount Si failed to score until the 3:43 mark of the third period, allowing the Wolverines to climb back within 44-36. Riley broke the scoreless drought with a jumper, but the Wildcats still only scored seven points in the third period and had a slimmer 51-38 lead.
Things opened up more in the fourth and Mount Si pulled away. Nelson had field goals low in the post on three consecutive possessions late in the game when Evergreen was trying to get back in it. The closest the Wolverines got in the fourth was 54-47.
“The first half we were excited and we played pretty well,” Wildcats head coach Jeff D’Ambrosio said. “The second half got kind of ugly.”
It took Evergreen a half to figure out it would be better off not running a man-to-man defense against Mount Si. D’Ambrosio doesn’t expect that to be the case all season, meaning his team will work plenty in practice on playing against a zone.
Tanner Riley gets off a shot in the second half against Evergreen.
“We hadn’t worked on it a whole lot so far because we’ve been working mostly on fundamentals,” he said. “So, we knew we could be in a little bit of trouble if we saw a zone. We just need to move without the ball and find the angles.”
Reach editor Ryan Piersol at editor@snovalleystar.com or 392-6434.
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