Eastlake basketball’s funk continues with third straight home loss
The Eastlake Wolves continue their home game losing streak Friday with a 76-54 loss against the Redmond Mustangs.
The game started off with Redmond dominating on both ball possession and the scoreboard. The Mustangs took the lead with a 15-4 run, highlighted by three-pointers from Redmond’s Sam Miller and Diego Alvarez. The Mustangs’ Matthew Grabarski’s four steals, coupled with his speed, helped add points to the scoreboard. While Eastlake did score a few buckets, Redmond’s aggressive defense largely stalled any momentum for the Wolves. They could only muster 8 points in the first quarter compared to the Mustangs’ 23. That deficit became impossible for the Wolves to close.
The Wolves tried to take their game up a notch in the second quarter. Eastlake managed to put up points but were struggling to break through the Redmond defense to get closer looks at the basket. They mostly fired from behind the three-point arc or scored from the foul line. Kaleb Dehaan made two 3-pointers, while Evan Heidinger added another. The Mustangs, on the other hand, were flourishing with continued aggressive play and great looks at the basket. Redmond still outscored the Wolves and widened their lead to 43-23 by halftime.
Redmond’s momentum continued in the third quarter with 3-pointers from Scneider and Drew Prinos Grumbach. For once, Eastlake stayed close, putting up 16 points with 3-pointers from Nathan D’Souza and Wes Schmidt. But the Mustangs continued to hold their lead by adding 17 points to their column. They played hard with fast breaks that were set up by Cooper Kunz, and a buzzer beater in the last couple of seconds seemed to add emphasis to their dominant performance.
Hoping to catch the points train, Eastlake gave their best effort in the fourth quarter, but the gap was too high. The Wolves initially held off the Mustangs and Eastlake’s Schmidt scored a 3-point bucket, but then the Mustangs went for a run of 11 points with a dunk coming from Kunz after an assist from Hiroshi Johnson. The game more or less stayed stable after that, with Eastlake trying to make a last ditch run but Redmond continuing to hold their own. By this time, the gap was massive, and Redmond ended the game comfortably at 76-54.
Eastlake Coach Nick Crossan said the trend of losses do not define the team.
“Our focus is stacking days and getting better each day,” Crossan said. “This is not a sprint, it’s a marathon and our goal is to be clicking together at the right time. I believe our guys are headed in that direction.”
Eastlake is currently sixth in 4A KingCo with a 5-3 league record, and a 7-8 record overall.
