Nooksack Boys, Meridian Girls Put Past Behind With Key Wins

The past made the Meridian-Nooksack Valley boys and girls doubleheader doubly important, but everyone agreed that Monday night’s games were not as important as the future.

In the opener, the Nooksack Valley boys got some revenge for last year’s last-second, season-ending defeat when Caden Heutink’s last-second driving layup gave the host Pioneers a 54-53 victory over Meridian.

In the second game, the Meridian girls ended three years of Nooksack domination by dominating the fourth quarter in a 58-42 victory over the Pioneers.

The victory was the third in a row for the Nooksack Valley boys and improved their record to 3-5 in the Northwest Conference and 7-5 overall. Meridian, meanwhile, fell to 5-3 in league and 9-4 overall.

For the girls, Meridian raised its league mark to 5-3 and 9-4 overall, while Nooksack Valley dropped to 6-2 in NWC play and 8-5 overall.

However, unless there is a complete collapse by those four teams or the first-place Lynden Christian boys and girls over the next three-plus weeks of the regular season, there is a very good chance that Meridian and Nooksack Valley will square off again at least once in the playoffs with more at stake.

“We only get two teams,” said Nooksack Valley girls coach Shane Wichers of the league’s two Class 1A state berths for both the boys and girls. “I guess they drew first blood. But there’s still tons of games to play. State wasn’t decided tonight.”

Whatcom Hoops January-14-2025

Cole Coppinger (2) and the Pioneers did their best to stop Meridian’s Talon Jenkins.

Heutink’s late layup gives Pioneer boys the victory, 54-53

Heutink admitted that last year’s last-second loss to Meridian in the District 1 consolation final “stung” and Monday’s night’s game-winner didn’t make up for missing a trip to state. But it still felt good.

“It was a great game for us,” said the senior point guard. “It meant a lot to everybody. And it shows we can compete with them.”

Just like last year, it came down to a final play.

After Meridian took an eight-point lead early in the second quarter that Nooksack erased by halftime, the second half was a physical, defensive battle.

The Pioneers led, 52-46, with two minutes remaining, but Meridian sophomore Trey Alexander hit a 3-pointer, and senior Talon Jenkins made a free throw and then a stepback 3 with 50 seconds to go to put the Trojans up by one.

With five seconds left, Nooksack Valley called a timeout to set up a final play. Heutink inbounded to Brady Ackerman who quickly got it back to Heutink. He drove into the key, did a jump stop, took one step around a defender, and scooped in a short layup just before the buzzer.

“He’s a good basketball player and that’s what good basketball players do,” said Meridian coach Shane Stacy.

While the game was exciting throughout, the physical defenses made it difficult for either team to find an offensive rhythm, and it really showed in the stats of both squads’ best scorers.

Nooksack Valley’s goal was to slow Meridian seniors Jenkins and Jaeger Fyfe, two of the NWC’s top shooters, and force the rest of the team to beat them. Thanks to Nooksack’s sticky defense and Jenkins’s and Fyfe’s foul trouble and cold shooting, the two Trojans were held to 12 points each.

Alexander came through with 13 points and senior James Hedahl added 7 points, but no other Trojan managed more than three points. 

“It’s always a battle with them,” said Stacy. “It was hard to get any rhythm.” As for the Pioneers’ defensive strategy of making someone else beat them, Stacy was blunt. “Obviously, it worked.”

But the Trojans’ defenders were just as stingy. Heutink, who had been averaging about 20 points the last six games, was held to eight points until his last-second shot. And Ackerman, Nooksack’s big inside threat, only had three points through three quarters.

In the fourth quarter, however, with foul trouble limiting 6-foot-6 Hedahl and 6-7 Jenkins, Ackerman made four buckets inside and senior Tristan Kamphouse sank four straight free throws and a field goal as the Pioneers finished with 21 fourth-quarter points.

“I’m excited that we won, but I felt bad for them (the Trojans) because of the foul trouble,” said Nooksack Valley coach Jason Heutink of the fouls that kept Meridian’s top three scorers on the bench much of the game. “We had 19 turnovers, and it was pretty rocky. It hurt our momentum. But that’s been our season. We like to keep it exciting.”

Kamphouse would lead the Pioneers with 12 points, Ackerman finished with 11 points, and Heutink had 10 points.

Nooksack also got a big boost from junior Owen Wichers, who came off the bench to score 9 points, including five in the decisive fourth quarter, and who along with senior Corey Olney had the defensive assignment of stopping Fyfe.

Win or lose, both teams knew this was just the first of what could again be several meetings with the stakes only getting higher. Leave it to the sophomore to put it in perspective.

“We learned a lot from this game … that we have to be more aggressive,” said Alexander. “Playing Nooksack is always good. It’s a rivalry game.” And if there’s a next time? “I think we can beat them,” he said.

