For friends Jaydia Martin and Katie Peneueta, facing off as high school competitors for the first time after years as club teammates, perhaps the most memorable moment from the Hoops for the Holiday Tournament was light-hearted laughter at the free-throw line.
It was Wednesday’s opening game at the annual holiday three-day girls basketball event at Evergreen High School when an opposing Hudson’s Bay player wasn’t too fond of Peneueta’s vibrant yellow and blue pizza-sliced socks.
The Heritage freshman’s reply, right before calmly sinking the free throw in what turned out to be a one-point loss to open the tournament, sparked laughter from Martin.
“I love your socks,” Martin replied back.
Martin of Hudson’s Bay and Peneueta of Heritage are two of Clark County’s standout freshmen this basketball season.
Martin’s nearly 20-points-per-game average ranks second in the region in scoring for girls basketball while Peneueta’s in the top 10 at 14.3 after back-to-back 20-plus-point scoring games, including a career-best 25 in that Heritage-Bay game on Wednesday at Evergreen High School. The three-day, four-team tournament concludes today.
Bay might’ve won the game, 45-44, to sweep the season series over Heritage, but Peneueta won the matchup of friends. Peneueta’s 25 points bested Martin’s 16, and naturally just like pregame hugs, postgame talks ensued.
“I hadn’t seen her in a month,” Martin said.
Their friendship dates back to when they learned to play basketball through the Vancouver-based HotShots Youth Sports. It continued through last year when Martin’s mother, Tanya, a Hudson’s Bay graduate, created the Vancouver Elite club team, and coached her daughter and Peneueta through eighth grade.
The friendship was instant, and so was their chemistry on the court.
“We always knew where each other was,” Martin said. “We were connected in some ways; we always got a good play off.”
That’s why facing each other for the first time as competitors and not teammates back on Wednesday was a fun experience because of past familiarities. Peneueta missed the Dec. 15 game — a 49-37 Bay win — because of illness.
“Sometimes, we’d knock each other down, and laugh about it,” Peneueta said.
Neither are surprised about their early high school successes, either.
Martin’s season-high in points is 32 and has scored more than 20 four times. Peneueta’s had her fair share of noteworthy performances, too.
On Thursday, Heritage earned its fourth win of the year by scoring a season-high in a 56-42 win over Evergreen behind 28 points from Brianna Gould. Peneueta had 21 points, 10 rebounds and six blocks, but it was the first go-around against the Plainsmen that got the attention early on the 6-foot freshman.
Never before in head coach Karrin Wilson’s nine-year tenure has a Heritage player recorded a triple-double.
That’s exactly what Peneueta did in her high school debut: 19 points, 14 rebounds and 17 blocks, and reflecting on the performance, the 14-year-old deflected the credit to her teammates.
“They were the ones who did that for me,” she said.
Martin, too, knows her friend is just scratching the surface, just like what she believes Hudson’s Bay is about to do.
The Eagles, despite Thursday’s 83-52 setback to Columbia River, already is 6-3 with one more game Friday before opening 3A Greater St. Helens League play.
Three integral pieces to the Eagles’ rise are Martin, Stacia Mikaele and Kamelai Powell — what the Eagles are calling the Big 3 — and that’s a trio of freshmen: Martin, Stacia Mikaele and Kamelai Powell.
The trio got well-acquainted in June, which made for good summer ball season and strong preseason start, Mikaele said.
Now, it’s about taking baby steps moving forward, she added.
Said Powell: “Once we put it all together, we can be really good.”
