Selah Handily beats Wapato 67-53, Rolls to 5-0

The motto for Selah Basketball at this point in the season? Just keep taking care of business.

Even when Selah is the heavy favorite in every game they play, they've still got to go out there and keep going. That's what they did this past Saturday, comfortably knocking off Wapato 67-53 in a game that lasted only 65 minutes.

The key to Selah's victory was neutralizing Wapato's top two playmakers in junior forward DaMarius Brown and junior forward Manuel Delgadillo.

This past Tuesday, Brown and Delgadillo combined for 49 points in their win over Zillah.

Saturday against Selah? The 1-2 punch was limited to just 10 points.

"Elijah Pepper did a great job on Damarius Brown, we had Keegan Morford on Manuel Delgadillo. It was simple, tough man-to-man defense," said Selah head coach Tim Garza.

Selah found themselves up 21-6 after the first quarter behind the stellar interior defense of 6-3 senior forward Zak Donato and 6-3 freshman center Noah Pepper. Wapato was trying to penetrate Selah's defense, with nothing to show for it.

"Noah Pepper and I have been working on the fundamentals in practice. We knew they were going to take it to the hoop, so we game-planned for that," said Zak Donato on how they limited Wapato.

With Brown and Delgadillo out of the picture, Wapato would attempt to make it a game behind their rising junior point guard Lorenzo Alvarado. Alvarado poured in 12 second quarter points to make it 33-23 at halftime.

Selah would erase any momentum in the second half. Behind a couple three-pointers by junior guard's Elijah Pepper and Calvin Herting; Selah was up 41-25 with 5:51 left in the third quarter.

Senior guard Keegan Morford would step up the rest of the way. Putting in ten points while continuing his tremendous defense.

"I saw Elijah Pepper was driving, so I found the holes in the defense and he got me the ball. We knew in practice where the holes would be, and they found me!" Morford said explaining his 14 point performance.

The closest Wapato found themselves the rest of the game was within nine points.  Selah would roll to a 5-0 start to the season.

A little surprise coming out of this game was Elijah Pepper finishing with "only" 20 points. For a man that's used to putting in his usual 30, Pepper didn't seem bothered at all.

"Our team was moving the ball and everyone was scoring. i don't need to score 30 points for us to win. We all shared the ball, I think that's the reason why we won," said Elijah Pepper in the post-game.

When asked what stood out to him tonight, Coach Tim Garza had praise for one player in particular.

"Keegan Morford is a senior captain. His leadership qualities is the reason why he's a captain. You just saw a guy that works his tail off, we knew he was going to get opportunities. Keegan stepped up big time, and i can't be more proud."

Other notable performances include Zak Donato finishing with 13 points, Noah Pepper putting in 9 points, and Calving Herting chipping in 3 three-pointers.

Selah will look to continue their hot win streak this Tuesday night 7:15pm against Prosser (4-3) at Prosser High.

Wapato will recollect and face Quincy (0-6) this Wednesday 7:30pm at Quincy.