The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

The Dayton-Waitsburg's boys basketball team took a step closer to picking up its first league win in a 51-37 loss that was a low scoring battle against the visiting White Swan boys on Saturday night.

After a tough road loss on Tuesday, D-W worked harder and better as a team, as Head Coach Roy Ramirez was heard saying from the sideline," it was right there," referring to the just missed baskets. 

It was also evident that he saw the progress of the team as well and continued to encourage his players as they were on the right track and asked them to keep playing hard despite the close misses or miscues.

White Swan impressed early with its quickness and athleticism, yet that advantage did not turn into points as they only held a 17-13 halftime lead. Dayton-Waitsburg Senior forward Tayven Seney, who finished with a team high 12 points, came out in the third quarter and put back Junior Wyatt Costello's miss to get D-W within two at 17-15.

After a 3-pointer by Junior Mason Finney with 3:57 left in the third quarter made it 22-20, White Swan took advantage two things: a lack of scoring by Dayton-Waitsburg for over four minutes that finally ended with two free throws by Freshman Monte Pettichord in the fourth quarter to make it 35-23; and an ankle sprain to Finney with 2:32 left in the third quarter.

Finney went down after a questionable no-call by the referees allowed White Swan's Junior guard Devin Sampson-Craig to knock Finney down and take the ball and lay it up before play was stopped. It was two of Sampson-Craig's game-high 25 points. Despite the injury and trip to the training room, Finney returned to the bench in good spirits in the fourth quarter. He would not play again, but he said he would be fine to play in the next game.

"It was frustrating," Finney said of watching the end of the game from the bench. "I really wanted to be out there for the close of the game there at the end. I wanted to be out there for my teammates."

Following two missed free throws and down 39-25 to the Cougars, Ramirez called a full time out. Dayton-Waitsburg came out with a full court press, which led to three turnovers and four points from Senior utility player Joe White and a layup from Junior Sean Evans. Suddenly, with two minutes to go, the crowd was on its feet and D-W was down only 39-31. In the end, White Swan hit some key shots off a couple of turnovers and escaped with an Eastern Washington Athletic Conference victory.

Dayton-Waitsburg (0-4 league, 1-9) play at Columbia Burbank on Tuesday Jan. 14 and will host Walla Walla Valley Academy at the Waitsburg gym at 7:30 p.m. tonight.

Additionally, the game with Liberty Christian has been rescheduled for Wednesday Jan. 29 at Waitsburg at 7:30 p.m.

1st 2nd 3rd 4th Total

WS 10 7 18 16 51

D-W 4 9 7 17 37

White Swan (51): Sampson-Craig 25, F. Lewis 10, Leavitt 9, Bass 2, Valdez 2, Vatlamet 1, C. Lewis 1, Hull 1. 3-pts: 3-10, Sampson-Craig 2, F. Lewis. Fouls: 15. Turnovers: 13. Free Throws: 12-24.

Dayton-Waitsburg (37): Seney 12, Evans 6, White 6, VanBlaricom 4, Finney 3, Pettichord 2, Costello 2, Bledsoe 2. 3-pts: 1-5, Finney. Fouls: 18. Fouled Out: Seney Turnovers: 27. Free Throws: 6-14.