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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Guide Weather Subscribe Contact Us December 6, 2004 Grizzlies roll to 2-0 start Ashland boys use 24-0 spurt to take control in blowout win over Yreka By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Running and gunning and gaining confidence along the way, the Ashland High boys' basketball team looks like it may be onto something. The Grizzlies upended Yreka 75-53 Saturday night at Mountain Avenue Gym for their second 20-plus-point demolition in as many nights to start the season. Josh McDermott had 25 points, many of the spectacular variety, as Ashland used a 24-0 run in the middle two quarters to win going away. "I think the depth of our bench caught up with them early," Ashland head coach Rick Cornelius said. "The fatigue factor got in there then all of a sudden we started getting rebounds and getting some fastbreak transition buckets and it got away from (Yreka) pretty fast." Senior forward Corey Costantino scored 17 points and pulled down six rebounds and three other Grizzlies added seven points or more. Jeff Skinner scored nine points, Brian Kitchell chipped in eight and Josh Cornelius seven. Yreka's Cody Gedrose hit four 3-pointers on his way to a team-high 20 points, but none of his teammates scored in double figures. Too much 'D' Ashland did most of its damage on defense, where its 13 steals often led to transition buckets. Yreka managed to stay close for one quarter, but it was all downhill for the visitors after they took their last lead at 16-14. Up 21-19 early in the second quarter, the Grizzlies scored the last 13 points of the first half and the first 11 points of the second half. Fittingly, McDermott kicked started the spurt by swishing a 3-pointer and Costantino capped it the same way. "We wore them down on defense," Costantino said. "The first quarter they came out really hard, but we just played tough 'D' and eventually got some steals, got some easy baskets and that wore them down. "Just the fact that we're beating teams by that much is a good sign for us, that we can get out and maintain our lead and build on it." The Grizzlies burned Yreka both inside and out. They nailed seven 3-pointers - McDermott, Costantino and Kitchell each had two - and crashed the offensive glass with a vengeance, checkmating the presence of Yreka's 6-foot-7 post Justin Eller. Costantino's rebound putback off Skinner's free throw miss just before the buzzer gave Ashland a 34-19 halftime lead. Most of Ashland's highlights occurred in the open floor, where the Grizzlies again showed the ability to score in bunches. On one series, Grizzly junior point guard Sam Littleton stole the ball and passed ahead to Skinner, who lofted the ball just over the defense to a streaking McDermott for the driving reverse layup. "One thing I think that we've seen so far in two games is that we can put a lot of points up relatively quickly," Rick Cornelius said. Kitchell said Ashland's combination of size and ball-handling ability gave Yreka fits. "We've got guys who can come in and play five positions and it's tough to match-up," he said. "That's what happened tonight. We had four guards on the floor and you can't guard a guard with a post, but that's what they tried to do." The win leaves Ashland with two tournaments and one game left on its December schedule. All will be used to prepare for what is shaping up as a wide-open Southern Oregon Conference playoff chase, which for the Grizzlies begins Jan. 7 against Crater. Rick Cornelius said the Grizzlies are on schedule, but that there's plenty of room for improvement between now and then. "We saw certainly some things on the defensive end that we need to work," he said. "We've got to be better at guarding the perimeter. It's been a problem, it was a problem all last year, it was a problem during the summer. We have too many people who have the opportunity to spot up and knock down 3-pointers against us. We'll work to get better at that as a team." YREKA (53) - Co. Gedrose 20, Pine 8, Stansbury 6, Sams 6, Eller 6, Eng 4, Gonzales 3, Ch. Gedrose 0, Bauerie 0, Salvestro 0. Totals: 19 9-11 53. ASHLAND (75) - McDermott 25, Costantino 17, Skinner 9, Kitchell 8, Cornelius 7, Lee 3, Littleton 2, Reinstedt 2, Pittman 2, Eriksen 0, Gomez 0, Hartzell 0. Totals: 28 12-23 75. Yreka 16 3 19 15 - 53 Ashland 17 17 26 15 - 75 3-point goals - Yreka 8 (Co. Gedrose 4, Pine 2, Stansbury 1, Gonzales 1), Ashland 7 (McDermott 2, Costantino 2, Kitchell 2, Lee 1). JV result - Ashland won. 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