By Greg Lee, The Spokesman-Review
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They needed a running clock in the first quarter.
Defending State 2B champion St. George’s suffocated the Tri-Cities Prep Jaguars early, rolling to a lopsided 65-30 victory in a regional game Friday night at Central Valley.
The Dragons (27-0), winners of 47 straight, make the short trip to the Spokane Arena next week for the state tournament.
Will Tender got the Dragons going quickly, scoring 14 of his game-high 28 points in the first quarter.
“We just wanted to set a tone for the rest of the game and the entire week,” Tender said. “If we can go out there and play hard and play well it bodes well for us in the future.”
When St. George’s went ahead by 40 points late in the third quarter, the running-clock rule took effect.
The Jaguars were no match from the get-go.
St. George’s used a 10-0 run to open the game and led 17-6 by the end of the first quarter.
The Dragons pushed the advantage to 42-13 by halftime.
“I was just trying to bring the energy,” Tender said of his hot start. He made 11 of 14 from the field and had seven steals.
“My teammates were doing a good job of getting me open 3s and finding me in transition,” Tender said. “I just tried to play hard.”
And when Tender wasn’t knocking his shots down, 6-foot-7 Dexter Sienko was dominating inside. He finished with 21 points, 13 rebounds and three spectacular dunks.
“His reverse (dunk), I hadn’t seen that before,” Tender said.
St. George’s coach Ryan Peplinski wasn’t surprised by Tender’s start.
“The one thing about Will is he’s very active,” Peplinski said. “You kind of compare him to an old man. He’s knows when to back cut and knows when to read the defense. And he goes and gets offensive boards, and he’s active defensively. We needed it because we didn’t play very well in the first quarter.”
Tender expects to see some battles at state.
“We just have to keep playing well and keep doing what we’re doing,” he said.
Peplinski will take Friday’s effort at state.
“We were a little sloppy early but once we got going we got it rolling a little bit,” he said.
