David Long doesn’t particularly like the zone defense.
The Columbia River boys basketball coach didn’t expect his Chieftains to play zone in their 2A district first-round playoff game Tuesday against W.F. West.
“We spent three days working on their (man-to-man) offense,” Long said. “On Monday, we totally expected to play. But when we didn’t, we decided ‘well, let’s work on zone.’ Turns out, that was a good thing.”
The Chieftains’ zone defense gave the Bearcats fits and allowed River time to pull away for a 61-35 win.
River (19-2) will face Ridgefield on Thursday in the district semifinal at Hockinson High School. The winner of that game clinches a state berth.
“We switched to zone and that really frustrated their team,” senior Evan Dirksen said. “Our zone is kind of a weird zone, so it frustrates a lot of teams.”
Dirksen did a solid job defending W.F. West’s Colby White when the two teams met in early December. This time, the Bearcats were ready for that, sealing off the River senior to create space for White. He had eight of the Bearcats’ first 10 points.
“White is tough, big and quick,” Long said. “They were sealing us off, and he was making some plays. So we made the switch to zone to neutralize that, and they had trouble knocking down (outside) shots.”
With the defense cooling off White, it allowed time for Dirksen to get into a zone of his own on offense.
Dirksen scored 12 consecutive points for the Chieftains in the second quarter as River opened up a 28-15 halftime edge.
Alex Miller and Dirksen hit back-to-back 3s in the third quarter before Jack Armstrong added six of River’s final eight points of the third quarter as the Chieftains led 44-25.
River buried five consecutive 3-pointers in the fourth quarter to seal the win.
Dirksen finished with a game-high 25 points, and Caden Dezort added 14. White finished with 20 for W.F. West.
Long said the week-long weather delay between games didn’t have much of impact on his squad.
“One thing this team does well is they don’t carry a big lead from one game into another,” the coach said. “They start every game 0-0 and get after you. They’ve done that all year.”
That doesn’t bode well for Ridgefield, which fell twice to River 62-52 and 81-51 during the regular season — two of 14 consecutive wins for the Chieftains dating back to Dec. 27.
“We know what it takes (to get to state) because we did it last year,” Dirksen said. “So we know what it takes to get back this year, and that’s what we want to do.”
COLUMBIA RIVER 61, W.F. WEST 35
W.F. WEST (8-13) — Kayden Kells 0, Max Taylor 0, Kaelin Hazen 0, Troy Harter 0, Eirkur Saevarsson 4, Leandre Grimes 4, Tyler Speck 5, Colton Baker 2, Cade Haller 0, Colby White 20, Brit Lusk 0. Totals 14 (1) 6-8 35.
COLUMBIA RIVER (19-2) — Nate Snook 0, Alex Miller 12, Quincy Cartwright 0, Matt Asplund 0, Josh Kukula 0, Evan Dirksen 25, Caden Dezort 14, Cole Delich 0, Jack Armstrong 8, Marc Miranda 0, Dylan Valdez 2, Elijah Hairston 0. Totals 23 (11) 4-7 61.
WF West 10 5 10 10–35
River 17 11 16 17–61
