Brammer, Paulsen shine in Hockinson’s home win over Woodland

HOCKINSON — About four minutes into the game, Hockinson coach Jon Warner noticed something was different.

“It’s really quiet in here,” he thought.

He looked into the stands and realized the student band was absent at a competition, so the Hawks were going to have to make their own noise on Friday night.

And they knew their quest to finish in the top three of the 2A Greater St. Helens League standings would require a win over Woodland.

So the Hawks refused to be set back by a relatively docile home crowd and the bloodied hand of its leading scorer, leapt up to an early lead and staved off Woodland’s late efforts in a 74-60 win.

And they did so, Warner said, by making the extra pass when it was available.

“We played like a team tonight,” Peyton Brammer said.

Brammer finished with 21 points despite missing a portion of the first half, and Micah Paulsen scored 20 points, which included four 3-pointers.

“We’d been struggling the first half of the season to come out with energy and keep it going,” Brammer said. “We were rolling.”

Brammer’s left hand was caught by a defender who he met at the rim in a scoring effort in the first half. Brammer didn’t feel any pain, but looked down moments later and noticed blood on the Hawks’ white home shorts.

He was kept out for the remainder of the first quarter and a long portion of the second to clean and wrap it in the locker room.

But Hockinson didn’t miss a beat.

Caleb Newman came off the bench and hit back-to-back 3s, and Brammer returned to score six points to help the Hawks go into the half up 12.

“Even when they were making runs, (Brammer) got the ball in his hands and made stuff happen,” Paulsen said.

Woodland didn’t go away. Palmer Dinehart scored 12 points in the second quarter to help ignite the Beavers’ offense. The 6-foot-7 forward proved hard to stop. He finished with a game-high 30 points. But that didn’t faze the Hawks.

“I wanted to stop everyone else,” Warner said. “He’s going to get his. We don’t have a 6-7 kid to match him, so as long as we didn’t get offensive rebound, we knew he was going to score some buckets. He just doesn’t miss – not even lay-ins six feet away.”

Woodland’s Alex Bishop provided a spark and finished with 16 points. But even as Woodland’s offense got going, and the Beavers implemented a full-court press in the second half, Hockinson’s kept rolling.

Mason Panfiglio scored nine points on 9-of-10 shooting from the free throw line all in the second half.

Paulsen hit a corner 3-pointer on the first possession of the second half and the Hawks stretched their lead to 20 midway through the third quarter.

From there, Hockinson never relinquished its double-digit lead.

Hockinson (9-6, 4-3) leapfrogs Woodland into third place in the league, but only has one remaining home game. Woodland drops to 8-7 overall, 3-4 in league. The Hawks won the first matchup between the two teams 62-55 on Dec. 19.

For the Hawks, their goals are far from accomplished.

“We’re fighting for second place playoff spot,” Brammer said. “Not trying to get that fourth seed, so (tonight was a) big win.”

HOCKINSON 74, WOODLAND 60

WOODLAND—Wyatt Harsh 0, Isaiah Flanagan 6, Palmer Dinehart 30, Tyler Flanagan 5, Alex Bishop 16, Trey Hanson 3. 26 (3) 5-11 60.

HOCKINSON—Micah Paulsen 20, Canon Racanelli 5, Peyton Brammer 21, Ki Haden 2, Carson Yinger 3, Sawyer Racanelli 8, Caleb Newman 6, Cameron Venema 0, Mason Panfiglio 9, Grant Garver 0. 23 (11) 17-19 74.

Woodland 2 20 21 17—60

Hockinson 15 21 22 16—74

JV—Hockinson won.