Career Night For Clevenger Fuels Cruiser Victory On Senior Night
On a night when the Eatonville community gathered at Rainier Connect Arena to honor the seniors on the Eatonville High School boys' basketball team, it was a junior who decided to steal the show.
"So I just let them fly and after the first one that I hit I knew that I was in the zone and told my team to keep giving me the ball."
That was Griffin Clevenger describing the point in the game when he knew he was in the zone.
His career-high, game-high 33 points helped power the Cruisers to an 87-67 victory over Elma to finish off their regular season schedule.
Clevenger hit eight 3-pointers on the night on his way to a career-high scoring performance.
"That's exactly what Griffin is capable of," said head coach TJ Cotterill.
"Elma sagged on him and he made them pay with big-advantage shots."
After both teams played each other very close in the first half which saw Eatonville leading by two at the half, Eatonville would come out in the third quarter and start to extend that lead. Clevenger would score 10 of his 33 points in the quarter to help put the Cruisers up by 9 entering the final quarter where Clevenger would do the most damage.
While still in the zone in shooting terms and with an electric crowd behind him, Clevenger would hit four consecutive 3-pointers with the final one coming at the 1:00 minute mark left in the game from beyond NBA 3-point range to give the Cruisers a 20-point lead at 85-65.
Clevenger said the crowd and the student section in particular were one of the keys to his stellar shooting performance.
"The student section is one of the biggest reasons I kept shooting and wasn't missing. I fed off them. The student section was the best it's ever been," Clevenger said. "Our whole team was in a good mood from warmups all the way to the end of the game. We were all connecting and playing as a team and having a fun time with each other, and enjoying a great and fun senior night which was much deserved for this year's seniors."
Cotterill would empty his bench at the 1:00 minute mark to allow his senior players to receive a nice ovation from the crowd before the clock hit zeros and the Cruisers took home an 87-67 victory.
"The energy from our crowd was incredible. We saw in Alaska how electric that environment was and their crowds and our guys had been talking a lot about how great it would be to have something like that. We had that against Elma and what a great experience for all of these seniors. You think about all they went through the past two seasons, and to give them a senior night as hopping as that was truly special," Cotterill said.
Box Score
EATONVILLE 87, ELMA 67
Eatonville 17 23 19 28 - 87
Elma 15 23 12 17 - 67
Eatonville: Griffin Clevenger 33, Shay Brannon 16, Walker Bruun 16, Kyle Cox 9, Shane Taylor 5, Mark Nueva 5, Hunter Klumpar 3.
Elma: Cason Seaburg 22, Traden Carter 13, AJ Holmes 12, Carter Studer 7, Gibson Cain 6, Grant Vessey 4, Kyren Hackney 3.
The Cruisers finished the regular season with a 12-7 overall record and were 7-1 in Evergreen Conference play. For the second consecutive season, they are the 2022-2023 Evergreen Conference champions and are the #1 seed heading into the SWW District 4 playoffs.
They will host the #4 seeded Castle Rock Rockets at Rainier Connect Arena on Friday, Feb. 10th at 6 pm.
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