Coach Heutink also wasn’t getting overly excited about a January win.

“I wasn’t surprised,” he said of the closeness of the game. “It means we still have to get better. We want to be playing our best at the end of the year.”

Both teams continue Northwest Conference action on Thursday when Meridian is at Oak Harbor and Nooksack Valley hosts Blaine.

Nooksack Valley 54, Meridian 53

Meridian                14         8       15       16—53

Nooksack Valley      8       15       10       21—54

Meridian: Jenkins 12, Fyfe 12, James 2, Haugen, Blankenburg 2, Larsen, Alexander 13, Galbraith 3, Brzozowski 2, Hedahl 7.

Nooksack Valley: Coppinger 3, Olney 4, Heutink 10, Wichers 9, Kamphouse 12, Silves 1, D. Ackerman 4, VanBerkum, B. Ackerman 11.

Whatcom Hoops January-14-2025

Brooklyn Fuller (1) and Kinsley Neal (2) celebrate Meridian’s victory.

Big fourth quarter gives Meridian girls big win, 58-42

The past three years, the Nooksack Valley girls have been the Goliaths, winning two state championships and finishing second once. But as both coaches said before the game, that is history, and on Monday night it was the little Davids’ turn.

Senior Brooklyn Fuller, who is listed as 5-foot-6 but only if she’s on her tippy toes, and junior Kinsley Neal, who is barely 5-4, combined for 13 points in the fourth quarter as the Trojans outscored the Pioneers, 17-3, to turn a close game into a Meridian romp.

“This was really important for us,” said Neal, who would finish with 15 points all on 3-pointers. “We hoped to be where we are, knowing what it takes to get there.” And where is “there”? She smiled and said simply, “The Dome.”

That would be the Yakima SunDome, where the Class 1A state tournament will be held in March. But despite being one of the state’s better teams the past three years, the Trojans have had to watch from the stands as Nooksack Valley and Lynden Christian took the league’s two berths.

“It’s always good to beat a 1A team in our district,” said Meridian coach Bree Joy. “They (the Pioneers) have been the Goliath for so long. I have to admit it’s a little sweeter to beat them.”

The Trojans did it with defense and balanced scoring. Meridian led, 41-39, going into the fourth period but its aggressive man-to-man wouldn’t give the Pioneers any open shots and limited Nooksack Valley to one bucket and one free throw by senior Grace DeHoog.

Meanwhile, Fuller hit her second 3-pointer of the night and all four of her free throws, and Neal sank two 3s to blow the game open. Fuller would also finish with 6 assists and 3 steals, both team highs.

And while Meridian’s tiny tandem was hitting outside, five other Trojans provided offensive punch. Senior Sofia Brooks had 8 points, freshman Melanie Short had 7 points, and junior Taya Benson had 6 points and a team-high 8 rebounds. Sophomores Maddy Swanson and Kaitlyn Storgaard had 5 points each with Swanson pulling down 6 rebounds and Storgaard having 5 boards.

Nooksack Valley’s 6-1 DeHoog continued to show she was one of the top posts in the league with 16 points and 11 rebounds. Senior Kate Shintaffer added 11 points, junior Payton Bartl and 7 points, and sophomore Peyton Duque added 5 points, but the Pioneers couldn’t keep up with the Trojans in the final period.

“Meridian was really aggressive and it got to us,” said Wichers. “They hit some big shots and crashed the boards. And they did a great job of not letting us get any momentum.” As for the future, Wichers knows what it take to advance to state.

“You can get mad about it (losing),” he said of Monday’s result, “or you can grow.”

For Joy, the growth is already apparent, especially on a team with only one senior.

“I know what they can bring to the table when 1 through 12 they play selfless, team ball,” she said. “This (victory) means a lot, not just beating a team but because they can see their hard work pays off when they play unselfishly. The sky’s the limit for them.”

Meridian is in action again on Thursday when the Trojans host Oak Harbor and Nooksack Valley travels east of the mountains for a non-league game against Cascade (Leavenworth) on Friday.

Meridian 58, Nooksack Valley 42

Meridian                19       15         7       17—58

Nooksack Valley   19         9       11         3—42

Meridian: Fuller 12, Neal 15, Koning, Bernardy, Martin, Storgaard 5, Swanson 5, Brooks 8, Short 7, James, Cline-Malarz, Benson 6.

Nooksack Valley: Flores 2, Shintaffer 11, Bartl 7, Davis, Duque 5, Biondolillo, Harmon, Burke, DeHoog 16.

Jim Carberry of Whatcom Hoops

Author
Jim Carberry is a former Bellingham Herald sports editor and author of several books on Whatcom County prep basketball. Follow him on Twitter @whatcomhoops and visit the Whatcom Hoops Facebook page.