Cruiser men’s basketball endures rough week

After picking up their first win of the season over their rivals Orting, the Cruisers looked to build on that win as they headed to Buckley to take on the 5-1 Hornets of White River on Tuesday.

The Cruiser defense struggled all night contesting the Hornets three point shot attempts. The Hornets seemed to never miss from beyond the arc as they built a 12 point lead at the end of the 1st quarter.

In the second quarter, the Hornets extended that lead to 17 as the first half came to a close.

White River outscored the Cruisers 24-15 in the third quarter extending their lead by even more to 58-32 before started the final quarter.

The Hornets offense just couldn’t be stopped as they would drop the Cruisers 69-41.

Scoring Stats

R. McIlraith – 9 points, 4 rebounds

J. Knoblauch – 7 points, 5 rebounds

K. Foster – 5 points, 3 rebounds

C. Hatler – 4 points, 6 rebounds

K. Cox – 4 points, 6 rebounds

Z. Smith – 3 points

A. Brymer – 2 points

W. Hotz – 1 point, 2 rebounds

On Thursday, the Cruisers hosted the Franklin Pierce Cardinals at Rainier Connect Arena.

Eatonville, looking to pick up the second win of the season, had 11-point games from Jacob Knoblauch and Reilly McIlraith, but it wouldn’t be enough as the Cardinals soared to a 67-37 win.

Knoblauch picked up his first double-double of the season when he pulled down 10 rebounds to go with his 11 points.

Scoring Stats

J. Knoblauch – 11 points, 10 rebounds

R. McIlraith – 11 points, 2 rebounds

K. Cox – 7 points, 3 rebounds

K. Foster – 3 points, 3 rebounds

A. Brymer – 2 points, 1 rebound

Z. Smith – 2 points

S. Brannon – 1 point, 5 rebounds

The Cruisers finished off the week by taking on the 3A Yelm Tornados in a non-league game.

The 3A classification Tornados limited the Cruisers to only 2 points in the first quarter as they would take a 19-2 lead into the second.

The Cruiser offense got going in the second quarter with 12 points but couldn’t cut into the Yelm lead as the Tornados would pour in 18 points of their own to lead 37-14 at the half.

Yelm continued to stretch its lead in the third and fourth quarters and would dispose of the Cruisers 71-33.

Freshman post Kyle Cox led the Cruisers with a season high 10 points.

Scoring Stats

K. Cox – 10 points

R. McIlraith – 9 points

J. Knoblauch – 8 points

K. Foster – 2 points

A. Brymer – 2 points

C. Hatler – 2 points

The Cruisers will now enjoy a much needed 12 day break over the holidays before they start things up again on January 3rd with a trip down south take on the Elma Eagles.