For the second consecutive night, the Douglas boys' basketball team got off to a bit of a slow start in the first quarter before falling into step to pick up a sound 75-63 victory over El Camino, Calif., in the semifinals of the South Tahoe Invitational Friday.
Keith Olson was dominating in the middle, controlling the boards, registering three blocks and scoring 24 points to lead the Tigers, but the backcourt took another strong step forward as Mike Gransbery scored 21 points with three 3-pointers and sophomore James McLaughlin scored 16 points with three 3-pointers.
For all the points the Tigers have been putting on the board, perhaps the most impressive piece of their roster so far has been the role players.
Nate Whalin, Kevin Emm, David Laird, Brandon Bernard, Jared Trowbridge and Joe and Jeff Nady have all been excellent on defense and have been hustling to the ball to make things happen.
As a result, the Tigers have made it extremely hard on their first two opponents to do anything in the lane offensively and have made a pretty hobby out of creating big fastbreaks with heady defensive plays.
Friday night, the two teams battled to a draw through the first quarter and Douglas managed to scratch together a five-point lead heading into the locker room for halftime.
El Camino took a brief lead with an 8-0 run to open the second half, but the Tigers answered with a 12-2 run to pull away for good.
McLaughlin scored 10 points during the run, including a nice one-handed reverse layup and two big 3-pointers.
Also getting on the board for the Tigers were Joe Nady (six points), Trowbridge (four points), Jeff Nady (three points) and Emm (three points).
Douglas advanced to the title game of the Invitational Saturday afternoon against either South Tahoe or Manogue.
-- Joey Crandall can be reached at jcrandall@recordcourier.com or at (775) 782-5121, ext. 212.
