STANWOOD – Ryan Appleby may be gone, but Daes Kaufman has arrived at Stanwood High School.
Kaufman had – dare we say it – an Applebyesque game Friday night, scoring 30 points to lead the Spartans to a 59-55 victory over the Snohomish Panthers in a Western Conference North Division boys basketball contest.
Kaufman, Stanwood’s junior point guard, may not be as heralded as Appleby, the former Spartan star point guard who is now a freshman at the University of Florida. However, Kaufman displayed flashes of his predecessor Friday, scoring on an array of drives and draining his first four 3-point attempts. With his buzz haircut, Kaufman even resembled Appleby’s appearance on the court.
“I don’t even know what to say to that,” Kaufman said after being compared to Appleby. “He’s a great player. I guess I play a little like that, but we have our distinct differences.”
Stanwood coach Nate DuChesne was reluctant to make a comparison between the two, but he was appreciative that Kaufman’s best performance of the season kept Stanwood (2-0 league, 3-2 overall) undefeated in league play.
“They’re different players, but they do some things the same,” DuChesne said.
“Tonight was a hard one to top,” DuChesne added. “He scored 30 points and made some tough shots. In the second half, they went to a box-and-one (defense) and he was still able to get his shots off.”
Snohomish, led by junior post Jon Brockman’s 19 points and nine rebounds, suffered its first league loss and is now 2-1, 2-3.
“We didn’t expect to come up here and get beat, so you have to give credit to Stanwood,” Snohomish coach Len Bone said. “They were ready for us.”
Kaufman, who also had six rebounds, three assists and two steals, took the initiative after Stanwood fell behind 18-8. He scored 12 of Stanwood’s next 19 points as the Spartans fought back to take a 27-26 lead.
Then in the fourth quarter, it was Kaufman’s coast-to-coast drive with two minutes, 12 seconds remaining that gave Stanwood control at 57-53 and sent the home crowd into a frenzy.
After two free throws by Brockman and one by Stanwood’s Chris Sains made the score 58-55, the Panthers had a chance to tie. But Cris Lorenzen’s 3-point attempt with 14.7 seconds remaining was off the mark, and Stanwood’s Todd Hinderman made one of two free throws to seal it.
While Kaufman provided the offense, seniors Richard Abrams and Chris Boser led the Spartan defense. Stanwood’s interior players, led by Abrams, immediately double-teamed Brockman every time he touched the ball. Although Brockman finished with 19 points, he had to work hard for every one. And Boser shut down Snohomish’s No. 2 option, 3-point specialist Darrel Martin. Martin managed just one trey and nine points.
“This is a great win for our team,” DuChesne said. “Snohomish is a very good ball team with two very good players. I thought our kids did a great job of executing our game plan. We limited the number of shots for Jon Brockman and Darrel Martin, and when they did take shots they were contested every time.”
Said Bone: “They did a good job on Jon. They put some guys on him and did a lot of bumping, a lot of bumping.”
Boser finished with nine points, Sains had eight and Abrams grabbed six rebounds for Stanwood.
Lorenzen finished with nine points and Martin had six boards for Snohomish.
Snohomish-Martin 9, Heater 5, Brockman 19, Lorenzen 9, Abel 7, Hammons 4, Reinhard 2. Stanwood-Boser 9, Hinderman 5, Cayford 3, Kaufman 30, Abrams 6, Sains 8. 3-point goals-Martin 1, Abel 1, Boser 1, Kaufman 4, Sains 1. JV score-Snohomish 57, Stanwood 44. Records-Snohomish 2-1 in league, 2-3 overall. Stanwood 2-0, 3-2. |
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