POULSBO — Doubts as to whether or not the North Kitsap boys’ basketball team has improved under the new coaching reign of Aaron Nations were all but eliminated Monday night against Shelton.
Aside from Jacob Gonzales’ 27 points, Garrett McKinstry’s 19 and Ryan Young’s 17 to go with 10 rebounds, North has put the biggest statistic of all in the board: win number three on the year — beating the win total for the 2002-2003 team at only the mid-point in the season.
And not only has North Kitsap (1-3 in league, 3-7 overall) pulled down its third victory, the team has a chance to climb back into contention in the Bridge Division. But, Nations said, it’ll take efforts like the one against Shelton to give the Vikes a chance.
“We didn’t force anything tonight,” said Nations. “I think if we understand that, and we play defense like we did in the first half, we’re going to win some more games.”
“We learned to share the ball and learned to wait to find guys and that second half was the most patience we’ve had all year,” he added.
Aside from taking good looks, there was a coherent theme in the Vikings’ locker room on Monday, one that had to be there after a disappointing 51-37 loss at Port Angeles last week: “Reliance.”
“Everybody trusted each other — we knew we had to get a win,” said North’s Jacob Gonzales.
“We put up on the board (in the locker room), ‘Rely on each other,’” said Nations. “We’ve been forcing the issue and tonight we just let it flow.”
Nations said an optional practice Sunday gave NK a chance to rebound from the Roughrider loss — an optional practice at which everyone showed up.
Over the course of the game for North, the shots just fell — when Shelton would pressure with a man-to-man defense, the Vikings would take it to the hoop. When the Highclimbers changed to a zone, NK started knocking down treys from the perimeter.
“North Kitsap played really hard. They wanted it more,” said Shelton coach Mark Jensen. “We didn’t handle (North’s) two guards — McKinstry gave us fits.”
NK’s Gonzales said he also credits great defense for North, especially on the rebounding side.
“We hit the boards and didn’t give (Shelton) second chances,” he said.
Confidence will definitely be a factor this week against South Kitsap, today and Central Kitsap on Friday, said Gonzales.
“I’m going to try to not let this go to my head — We can’t get cocky,” he commented.
“We have to come out and see how we match up against (South and Central),” Nations noted. “We’re not going to change our style. If we rely on each other, we can compete with both those teams.”
North’s junior varsity was also successful on the night, winning 50-38 over the Highclimbers. NK guard Chris Zeringer scored 14 and guard Jordan Henry added 11.
