1/4/2022

We had 2 games on the air Tuesday night, the Napavine boys hosted the Rainier Mounties and Lady Tigers of Centralia welcomed WF West. Below is our coverage of both games.

Napavine 57, Rainier 40

(Napavine, WA) A strong 1st quarter gave the Tigers a lead over the Rainier Mounties who had come into the showdown with a 7-1 record. The 18-9 lead would be a hole the Mounties would never be able to climb out of. Rainier did keep it close though chiseling off 2 points in the 2nd quarter and went in to the break down 7, 28-21.

The 2 teams held sway each scoring just 9 as the defenses dominated the 1st 3 quarters. Napavine’s offense finally caught fire in the 4th as they doubled up the Mounties 20-10 to pull away for the 57-40 win. Napavine is now 5-1 on the season and 2-0 in league play while Rainier dropped to 7-2 and 1-1 in league.

The Tiger’s were led by James Grose with 20 while Keith Olson double-doubled with 16 and 11 boards. The Mounties no one cracked double digits and they were led by Ian Sprouffske’s 9 points.

Our Home Team Thorbeckes MVP went to James Grose and the Mounties Pacific Sports Spa MVP was Josh Medrum. Rainier will host M-W-P tomorrow night while Napavine is at Ilwaco.

WF West 70, Centralia 15

(Centralia, WA) The Centralia Tigers came into this game with a 5-1 record and a 3-0 Evco 2A and were looking to show they were ready to take on the Bearcats who have dominated the Evco for the past decade and more. The Bearcats were coming off a disappointing loss to the Tumwater T-Birds and sported a 2-1 league mark. Both teams had been off since prior to Christmas with the Tigers last playing on December 20th and the Bearcats on the 17th.

As the game began the rustiness showed for both squads as the Bearcat defense held the Tigers to just 3 points all from the free throw line. But despite just 3 points the Tigers were still in the game giving up just 14 to the offensive potent Cats squad. In the 2nd quarter the Bearcats found their offensive groove knocking in 24 points while limiting the Tigers to just 7 and took a commanding 38-10 lead at the break.

Chehalis came out of the halftime with another busy offensive quarter scoring 21 while the defense was a steel trap shutting out the Tigers and led 59-10 triggering the running clock. Centralia did score 5 in the final 8 minutes but WF West showed they are not ready to surrender anything to anyone and will look forward to their re-match with the T-Birds later this season.

The Bearcats offense was solid and it was spread with only 1 in double figures, Drea Brumfield scored 13. 10 other Cats scored in this one with Olivia Remund and Makayla Mencke each with 9, Emily Mallonee and Julia Dalan off the bench each had 7. Kyla McCallum had 4 but was the floor general and played awesome defense while distributing the ball like a Fed Ex driver. McCallum earned our Pacific Sports Spa visiting team MVP honor. WF West is now 5-2 overall and 3-1 in league play. They are on the road Thursday at Black Hills.

Emily Wilkerson led the Tigers with 7 of the 15 points scored going 5 of 6 from the line and hitting the only 2-point field goal in the game for Centralia. Makayla Chaves had 5 points including the only 3-pointer of the game for the Tigers. Wilkerson was named our Thorbeckes home team MVP. The Tigers drop to 3-1 in league play and will have to gather themselves quickly as they travel top Tumwater on Thursday.  

Interview with WF West Head Coach Kyle Karnofski

www.elisportsnetwork.com