2/1/2022

Tumwater 71, Black Hills 61

(Tumwater, WA) It was the basketball version of the Pioneer Cup with Black Hills at Tumwater in an important Evco 2A match-up. The T-Birds came in atop the league standings with an 8-1 record. Black Hills was sitting in 3rd place at 7-3 a half game behind WF West at 7-2. Finishing either 1st or 2nd in league gets you a home game in the opening round of the District Tournament.

The T-Birds came out firing jumping out to a 6-0 lead but early foul trouble with 3 starters taking a seat on the bench with 2 fouls, Luke Brewer, Luke Reid and Adam Overbay. The Wolves took advantage and outscored the T-Birds 16-9 for a 1 point lead after the 1st. Black Hills continued that run in the 2nd quarter at one point going up by 10 points led by Harrison Pilon off the bench who knocked down 11 points with 9 of those from deep range. Johnie Stallings added 9 to help push their halftime lead to 34-26.

Andrew Collins single handedly kept the T-Birds in the game scoring 15 of the T-Birds 26 1st half show. Despite the Wolves run Tumwater Head Coach Josh Wilson held firm and kept his starters on the bench for most of the 1st half.

That decision paid off as Tumwater was back to full strength to start the 3rd quarter and it took less than 2 minutes for the T-Birds to tie the game. Reid came out on fire hitting 3 3-balls while Brewer knocked down 7 in the 3rd. Tumwater scored 26 in the 3rd, matching their total 1st half output and rolled into the 4th quarter with a 7 point lead.

The Wolves refused to give in though and made another run of their own closing the gap to just 1 point with about 4 minutes to play. Luke Ellison led the Wolves with 17 contributing in each quarter with a solid effort across the board made it the 1 point game hitting a jumper from the right side.

Luke Ellison knocks down this shot to pull the Wolves to within 1

But the T-Birds would answer with a 13-4 run the rest of the way as Andrew Collins kept his big night going in the 2nd half adding 11 more to his 15 and finished with 26 to lead all scorers. Brewer with end up with 15 and the game was finished off with a monster flush from Ryan Otton as time was running out to record 13 in the scoring column.

Ryan Otton finishes the game with authority

Tumwater is now 9-1 and will host Shelton on Friday to wrap up EVCO league play and then they will take on #1 ranked White River next week in a non-league showdown. Black Hills falls to 7-4 in league play and will finish off their regular season on Thursday against WF West.

Our Thorbeckes home team MVP went to Andrew Collins for Tumwater and Luke Ellison of Black Hills was named our Pacific Sports Spa visiting team MVP.

Scoring
Tumwater: Andrew Collins 26, Luke Brewer 15, Ryan Otton 13, Luke Reid 9, Adam Overbay 5, Connor Hopkins 3
Black Hills: Luke Ellison 17, Johnnie Stallings 15, Harrison Pilon 11, Keagan Rongen 6, Max Johnson 4, Andre Byoune 4, Alexander Shepler 4

Post Game Show

www.elisportsnetwork.com