KAMIAH — After the KHS basketball boys polished off their second win over Grangeville of the season, prevailing 53-39 on Monday night, Dec. 19, Kubs coach Aaron Skinner said the team was shorthanded and that their defensive intensity was lacking.
“Some coaches would say, ‘A win is a win,’ but that’s not me,” he said. “We’re still riding on the coattails of what we did last year, but last year we were one of the best teams defensively — 37 points against, per game. Giving up 39 tonight is too many. With Lapwai in our league, we’re going to have to play a lot better defensively than we did tonight. So our practices will get a lot more competitive. We might have to change up our starting lineup, because we have some attitudes in our locker room that we’re a lot better than actually we are right now.”
Grangeville scored first, with David Goicoa (10 points) sinking a long jump shot from the right side for a 2-0 lead; it leveled at 2-2 and 4-4, before the Kubs rolled off an 8-0 run. KHS pulled ahead with five minutes left in the first quarter, when Kaden DeGroot notched two foul shots. Their lead grew to six on a third-chance basket by Rehan Kou (17 points), and Grangeville halved that to three, 10-7, with a three-pointer. The Kubs countered with a triple of their own, which GHS answered with a basket by Carter Mundt, but David Kludt (14 points) scored the last basket of the first quarter off an offensive rebound, keeping KHS ahead by six, 15-9.
Kludt’s hoop marked the start of a 13-0 run that extended through the first three minutes of the second quarter, after which Kamiah led 26-9, putting the outcome beyond question. During that stretch, Kludt, Kou, and DeGroot accounted for the scoring and sophomore guard Matthew Oatman stood in to draw a charge against Cody Klement (10 points).
After the Kubs pushed their lead up to 17, Grangeville called time-out with 5:05 left in the first half; the teams combined for just six more points before intermission.
Kamiah’s lead again reached 17 on a hoop by Kludt, then grew to 19, 32-13, on a basket by William Millage. Grangeville then surged, cutting it to 10 on a triple by Mundt, after which Kamiah scored the next seven points, with Everett Skinner tallying a putback for a 45-28 lead early in the fourth quarter.
The win carries Kamiah into winter break with an unbeaten record (6-0), to return to action Dec. 28 at the Christmas tournament in New Plymouth, where they’ll open against Vale, Ore. Grangeville next plays Dec. 21 at Orofino, then is on break until Jan. 3 against McCall.
