It wasn’t quite six minutes in heaven for the Klahowya Secondary School boys basketball team last week.
Instead, the Eagles lost their fifth straight game with a 43-41 loss to Port Townsend High School on Jan. 13. The schools played out the remaining 6:11 of a postponed game from Jan. 7 that was stopped in the fourth quarter due to a leaky roof at Klahowya.
The score was 36-34 in favor of the Eagles (3-8 overall, 2-6 Olympic League) before the game was halted as the slippery floor endangered the athletes’ safety.
When the game resumed, Port Townsend (3-11, 2-8) took advantage of Klahowya’s sluggish defense en route to its first win since Dec. 10.
“I knew it would be a strange feeling and a strange setup with just six minutes left,” said Klahowya head coach Spike Hooper.
“We collapsed too much on defense. I told the team to be ready like it’s the end of the game, but it felt like the beginning.”
Hooper made the call along with administrators to stop action when the water became a hazard, but said his team would have won if the game finished when originally scheduled.
“The roof, when it leaks, you’ve got to protect the kids,” he said. “It’s an ongoing problem at Klahowya, for some reason. It’s 14 years old, I don’t know why it’s leaking. It shouldn’t be, and it’s really disruptive.”
Clark Rose led the Eagles with 16 points, while senior guard Derris Davis totaled 15 points in the loss. Senior guard Chris Smith also tallied eight points against the Redskins. Seiji Thielk scored a team-high 12 points for Port Townsend. Davis said he’s never played in a postponed game before the recent delay, adding that rust played a factor in the losing performance.
“Everyone’s stiff, it’s just garbage ball out there,” he said. “It was pretty weird, we started playing with six minutes left, we show up, get a 10-minute warm-up in, and suddenly we get going. It felt like a pickup game outside.”
Klahowya Athletic Director Todd Winters said the roof has been leaky in three different spots in the gymnasium. He added that the roof had leaked in the past but did not affect play. Last week’s game was the first postponed event as a result of water dripping from the top.
“We’ve had some leaks before, but they were always on the side,” he said. “They’ve since re-caulked the leaks and worked on the roof. We won’t really know until it rains next time, but they think they fixed it.”
The Eagles have lost their last two games since facing Port Townsend. Klahowya fell to Olympic High School, 74-50, four hours after the makeup minutes at home. Bremerton High School beat the Eagles Tuesday, 67-58 at Les Eathorne Gymnasium.
