By Jeremy McDonald
jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SILVERTON. Ore.– 55 points certainly seems low for Silverton. It’s just the sixth time in 18 games this year that the Foxes scored below 60 points in a game.
But, in their 55-40 win Tuesday night, they were deadly from three-point land. Hitting seven of their 13 three’s in the first half building a 25-15 halftime lead over fourth-ranked South Albany at home that it’s hard to imagine that they could be having an off-night.
“The craziest part about it is that our best shooters, they didn’t even have their best shooting games. So for us to put on a little shooting clinic such as we did tonight, for us it’s incredible,” said Silverton’s David Gonzales. “Not our very best, but pretty good.”
Of the Foxes 13 three-pointers, Gonzales owned seven of them as the Senior Guard scored 22 points in the win for Silverton. Trysten Wertz added 12 points, all from three, for the Foxes.
The Redhawks Isiah Gillam was the focus-point for the Foxes defense on this night, holding the junior to two first half points and getting him into foul trouble. Gillam missed the third quarter with three fouls as Silverton turned their ten-point halftime lead into a 44-22 lead into the fourth quarter.
Taking South Albany’s best player out of the game was a crucial turning point of the game in limiting Gillam to the nine point performance that he had.
“That’s the game plan and that’s huge for us. He’s a great player, he’s only a junior. It’s huge for us, that was probably the whole game difference was trying to stop him,” said Gonzales. “So that was big for us.
“We play a super good team effort to try to stop their best player. Potentially stop them from individually hurting our team making plays for their own team.”
Evan Benson scored a team-high 13 points for the Redhawks, who fall to 7-3 in Mid-Willamette Conference play and Silverton’s two-game lead in league holding strong after the squad won their 14th consecutive game at home with five league games remaining.
