Tonasket sophomore John Stedtfeld crouches down to make a jump shot despite two tall Cascade defenders preparing to block the shot during Tonasket’s loss to Cascade on Saturday, Jan. 16. Photo by Ian Dunn

LEAVENWORTH – After losing two more games last week and increasing their losing streak to eight this season, the Tonasket boys’ basketball team is hoping for a win this week.

On Tuesday, Jan. 12, the Tigers lost an away game to Lake Roosevelt 61-39.

“I thought we had some flashes where we played pretty well and had some times where we broke their press,” Glenn Braman, head coach, said. “They’re pretty big and they rebound well. I thought we played all four quarters but they made a lot of three-point shots and it’s hard to keep up with them. It was definitely a better game than the last couple.”

Leading the Tigers was senior Terrell Cross with 11 points. Cross was three for three from the field and also had three assists. Junior Corbin Moser had nine points with four assists while senior Wade DeTillian had seven points, seven rebounds and two steals. DeTillian was also three for four at the freethrow line.

“The thing that was nice about the Lake Roosevelt game was that they didn’t blow ahead of us, we hung closer to them and their lead slowly built up throughout the game,” Braman said.

On Saturday, Jan. 16, the Tigers traveled to Leavenworth where they lost 62-47 to Cascade.

“We played well, it was similar to the Lake Roosevelt game, but we did turn the ball over a lot,” Braman said. “We had 32 turnovers which is a season high. However, we shot the ball with a higher percentage than usual and we had quite a few rebounds.”

Junior Colton Ayers led the team with 21 points, 12 rebounds and two steals while Moser had eight points and five rebounds and DeTillian had seven points and two assists.

“We’re definitely putting time in to lower turnovers and take care of the ball better,” Braman said. “We were behind Cascade in attempts but we were a lot closer to their attempts than we have been. I think we had more steals in this last game than we have in the past and we ran our press breaker really good and scored some easy baskets.”

With the season more than half-way over, Ayers is leading the team in scoring with 150 points for an average of 12.5 per game while sophomore John Stedtfeld is close behind with 131 points and an average of 10.9 per game. The team overall has a total of 552 points with an average of 46 per game. Ayers is leading in rebounds with 92 while sophomore John Stedtfeld has 49 and Moser has 44. Moser also leads with 29 assists while Stedtfeld has 20 and junior Zach Neal has 18. Stedtfeld is leading the team in steals with 18 while Ayers has 16 and Neal has 11. The team is averaging 28.8 rebounds per game, 10.6 assists per game and 6.7 steals per game. They have had 272 turnovers so far this season, averaging 22.7 per game.

As of press time, the Tigers (0-6, 2-12) had not yet played against Omak on Tuesday, Jan. 19. Their next game is Friday, Jan. 22 in Brewster at 7:30 p.m.

“It’s a big week for us,” Braman said. “We’ve played Omak and Brewster once already and we lost to Omak by five and Brewster by ten so we’re looking to play well and I’m anticipating this is the week we may win a game or two. The kids are playing more confidently and getting a bit of that swagger.”