It has been a difficult winter for the Ferndale and Nooksack Valley boys basketball teams with their communities flooded and all the cancellations, but the Golden Eagles finally seemed to have it figured out, which they proved by winning their rescheduled game with the Pioneers, 58-46, on Saturday, Jan. 10.
“Confidence is the key,” said Ferndale coach Luke DuChesne. “You’ve got to expect to win. We’re starting to figure it out.”
The victory — in a game that was originally scheduled for Dec. 13 — was the Golden Eagles’ second big NWC win in a row after four league losses and improved their overall record to 3-7. On Thursday, Ferndale upset Mount Vernon in an important Class 3A clash.
“We started out slow, but we’re figuring it out,” said sophomore Houston Wills of the team’s recent improvement. “Mount Vernon was a big confidence boost. We’ve had a lot of good energy. That hasn’t always been there in our losses.”
For the Pioneers, unfortunately, it was the latest in a series of tough losses, dropping them to 4-8 overall and 0-7 in league.
“We’ve got to figure out what’s next,” said Nooksack Valley coach Jason Heutink, whose team played its best game of the season just two weeks ago in upsetting 2A Franklin Pierce.
“We were heading in the right direction, but we’ve slipped back a bit. But they never quit. They weren’t happy about it (the loss), but they never stop working. We’re proud of that.”
Effort was never a question for either team as both take pride in their workman-like defense and toughness battling on the boards. On Saturday, it was really only a four-minute stretch that separated the two.
Ferndale held a slim six-point lead after a back-and-forth first half, but the Golden Eagles came out of the break energized, turning two quick Nooksack turnovers into buckets and getting a 3-pointer from Wills to spark an 11-1 run and give them a 39-23 lead.
The Pioneers would never stop fighting — and the game did get physical at the end — but could never get the margin under 10.
“We can’t have stretches like that,” said Heutink. “We’ve just got to clean up those stretches.”
Wills had seven of his 15 points in the critical third period and would be one of three sophomores to finish the game for the Golden Eagles, who only played seven players. The other two sophomores — Tracen Pazaski and Trey Munson — combined for another 11 points.
“They are growing up before my eyes,” DuChesne said of his youngsters. “Sometimes I forget that we have three sophomores on the court at the end. They don’t care (about the pressure).”
But the Golden Eagles’ leader was once again senior Mantaj Singh. The 6-foot-5 wing is a matchup problem for any team, and he continually drove to the hoop, hit a 3-pointer, and finished with a game-high 24 points. Senior Cooper Vincent added 8 points and 6 rebounds for Ferndale.
The Pioneers were missing injured Cole Coppinger and his 10 points a game, but his fellow seniors did their best to keep Nooksack in the game.
Owen Wichers had eight of his team-high 17 points in the fourth period and pulled down 6 rebounds, Crew Bauman had all 10 of his points in the second half and finished with 6 rebounds and 5 steals, Jayden Anderson and Brian Leyerly had 6 points each, and Weston Silves added 5 points.
What really hurt the Pioneers was their cold outside shooting. They only made one 3-pointer in 12 tries leaving them three for 29 in the past two games.
So while Nooksack Valley continues looking for its first league win to turn the momentum around, Ferndale has its sights on bigger things.
“We want to make it to district,” said Wills, which means finishing in the top three of the four 3A Northwest Conference teams. “We want to end the season strong.”
Ferndale will get a chance to take a big step in that direction when it hosts Sedro-Woolley, another 3A squad, on Wednesday. Nooksack Valley hits the road to take on 1A rivals Meridian and Blaine on Monday and Wednesday, respectively.
Ferndale 58, Nooksack Valley 46
Ferndale 12 16 16 14—58
Nooksack Valley 11 11 10 14—46
Ferndale: Singh 24, Pazaski 6, Wills 15, Vincent 8, Baader, Munson 5, Singson.
Nooksack Valley: Bauman 10, J. Anderson 6, Wichers 17, Leyerly 6, Scheenstra, Silves 5, Ackerman 2, Mitchell.
