The Highline men’s basketball team fell to Raider sharp shooting, 92-75, and were swamped by the Gators, 99-62.
Last week was a tough one for the T-Birds, having lost a battle on the road and then returning home to host the No. 1 team in the NWAC West.
Last Wednesday, a strong first half from Pierce translated into the second, allowing the Raiders to best Highline, 92-75.
At the start, Pierce sounded off with the first bucket and held their lead throughout. Despite a solid 15-30 shooting from the field for Highline, Pierce surpassed the T-Birds with 22-30 inside. The Thunderbirds couldn’t quite trim the deficit to anything lower than three points for the half.
By halftime, the Raiders were looking confident on their home court having built a 52-39 scoring advantage over Highline.
In the second half, Highline improved their shooting to 51.6 percent, on par with Pierce’s 53.7 percent. But the Raiders out rebounded the T-Birds 22-16, allowing them more shooting opportunities to be up by as much as 21 points with 15:18 left
Pierce’s Michael Ajayi had the hot hand with 27 points on 11-19 shooting inside and 12 rebounds.
Highline’s Ricky Bell had 19 points to lead all T-Birds and shot 6-14 from the field. Nic Hogan added 15 points on a perfect 5-5 shooting from the freethrow line, he also grabbed seven rebounds.
The loss meant that Highline’s postseason window of opportunity has shut as just five games remain and six wins are needed to beat out the No. 4 in the West.
The Thunderbirds picked back up to play 7-1 Green River last Saturday at the ThunderDome.
The game held two ties and four lead changes in the first half.
Green River won the tip off, but Highline hit the ground running with a 12-4 scoring run to put them up by eight within the first five minutes. This was the largest lead the Thunderbirds would get. The Gators crept back in until they stole the lead with a 12-0 run capitalized by a dunk from Isaiah Dahl. Afterwards, Highline seemed to lose their rhythm, missing seven of their next nine shots and giving up five turnovers.
The Gators led 54-34 by the halftime break.
In the second, Green River picked back up again with a layup and another Gator dunk. Highline attempted to catch up but another run of 13-4 by the Gators, punctuated by a Zane Foster dunk sealed Highline’s fate. Green River put up 47 points to Highline’s 28 in the second half as the Thunderbirds were hobbled by 9-35 shooting from the field and nine turnovers.
The Gators collected their ninth straight conference win, and Highline their ninth loss.
For the night, Green River had a balanced performance with five players in double figures led by Isaish Dahl with 19 points on 6-9 inside shooting and five three-pointers
Highline had four players in double figures led behind a double-double outing from Rayven Turner, he swished 17 points, 12 rebounds, and four assists for the night.
Wednesday evening the Thunderbirds played Centralia on the road with results unavailable at press time.
On Saturday, No. 7 Highline will host No. 4 South Puget Sound at 2 p.m.