3A Prep Boys Basketball: Kelso keeps composure, clips Evergreen for first league win

Institutional Knowledge — Seniors lead Scots over Plainsmen, 54-50

Teams, cheerleaders, officials and fans stand at attention to Old Glory prior to the beginning of a 3A GSHL boys basketball game between the hometown Hilanders and the Evergreen Plainsmen, Friday, Jan. 17, in Kelso. The Hilandes went on to win 54-50. — Still image from the N2 Media broadcast

Nick Sisson for Blast Zone Media

Youth and inexperience often lead to growing pains when trying to figure out how to go from simply competing to actually winning games. Lucky for Kelso, their trio of seniors were on hand to lay the blueprint for the young Scotties and earn a hard-fought victory 54-50 over Evergreen Friday night at K-Court.

Bryar Iddings led Kelso with 10 points on an array of tough shots, and helped seal the deal at the free throw line late in the game along with fellow senior Triton Hagdahl-Daniel. Tucker Amrine, another senior Hilander, added all eight of his points in the second half, including a big 3-pointer that gave Kelso the lead back late in a game that mimicked an Atari version of Pong.

That is to say, the contest was predictably back-and-forth, even if you didn’t know who was going to win in the end.

“It was just really nice to see us finish a game off and play a full 32 minutes tonight,” said Kelso coach Joe Kinch. Bryar has been under the weather lately and he had the assignment of guarding their best player, and I thought he played very well overall on both sides of the court.”