1/5/17
Tumwater 39, Centralia 36
(Centralia, WA) Defense was the name of the game in this Evco 2A league opener and Tumwater’s swarming D got the jump on the Centralia Tigers holding them to just 2 2nd quarter points. After a rough start for both teams they finished each with 7 points and 3 team fouls after the 1st 8 minutes. The T-Birds offense was clicking in the 2nd quarter going up by 4, they 6, then Sierra Snyder’s 2nd 3 of the game made it a 9 point lead, 16-7. Brook Hare pushed it to 11 with 2 free throws with just 2 minutes to play.
Chelsea Petrino would snap the Tumwater run with just 1:12 to go in the half scoring the only Tiger bucket of the 2nd quarter while the T-Birds stretched their lead to 14 at the break 23-9. Tumwater’s Ali Smith had a huge defensive game slowing down Tiger Post Ellie Corwin while grabbing an abundant number of rebounds.
The Tigers began a comeback in the 2nd half and they did it with defense holding Tumwater to single digits in both the 3rd and 4th quarters, 7 in the 3rd and 9 in the 4th. Centralia’s Rachel Wilkerson would outscore the T-Birds by herself in the 3rd quarter scoring 8 of her 10 points. Freshman Carissa Kaut also chipped in hitting 2 of her 3 shots from behind the arc in the 2nd half and just missed a 4th 3-pointer that would have tied the game at the buzzer.
It was Kaut who would pull the Tigers within 3 at the 4:08 mark with a long-ball but Tumwater would protect the lead with some outstanding plays including our ProActive Play of the Game when Brooke Hare slapped a Centralia inbounds pass right back at the inbounder hitting her and giving the ball back to Tumwater holding on to the 3-point lead.
Late in the game after the T-Birds sank a pair of free throws to again take a 3-point lead leaving 3.2 seconds left to play. Hannah Porter then threw a long down court pass that appeared to go out of bounds untouched but the trail official said a T-Bird had touched the ball so Centralia got it on their baseline with point-8 seconds left to go or enough time to get in a pass and take a shot. The pass went in to Kaut who got off the shot and hit the rim and rolled off giving Tumwater the victory.
Tumwater is now 1-0 in league play and 7-3 overall while the Tigers drop to 0-1 and 6-5. Our Tommy Lowe of Greene Realty Players of the Game went to Tumwater’s Sierra Snyder and Centralia’s Rachel Wilkerson.
Scoring
Tumwater: Sierra Snyder 14, Brooke Hare 13, Maddie Fields 5, Ellaney Jelcick 3, Ali Smith 2, Sophia Koelsch 2
Centralia: Rachel Wilkerson 10, Carissa Kaut 9, Ellie Corwin 8, Hannah Porter 5, Chelsea Petrino 4
Photo Gallery
www.elisportsnetwork.com