Bremerton center Missy Beard exploded into the girls basketball season, leading the Knights to a 45-28 defeat of Highline last night in Seattle, and defending state AA champion Bainbridge had little trouble handling Sequim 60-29 in another non-league game in Winslow.

Bremerton 45, Highline 28 – Beard was an opening-night smash as the 6-1 senior debuted with 18 points, 18 rebounds, 11 steals and two blocked shots.

The Knights employed a tenacious defense which netted 28 steals and they hit the boards hard.  Stephanie Watson added 10 rebounds. Bremerton coach Doug Wagner lauded the defense of all his starters – Beard, Watson, Mikki Haugen, Amy Keller and Monica Blye – attributing a 23-14 halftime lead to the many turnovers it created.

All but two of the 13 Knights scored and those two had their chances. The only drawback was the Knights’ 29 percent (17-58) field goal shooting and 39 percent (11-28) foul shooting.

Bainbridge 60, Sequim 29 – Christina Marshall made all eight of her shots, most of them layins, to lead the two-time defending state AA champions with 17 points. Erin O’Brien scored six of her 11 points n the first quarter, which Banbridge lead 13-7 and extended to 24-8 with an 11-1 second quarter.

Lynnsey Bailey and Krista Mirkovich led the Sparts with nine and seven rebounds, respectively. The Spartans hurt Sequim with their press, which also hurt them by landing Marshall, Mirkovich and Bailey all on the bench with in the second quarter with three fouls.

Bainbridge plays Friday at Interlake.

Olympic Girls Jamboree – No score was kept, according to Olympic coach Jerry Hurd, but he figured that Shelton won both of its games, topping Central Kitsap and Olympic, and that Central Kitsap and North Mason split their contests with the Cougars beating North Mason and the Bulldogs defeating Olympic.

Shelton was led by a couple of outstanding outside shooters, particularly Tamara Worgum, who dumped in 16 against CK. North Mason was paced by Jessica Williams and Paula Broughton and Central, a small but disciplined bunch, by Cheryl Thompson and Melanie Baldwin. Olympic was led by center Jill Corelli.

Olympic opens the regular season Friday at Stadium, North Mason tonight at Fife and Central tomorrow at home against South Kitsap.

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BC boys win; girls won't play

BREMERTON CHRISTIAN

Head coach - Bob Kallors (first year)

1987-88 record - 2-6 Sea-Tac League Division I, 4th: 11-14 overall.

Returning lettermen - 2.

Centers - Abel Gage, 6-3 soph.; Eric Haynes, 6-3 jr.

Forwards - Emil Heinze, 5-11 jr.; Brian Weisgerber, 6-0 sr.; Brett Weisgerber, 6-2 soph.

Guards - Scott Eklund, 5-10 sr.; Paul Martin, 5-6 jr.; Ben Goux, 6-0 jr.; Drew Tucker, 5-10 sr.; Brad Cook, 6-0 jr.

Outlook – Heinze and Cook are all that remain from last year’s Tri-District squad, and they played sparingly. This season, Cook will direct the Warriors from the point. Eklund starts at the other guard. At one forward will be Heinze, a tough inside player for 5-foot-11. The Weisgerber brothers will share the other forward. Haynes, a good back-to-the-basket player, is in the post.

Kallors becomes the third Les Eathorne protégé coaching in the area, along with former Eathorne assistant John Sitton (CK) and former East Bremerton Knight Larry Gallagher (Bremerton). Kallors played for Eathorne’s 1982 and 1983 Bremerton teams and his Warriors will adopt some Knight traits – pressing, fast-breaking, pressure defense, running and gunning and having fun.

Kallors, an electrical engineer for a private firm working out of the shipyard, graduated from the University of Washington a year ago and is taking over at BC for Greg Thatcher, who stepped down to spend more time with his family.

The Bremerton Christian girls program was dropped this season after only six turned out.

Last night – The Warriors opened their season with a 64-49 defeat of Snohomish County Christian at Star of the Sea gym. Unselfish play resulted in for Warriors finishing in double figures – Heinze (13), Eklund (15), Haynes (13) and Cook (15). The Lions’ Steve Hudson led all scorers with 16.

BC pulled away gradually to a 20-point lead in the third quarter before Kallors went to his bench.

“There was a glimmer of hope,” said Kallors. “Whenever we ran the offense correctly, we scored. We had a lot of layins and short shots, even against a bigger team.”

The Warriors play another non-leaguer at Clallam Bay on Saturday.

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Sun file photo

MIssy Beard had 18 points and 18 rebounds in Bremerton's victory

CK, Sequim top jamborees

Central Kitsap and Sequim boys used the homecourt to their advantage in boys basketball jamborees last night. The Cougars topped visiting South Kitsap and Bremerton and Sequim downed Port Angeles and Gig Harbor in three-team events. Nobody came out of a four-team jamboree at Olympic unblemished, although Bainbridge was unbeaten with a win and a tie.

Olympic Boys Jamboree – Bainbridge, led by Chris Croker with eight points, and North Mason, carried by Travis Holmgren’s seven points, tied the first game at 14. Shelton edged Olympic 12-10 with Brian Carisen’s five points high for Olympic and Jeff Snyder’s four point the best for Shelton. Croker came back with 10 points to lead Bainbridge to a 23-20 win over Shelton, led by Tarn Malloy’s six. Olympic capped the evening with a 20-9 romp past North Mason. Brian Mayer had five for Oly and Tom Shirbish four for North Mason.

“We definitely had more height than anybody else,” Olympic coach Al Gleich said. “The other three schools were all pretty even (height-wise), and all the schools seemed to be pretty even as far as development.

“We were all a little shaky and nervous, and (the players) were anxious at some of our positions. It took awhile to settle down and play some semblance of basketball.”

The boys took the court after the girls finished. Each team played the two 10-minute “halves” allowed by the WIAA. TV timeouts at five minutes gave coaches a chance to substitute.

Olympic and Bainbridge will open their season Friday at Winslow North Mason opens its season when Liberty visits Belfair next Tuesday. The Bulldogs’ game Friday at Cast Rock has been postponed until Dec. 21 at the Rockets’ request. They’re playing Saturday in the Kingbowl.

Central Kitsap Jamboree – Mike Jesch scored 10 points to lead South Kitsap to a 16-11 defeat of Bremerton in Game 1. Central then topped the Knights 25-15 with Pete Rasmussen and Keith Jenkins each pitching in six points for the Cougs. Lindberg scored seven for Bremerton.

Central held Jesch scoreless to win Game 3 14-12. Rasmussen again paced the Cougs with seven points. Jeff Chenier and Gerald Boyd had four for South.

“I was very, very pleased,” said CK coach John Sitton. “We did a lot of different things and did them fairly well.”

Sitton says Rasmussen, who was weakened by illness much of last season, is much stronger this year. He added that Jesch is “a very fine, bonafide big man, a complete player,” and that Bremerton is playing well under new coach Larry Gallagher. “They’re very handicapped without a big man, but they shoot the ball very well. They just need to grow.”

Central is off until next Thursday when it hosts Gig Harbor. South Kitsap plays at Bremerton on Friday.