No. 6 North Thurston still undefeated, in firm control after win over Capital

North Thurston High School basketball coach Tim Brown was happy with the result Friday night, but he’s not looking too far forward yet.

The sixth-ranked Rams kept their undefeated streak alive, and took sole possession of first place in the Class 3A South Sound Conference with a 67-60 win over Capital on the road in Olympia.

Jeremy Spencer scored a game-high 27 points and Clay Christian added another 21 to propel North Thurston to their 11th consecutive win.

Now, Brown and the Rams are looking for the success to continue.

“The kids have bought into every day getting better,” Brown said. “We’re not trying to look ahead at anything. Just come to practice, get better. Play in the games, get better. Everything else will take care of itself.”

North Thurston (11-0, 6-0 3A SSC) entered Friday’s matchup having lost its last two meeting with the Cougars — including a winner-to-state game last February that ended the Rams’ season.

Spencer, Christian and the rest of North Thurston’s returners were plenty ready to end that streak, but Capital (10-2, 4-2) didn’t make it easy.

“It had to be the toughest matchup (so far) because of the environment,” Spencer said. “A lot of people here, we’re playing on the road against a good team. We did what we had to do, we started at defense and then our offense took care (of the rest).”

North Thurston got out in front early, but endured several Cougars scoring bursts and 10 lead changes before pulling in front for good midway through the third quarter.

“We knew Capital wasn’t going to go away, they’re such a good team,” Brown said. “They play such good defense, they play hard. We weathered a couple of storms.”

Tim Tenkley, who pitched in 10 points for the Rams, gave North Thurston the final lead on 3-pointer with five minutes, 38 seconds to play in the third.

But Capital, led by Grant Erickson (16 points), Chris Penner (13) and Dawson Landers (11) kept the game at a manageable distance.

Penner hit five consecutive free throws — on an otherwise off night for Capital, which shot 12 of 22 at the line — with less than a minute remaining to cut the Rams’ lead to 64-60.

But, Spencer coolly responded with three free throws at the other end to ice the game with 19.7 seconds left.

“We missed 10 free throws tonight, we were under 50 percent. We missed a lot of layups we should have made, and that became the difference in the end,” Erickson said. “I’m very excited to play them next time at their place.”

The Rams now hold a two-game lead over Capital and Peninsula (8-4, 4-2) in the 3A SSC standings, and a one-game lead over Timberline (9-3, 5-1).

“It feels good we’re in control of the league, but we’ve still got a lot of games left,” Spencer said.

This story was originally published January 5, 2018 at 10:37 PM with the headline "No. 6 North Thurston still undefeated, in firm control after win over Capital."