Ryan Brennecke / The BulletinLa Pineís Samuel Wieber (31) drives the ball to the basket in an attempt to score during the first quarter of Friday nightís game against North Marion in La Pine.

LA PINE — In his first start at the varsity level, Taylor Brown made a lasting impression for La Pine.

And he made it early on Friday night.

In the first quarter of the Hawks’ 65-51 Class 4A nonconference boys basketball loss to North Marion, Brown hit four 3-pointers, accounting for 12 of La Pine’s 14 points in the period.

“Taylor has not played much varsity this year,” Hawks coach Kent Wieber said about his junior guard. “He came with us to the Seaside tournament (two weeks ago) and played really well. I mean, he can shoot from anywhere.”

Brown added another 3-pointer in the second quarter and finished with a team-high 19 points.

“This was my first (varsity) start,” Brown said. “So I was pretty happy with how I did.”

“La Pine shot the ball,” North Marion coach Chris Parkinson said. “He (Brown) was amazing. I mean, holy mackerel. That boy can shoot.”

Samuel Wieber scored 11 points and tallied six steals for the Hawks, while Tyress Turnsplenty totaled 10 points to go along with six rebounds.

La Pine (5-5) used its man-to-man defense to limit North Marion to seven points in the second quarter, allowing the Hawks to climb to within two at the half.

The Hawks, however, struggled defensively in the second half, giving up 22 third-quarter points before suffering the nonleague loss.

“Overall I thought we were a little sluggish,” Kent Wieber said. “We’ve been on Christmas break and we haven’t played a game in 13 days. I was hoping with them (the Huskies) being on the road it would work in our favor, but they came out ready to play and we didn’t.”

Kerry Cook paced North Marion (6-4) with a game-high 25 points, and Kyle Williamson contributed 14 points.

“We played well over all,” Parkinson said. “We started a little sluggish. We were scoring well, but defensively we weren’t. But they figured it out.”

—Reporter: 541-383-0375, eoller@bendbulletin.com.