1/19/16
Black Hills 63, WF West 61
(Tumwater, WA) It had been almost 4 years to the day since the WF West Bearcats last lost an Evco 2A league game, they last lost on January 12, 2012 to River Ridge. (Thanks to Aaron Van Tuyl from the Chronicle for that information.) It appeared their loss tonight was eminent after a lackluster 1st half and found themselves trailing 40-19 at the half.
The Wolves got big efforts from Emma Duff who pumped in 15 and Lindsey Nurmi right behind with 14. Kayley Moloney knocked down 6 off the bench. Shasta Lofgren kept the Bearcats within reach after trailing by as many as 14 with 18 1st half points. Lexi Strasser pitched in with 4 points off the bench and Julia Johnson had 5 but they had quite a hole to dig out of to begin the 3rd quarter.
Both teams struggled to get the ball in the hoop at the beginning of the 3rd quarter but the Bearcats would start to pick it up while the Bearcats started to find their range. Lofgren remained a force while Erika Brumfield and Kiara Steen found their way into the score book. By the end of the 3rd the Cats were back in the game trailing the Wolves by 7.
This set up a crazy 4th quarter that saw the momentum of the Bearcats carry over into the 4th all the way back to where they took their first lead in the game since early in the 1st quarter with about 3 minutes to go in the game. The Wolves would answer right back and the two would go back and forth. A key play came when there was an out of bounds call with the official giving possession to Black Hills. Bearcat Coach Tom Kelly came off the bench and was displeased with the call and got teed up by the official. Kelly had been warned earlier in the game to control his outbursts on the sideline.
Lindsey Nurmi stepped up and sank them both to give the Wolves the lead back. Nurmi would go 9-9 from the line but was an impressive 6-6 down the stretch at the most important stretch of the game. Chehalis would have one last chance and Julia Johnson would launch a 3-ball as time expired and it hit on the back of the rim went up and rolled off the front of the rim. The buzzer sounded and a 4-year league winning streak came to an end. The Wolves are now 3-0 in league play and 13-2 overall while the Bearcats fall to 2-1 and 11-4.
Our Tommy Lowe of the Greene Realty Group Players of the Game were Lindsey Nurmi for Black Hills and Shasta Lofgren for the Bearcats where she finished with 29 points for the game. Our ProActive Physical Therapy Play of the Game went to Maisy Williams for a series of blocked shots. She officially had 7 but it seemed she had more than that to us but she had some key blocks in the final 2 minutes to keep the Bearcats from scoring.
Scoring:
Black Hills: Nurmi 20, Duff 18, Moloney 9, Williams 7, LaBelle 6, Reichert 3
WF West: Lofgren 29, Johnson 9, Strasser 8, Steen 6, Brumfield 5, Hansen 2, Haakenson 2
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