Naselle teams continue winning ways

1/23/2008
By PHIL RAISTAKKAObserver corespondent
LACEY - The Naselle Comets boys continued their winning ways with a hard-earned 68-65 overtime win over the Northwest Christian Navigators in a Pacific League basketball game played in Lacey on Saturday, Jan. 19. For the moment at least, the Comets broke the four-team first place log-jam at the top of the league. Naselle won its seventh game in succession, its eighth win out of the last nine games, to give them a league record of 7-2 and 9-5 overall. Northwest Christian fell to 6-3 in the Pacific League, 9-4 overall.The Comets are currently tied for first with the North Beach Hyaks, and are even in games played against each other. Northwest Christian and Tacoma Baptist each dropped to one-half game off the pace for first place.The fact that this win didn't come easily is attested to by the need for overtime. But the win was even harder than that as the Comets had to come from behind after trailing through the middle two quarters and well into the fourth period. The teams battled to a 13-13 tie after one period as the battle lines were drawn with the Burkhalter brothers, Austin with 28 game points and Kyle with 21, leading the Comets while the Navigators rallied behind the scoring of their ace Ryan Fox with 23 game points, and support from Daniel Mailhot (18 points) and Robbie Groeschell (10). The Comets got solid scoring support from Conor Smith and Nathan Sultemeier, each with seven points and Smith also pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds.NWC took control with a 16-8 second period and the Comets went in at the half trailing 29-21. The situation improved in the third stanza as the Comets cut into the Nav's lead with a 15-10 third period to only trail by three points going into the fourth quarter. Naselle was able to outscore the Navs 18-15 in the fourth quarter as the teams deadlocked at 54 to force a Comets game into overtime for the first time this season. After trailing by as much as nine points in the fourth period, the Comets got a driving basket from Kyle with six seconds left in regulation. That tied the score, and when NWC missed a potential winning shot at the buzzer, the game went into OT.The overtime turned into a scoring battle with the Comets Burkhalter boys playing major scoring roles. Austin hit several free throws and Kyle converted on a put-back to put the Comets up by three points with 40 seconds left. Kyle scored seven of his 21 points in the OT. Naselle converted 21 of 31 free throws in the game with Austin making 11 of his 13 tries while the Navs were 15 of 23 on their freebies. Those overtime points enabled the Comets to out-last NWC with a 14-11 overtime advantage for their three point win.Prior to the game,the Navigators were one of the teams listed among the "others receiving votes" in the Washington AP Basketball Poll for 2B teams. And that was prior to NWC beating the Tacoma Baptist team which was eighth place in that same newspaper poll. The Comets also got a mention as a team of "others receiving votes" in that poll.The Comets continue their quest for the league title with two league games and a make-up non-league game against a much larger school this week. The Comets were scheduled to play Ocosta at Westport Jan. 22 and they entertain Willapa Valley this Friday and Seaside, Ore., Monday, Jan 28, in the non-league encounter.

Naselle (68) - Austin Burkhalter 28, Kyle Burkhalter 21, Smith 7, Sultemeier 7, See 3, N. Hines 2, Erickson; Rebounds: Smith 10;
Steals: Smith 2

NWC (65) - Ryan Fox 23, Daniel Mailhot 18, Robbie Groeschell 10, Dunn 6, Armstrong 3, Owens 2, Morgan 2, Cook 1, Sowers, Hamilton