BATTLE GROUND — La Center rained in a barrage of 3-pointers, pulling away from Bear Creek of Redmond in the second half for a 74-59 win in the regional round of the 1A boys basketball playoffs on Saturday at Battle Ground High School.
The win advances the Wildcats to the round of 12 at the Yakima SunDome, where they will open play against No. 7 King’s Way Christian on Wednesday. King’s Way Christian lost to No. 2 Cashmere 56-50 on Saturday.
La Center (18-6) never trailed in the game, pushing the ball in transition to pull out to a 10-point lead in the first quarter, but the contest wasn’t a runaway until late.
Bear Creek looked to work its way back in the game by connecting from deep, hitting four 3-pointers in the second quarter to cut the Wildcats lead to 33-30 in the final minute before half.
But, Wildcats senior guard Hunter Ecklund answered just seconds later with a 3-pointer of his own to give La Center a 36-30 lead at halftime.
The Wildcats scored the first seven points in the second half to build their lead back to double digits and went on a 13-4 run early in the fourth quarter to build an 18-point lead before salting away the final minutes.
Ecklund led all scorers with 27 points and six rebounds and junior guard Isaiah Romero had 17 points for La Center, the two combining for nine of the team’s 10 3-pointers.
“I don’t even know what happened,” Ecklund said. “We weren’t hitting those a practice, but we were just feeling it. It’s a big game. It all came together.”
Jace Blankenbeckler had 19 points and six rebounds to lead Bear Creek (14-11) and Nathan Shields had 10 points.
La Center lost twice to King’s Way in the regular season, falling 56-50 in Vancouver on Jan. 21 and 65-53 at home on Feb. 6.
LA CENTER 74, BEAR CREEK 59
BEAR CREEK — Travis Roth 6, Josh Linnenkohl 3, Jace Blankenbeckler 19, Connor Keith 9, Jake Martin 3, Nathan Shields 10, Morten Hansen 9. Totals 22 (9) 6-11 59.
LA CENTER — Hunter Ball 13, Tobey Deemer 4, Shawn Child 1, Jeremy Humphrey 2, Isaiah Romero 17, Riley Fender 2, Cedric Hubler 8, Hunter Ecklund 27. Totals 28 (8) 8-16 74.
Bear Creek 14 16 12 17—59
La Center 21 15 18 20—74
