The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WALLA WALLA -- The Dayton Bulldogs advanced to the District 9 championship game with a 67-53 victory over the Walla Walla Valley Academy Knights last Saturday night.

Dayton's brick house Kroft Sunderland got right down to business putting up back-toback baskets to get the Bulldogs started.

The Knights lit the board with back to back to back threepointers, but Dayton's Garett Turner drove the baseline to draw defenders before dumping it off to Joey Schlachter for two to prove the Dogs came to play.

Turner kept the offensive heat on the Knights with his classic pull up jump shot and Schlachter dominated the boards down low to light the board again for the Bulldogs.

They continued to run the floor Bulldog style with a Turner to-Sunderland combo on the go before the Knights could answer the Bulldogs' bite.

Another Sunderland strong post put up and a Hayden Fullerton trey from downtown gave the Bulldogs an 18-14 lead after the first quarter.

The Knights put up back to back baskets to kick off the second quarter, but Fullerton took away their momentum by drawing an offensive foul on the Knights, which gave the Bulldogs the opportunity to score with a Sunderland put back. The crowd got on its feet when Turner connected with Wyatt Frame for a good oldfashioned alley-oop for a 26-21 Bulldog lead.

Although the Bulldog defensive performance got head coach Roy Ramirez a little fired up in the second half, the Dogs widened the gap with two backto back three-pointers from Fullerton and one from Turner.

After three quarters, the Bulldogs had a commanding, 51-37, lead over the Knights.

Turner continued to do what he does best by driving the lane and landing buckets. Sunderland continued to rebound like a dog collecting 16 rebounds throughout the game and Colton Bickelhaupt took a quiet scoring role, but was everyone's wing man with 10 assists.

The Bulldogs maintained their first quarter lead throughout the game, dominating the Knights and eliminating them from the tournament with a 67- 53 Bulldog victory.

Dayton vs WWVA 67-53

Day 18 14 19 16 - 67 WWVA 14 12 11 16 - 53

Turner 19 pts 5 reb 10 ast

2 stls

Sunderland 16 pts 16 reb 2

stls

Fullerton 15 pts

Schlachter 8 pts 2 stls

Frame 6 pts 7 reb

Bickelhaupt 3 pts 10 ast 2 stls