2/5/16
Girls Black Hills 59, Tumwater 49
(Tumwater, WA) Pride was the only thing on the line in this game as the Wolves had already clinched the league Championship and the #1 seed to the District Tournament while the T-Birds would finish 4th regardless of the outcome. But you couldn’t tell that the season had been determined so far the way both teams competed.
Black Hills would jump out to a 17-9 lead at the end of the 1st but Tumwater chipped away and pulled within 6 at the break trailing 29-23. Black Hills’ Sammi Payne would help pace the 1st half with 2 3-balls scoring 6 of her 8 points while Freshman Maisy Williams would lead the charge coming off the bench on Senior night with 9 and Tumwater’s Mackenzie Bergquist knocked down 12 to lead all scorers through the 1st 16 minutes.
In the 3rd both offenses would wake up with the Wolves scoring 21 and the T-Birds 20 and Black Hills led 50-43 but in the 4th quarter as quick as the offense came it went away with the Wolves outscoring the T-birds 9-6 to complete the 10-point win. Emma Duff would come up big with 11 2nd half points and finishing with a team high 17 while Williams finished with 15.
With the win the Wolves finished undefeated in league play at 6-0 and now will host an opening round district game next Friday. Tumwater finished 1-5 in league and will host a pig-tail game on Wednesday against the GSHL’s 5th place team.
Our Tommy Lowe of Greene Realty Players of the Game went to Sammi Payne of Black Hills and Brooke Hare for Tumwater who had only 4 points but 5 blocks and loads of rebounds. Our ProActive Physical Therapy Play of the Game went to a crazy play by the Wolves’ Lindsey Nurmi who laid up a soft layin and the ball bounced on the back hoop bracket and wound up balancing on that bracket resulting in a jump ball. There are a couple of pictures of this in the photo gallery below.
Scoring:
Black Hills: Duff 19, Williams 15, Payne 8, Nurmi 7, Moloney 6, LaBelle 2, Reichert 2
Tumwater: Bergquist 21, Snyder 18, Hare 4, Smith 2, Cunningham 2, Rodriguez 2
Photo Gallery
Boys Tumwater 46, Black Hills 40
(Tumwater, WA) Not often can you get two winners in one game but it happened in this case. The T-Birds came into the game having already locked up their 2nd straight Championship and #1 seed while the Wolves needed a win or to lose by less than 7 points to clinch 2nd place. Black Hills came into the game at 3-2 while Centralia was already 3-3. So if Black Hills lost it would come down to a point differential tie-breaker since they split the season series so the Wolves could still clinch 2nd place and a home court district game even with a loss.
It didn’t look good for the Wolves as Tumwater came out with a smothering defense holding Black Hills to just 5 points in the 1st quarter and with 1:21 to play in the 2nd had given up a total of 8 points. The T-Birds were not lighting up the scoreboard but did edge away to lead 27-8 at that point but Black Hills finished with a flurry finishing on a 6-0 run to get back into it but at least back in striking distance trailing 27-14 at the break.
Spencer Dowers led the T-Birds pulling down 8 rebounds as the point guard and distributing the ball. He would finish the game with a double/double scoring 10 and 13 boards. Weston Vandenhazel would create havoc in the paint scoring 12 of his game high 18.
In the 3rd quarter it looked like not only Tumwater would pull away and win but likely send the Wolves to 3rd place and on the road in the district opener. The T-Birds increased their lead to nearly 20 but again the Wolves would claw their way back and heading into the 4th quarter they trailed 39-25.
In the 4th quarter as the clock ticked down the Wolves were making a run, not at winning the game but at getting to the 6-point target. Joe Crumly was huge for Black Hills hitting 3 of his high arching long range shots finishing with 4 3-balls and a team high 14 points. Then with just 7-seconds left to play and trailing 46-37 the Wolves would need a 3-point bucket to clinch 2nd place or a 2 to force the 2nd tie-breaker. TJ Mickelson would bring the ball down in the face of the stingy T-Bird defense and then stepped back to create space and launch a high and deep 3-point shot that found nothing but the bottom of the net giving the Wolves 2nd place.
It’s not often a 3-point shot at the buzzer leading to a 6-point loss is welcomed with such enthusiasm that you forgot that Tumwater just won the game. If there are any Centralia fans reading this we can confirm that Tumwater did all they could to stop the Wolves and Black Hills definitely earned the 2nd place finish with TJ’s incredible shot. So now next Saturday both the T-Birds and Wolves will host opening round District games.
The T-Birds finished 6-0 in league play to win their 2nd straight league title and the only 2 boys basketball league titles in the history of the school. Our Tommy Lowe of Greene Realty Players of the Game went to Spencer Dowers for the T-Birds and for Black Hills Joe Crumley. Our ProActive Physical Therapy Play of the game went to TJ Mickelson’s buzzer beater to pull the Wolves within the 6 points they need to clinch 2nd place.
Scoring:
Tumwater: Vandenhazel 18, Dowers 10, Gibbons 6, Otton 4, Marty 2, Geathers 2, Gillespie 2, Dowell 2
Black Hills: Crumley 14, Mickelson 10, Day 9, Underhill 7
Photo Gallery
