Auburn buries Ferris in barrage of 3-pointers, 84-45 in Hardwood Invite
The host Auburn Trojans made 13 3-pointers, seven in the first half as they built a big lead, and ran away to their second ‘running clock’ victory in as many days, 84-45, over highly-regarded Ferris.
The victory advances Auburn into the semifinals of the inaugural Hardwood Invite tournament against Metro League power O’Dea at 8:30 p.m. on Monday at Auburn. In the other semifinal, defending 3A state champion Garfield will South Medford (Ore.) at 7 p.m.
The Trojans scored the first 11 points of the game, raced to a 26-7 lead after one quarter and extended that margin to 39-18 by halftime.
“I really thought we set the tone defensively,” Auburn coach Ryan Hansen said. “Any basketball enthusiast knows, offense comes and goes but defense should be constant, so we really try to hang our hat on that.”
Easy Game, Three at a Time
Offense rarely is missing for the Trojans these days, either, though.
In building the big early lead, Auburn found myriad ways to get three points at a time. During one stretch of just over four minutes in the first quarter, the Trojans scored three points on five consecutive trips – doing it three different ways.
Three times, they made 3-pointers – getting them from three different scorers. Dae’Kwon Watson, the first of those 3-point makers, also got fouled trying another 3-pointer later in the sequence.
Watson stepped up and made all three free throws. And with 5:46 remaining in the quarter, Semaj Brown drove to the rim, rolled in the layup and was fouled. He finished the traditional three-point play by making the resulting free throw.
It all translated into that 26-7 lead after the first eight minutes.
Shooting is Contagious
Even the early damage from long distance came from several sources.
Of course, Caden Hansen got his. The senior guard made five of the 13 successful 3-point attempts and finished with a game-high 17 points overall.
But a total of five different Trojans sank shots from distance over the first two quarters. Already sitting in double digits with 10 long-range makes, Auburn’s bench wasn’t done, though.
With 2 minutes, 11 seconds to play, Aiden Rudloff made a 3-pointer that brought his starter teammates leaping off the bench with joy. Over the final 1:42, Devon Anderson made two that elicited the same response from the bench, the second of which went in off the backboard.
“We’re a team that’s certainly capable of doing that,” Coach Hansen said. “We’ve got a lot of guys who can shoot it. When they see a couple go through, it almost gets contagious. Their confidence shoots up and they kind of feed off of each other.”
Work Can Get Done Inside, Too
One of the seven Auburn players to make a 3-pointer was Tre Blasingame. But the 6-foot-5 senior did more of his work inside, on the glass and around the rim.
Blasingame scored 10 of his game-high 17 points (tied with Hansen) in the second half to be named the player of the game by the tournament. The last of his baskets came with 5:05 to play, off a missed 3-pointer, when he jumped and tapped the ball back in off the backboard from about three feet away.
The play got a spontaneous, quick pose of strength from Blasingame as it extended the Auburn lead to 73-35. Less than 30 seconds later, Anderson made two free throws to push the margin to the magic 40-point mark with 4:41 left, invoking the running clock.
“I’m excited, excited,” Blasingame said. “Blessed. Second quarter I got into some foul trouble, and sat for like the last six minutes. Third quarter, I had energy, I had fresh legs. So I just got right to it.”
Auburn had reached that point just moments into the third quarter on Saturday in a first-round victory over Westview of Beaverton, Oregon.
Dismantling A Contender
The Ferris Saxons had beaten Eastside Catholic on Day 1, 61-55, to earn their spot in the quarterfinals. That victory had pushed the Saxons, out of the 3A Greater Spokane League, to 6-0 this season.
But even as a contender to reach the state tournament next March, Ferris had no answer on Sunday.
“Spokane’s got a great brand of basketball and Ferris is a good basketball team,” Coach Hansen said. “So, I was really proud of the effort our kids put out there tonight, and I thought we played with great toughness as well.”