The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON - The Dayton boys basketball team opened with a fight against Asotin Saturday night and kept the game close but ultimately couldn't stop the Panthers, falling 45-39.

The Bulldogs opened strong, with Wyatt Frame posting the first points of the game.

The Panthers couldn't find many openings and struggled to match Dayton's scores. The Bulldogs forced Asotin into a shot clock violation with 1:01 left in the first period.

Both teams posted shots but the Bulldogs were able to slow the Panthers down, even stuffing several shots to keep the ball away from the net. The Bulldogs ended the first period up, 10-8 over Asotin.

As the game progressed, Asotin's head coach grew increasingly vocal and frus­trated with calls, even as his team pushed ahead to match or lead Dayton. Before the end of the half, the first tech­nical foul was issued to the coach.

At the half, the teams hit the locker room with a score of 22-20, Asotin.

When the teams returned from the half, the Panthers had a renewed drive, putting up even more shots. The Bulldogs struggled to hit the net, despite taking shots.

The Bulldogs passed and drove but slowly lost ground against Asotin.

In the third the Panthers pulled ahead, ending the period with a score of 27-32, Asotin.

The Bulldogs started to gain momentum in the fourth period, pulling ahead to 36-35 with 3:50 left on the clock. Asotin responded to the deficit with two points, followed by three more to slowly stretch the score gap.

With 2:26 left in the game, the Panthers pushed ahead for two more points, leaving the Bulldogs six points behind.

But the Bulldogs weren't ready to give up. Three time outs in the last 1:37 of the game cut the momentum and allowed the Bulldogs' Cruz Ramirez to sink a three- pointer with 29.4 seconds left on the clock.

A five-second violation for Asotin turned the ball over to the Bulldogs and prompted a second technical foul from a loud Asotin head coach, ejecting him from the game.

Neither team was able to hit foul shots in the final seconds of the game, ending the game with a final score of 45-39, Asotin.

Head coach Roy Ramirez said the team played hard.

"We're getting better," Ramirez said. "We just couldn't get the shots to fall."

The Bulldogs struggled in a similarly close game Friday night, falling to Tri- Cities Prep 49-38.

Ramirez said the game against Tri-Cities was simi­lar in that the team played well but couldn't hit the shots they needed.