1/25
Timberline 54, Gig Harbor 48
(Gig Harbor, WA) On a night where Timberline fell behind by double digits in the 1st half at Jon Gorrow gym in Gig Harbor, the Blazers used suffocating defense and rallied past the Tides for a 54-48 victory on Wednesday. The win ended Gig Harbor’s 24 game home winning streak and gave Timberline the inside track to the South Sound Conference championship with just 3 games remaining in the regular season.
Gig Harbor had an impeccable start to the game as Will Landram scored a quick 11 1st quarter points while the Tides virtually shut down Blazer’s star guard Brooklyn Hicks, limiting the UNLV commit to 4 1st half points.
Gig Harbor raced to a 18-12 1st quarter lead and continued to dominate early into the 2nd quarter by pushing their lead to 29-15 near the midway point of the quarter.
“We were stagnant,” Timberline Head Coach Allen Thomas said. Gig Harbor is a tough place to play, and we had to find our rhythm the hard way.”
Timberline started to get back into the game with the help of Darrell Gipson scoring in double figures at the half and a pair of Brandon Jean 3-pointers sparked an 11-0 run for the Blazers to trim the Gig Harbor led to 29-26 at halftime.
The Blazers continued their momentum in the 2nd half by forcing turnovers, combined with poor shooting from the floor the Tides, outscoring the Tides 15-4 in the 3rd to take a commanding 41-33 lead into the 4th.
Timberline continued to dominate as Gig Harbor never found their offensive rhythm and the Blazers star Brooklyn Hicks found some offense in the 2nd half with 14 points in the half to help Timberline pull away. Gig Harbor did go on a late run to get within 6 in the final seconds, but it was too late as Timberline stunned the Gig Harbor crowd with the 54-48 victory.
Will Landram led the Tides with 17 points and Luke Browne chipped in 10, most of which in the final minutes of the contest. Foul trouble by Gig Harbor’s Christian Parrish and Brown who each had 4 fouls also was a detriment to Gig Harbor as well.
Brooklyn Hicks’s 19 points was his 2nd lowest total of the season, and credits both Gig Harbor and his teammates for their efforts. “Gig Harbor had an amazing game plan to keep me off the board and keep me out of the game as much as possible,” Hicks said. “My teammates stepped up tonight like they always do, they did what we needed tonight; they scored the ball, rebounded the ball and played great defense.”
Gipson had a huge game for the Blazers with 16 points, Kenyon Simmons finished with 6 and Alex Tichenor had 5 all in the 2nd half.
While the win for Timberline does not technically give them the SSC championship, it puts the Blazers in control of their own destiny after improving to 11-0 in SSC play and 13-4 overall. Gig Harbor has only lost two games all season, the problem for the Tides is that both losses are to Timberline. Gig Harbor fell to 16-2 overall and 9-2 in SSC play. Gig Harbor has to win their final 3 games and hope Timberline loses their final 3 games to win the title, a very unlikely scenario. Gig Harbor will look to bounce back with a road contest at Capital on Friday while Timberline looks to wrap up the league title win a victory at Central Kitsap on Friday. Gig Harbor came into the contest ranked 5th in the 3A RPI rankings, while Timberline was 12th and will likely crack the top 10 in the next ranking.
