By Tyler Hergert

16 days prior to last night, W.F. West went to Tumwater and won in commanding fashion 54-37. Since then, the No. 9 Tumwater Thunderbirds (14-4) haven’t lost, flying high on a 5-game win streak heading into Thursday night’s contest in Chehalis. Meanwhile, the No. 2 W.F. West Bearcats (15-2) have been on an 8-game win streak and haven’t lost since the calendar changed to 2023. This top 10 clash between two schools with aspirations of making the state tournament, the ambience in the gym would feel like a state tournament game at tipoff. There were two noteworthy details heading into last night’s rematch, firstly, Tumwater’s Kylie Waltermeyer did not play in the first meeting between the two schools due to injury. Secondly, a W.F. West victory would clinch the 2A EvCo regular season league championship for the Bearcats while a Tumwater win would put the two teams both at one loss in league play.

In the first quarter, Waltermeyer made her presence felt as she had 10 points in the opening frame, including two 3-pointers. W.F. West as a team had 10 in the first quarter as Tumwater’s press defense gave the Bearcats issues and their swarming halfcourt defense threw off the rhythm of the W.F. West offense. Bearcats star, Julia Dalan only had two points in the opening quarter but her sophomore counterpart, Grace Simpson had five first-quarter points for the Bearcats, including a triple of her own. Tumwater held a 12-10 lead after the first, with Waltermeyer scoring 10 in a row for Tumwater after Kendall Gjurassic made two early free throws for the T-Birds.

The second quarter was a very back-and-forth quarter. After Dalan opened up the scoring in the quarter with a made free throw to pull the Bearcats within one, Waltermeyer responded with a wonderful up-and-under move around Dalan for her 12th straight point for the T-Birds. Cierra Larson added a bucket for Tumwater to give them a 16-11 lead but W.F West would respond with Dalan taking matters into her own hands by draining two free throws and a nice off-glass basket to bring the Bearcats back within one. After two more T-Bird baskets, they would go back up five at 20-15 but once again W.F. West would rally with two made free throws from Morgan Rogerson and a basket from Lena Fragner to claw back to a one-point deficit. With under a minute to go in the half, Hadley Woods made a crucial three for Tumwater, and after forcing a W.F. West turnover with only 3.8 seconds left, Regan Brewer took the inbounds pass at halfcourt, made a nice crossover move, put up a floater in the lane and hit the buzzer beater to give Tumwater a 25-19 lead going into the halftime break.

W.F. West’s defense came out of halftime with a lot of aggression as they forced Tumwater to turn the ball over multiple times to open up the third quarter. Offensively, the Bearcats were able to tie the game at 25 before both teams traded baskets to be tied at 27. Tumwater started to collect more offensive rebounds and Regan Brewer led the way for the T-Birds as her persistent energy helped her grab five offensive boards in the game. Waltermeyer broke the tie with a nice baseline jump shot and Brewer from nearly the exact same spot did the same to give Tumwater a 31-27 lead. After a Waltermeyer layup which gave her 18 points, the Tumwater press forced another W.F. West turnover and freshman Rhylee Beebee grabbed an offensive rebound, one of four for her on the evening, and made her only basket of the game to give Tumwater an 8-0 run and a 35-27 lead on the road. The Bearcats were to hit a three by Lena Fragner right before the end of the quarter as W.F. West outscored Tumwater 11-10 in the quarter but still trailed the T-Birds 35-30 heading into the final stanza of regulation.

Right out of the gate, Cierra Larson drove to the basket and scored for Tumwater to bring the lead up to seven for the T-Birds. After Dalan made one of two free throws for W.F. West, Larson made another basket for Tumwater and the lead was back up to eight for the Thunderbirds at 39-31 where the score would stand for a few minutes as both defenses showed up to play last night. W.F. West eventually responded with six straight points of their own with baskets from Morgan Rogerson and Grace Simpson and two made free throws from Julia Dalan to make it a 39-37 game. W.F. West committed some fouls around a minute to go to put them closer to the bonus since they only had committed three fouls in the entire half up to that point. Waltermeyer circled around the halfcourt with the ball for Tumwater before she made a nice basket going off the window to give Tumwater a 41-37 lead. The T-Birds press then forced yet another turnover for W.F. West as the Bearcats needed to foul Tumwater to extend the game. Tumwater’s Regan Brewer stepped up to the free throw line as she attempted the first T-Bird foul shot since the first quarter and she missed the first shot but once again Tumwater secured another offensive rebound, this time Larson grabbed the board before giving it to Brewer where she was fouled. Brewer made one of two free throws and Rogerson made a basket for the Bearcats to make it a 42-39 ballgame. Brewer buried two free throws for the T-Birds to take a 44-39 lead and time would run out on the Bearcats as Tumwater would win the game by that margin and give W.F. West their first 2A EvCo loss of the season.

Kylie Waltermeyer was our Thorbeckes MVP as she had a game-high 20 points and four steals for Tumwater. Regan Brewer was in the mix as her clutch free throws and all-around hustle was another factor in the T-Birds win. She finished with seven points, 13 rebounds (5 offensive), and five steals. Kendall Gjurassic and Cierra Larson had six points, Hadley Woods had three points and freshman Rhylee Beebee rounded out the T-Bird scoring with two points but showcased her tenacious hustling abilities and chipped in with four offensive rebounds as well. Tumwater also forced 22 W.F. West turnovers. Julia Dalan led W.F. West with 13 points, 15 rebounds, and six blocks while Grace Simpson and Lena Fragner had eight points, Morgan Rogerson had six and Amanda Bennett had four points for the Bearcats.

W.F. West (15-3) still holds the tiebreak advantage over Tumwater since the tiebreaker is determined by head-to-head margin of victory. With W.F. West beating Tumwater by 17 earlier in the season, that could give them the 2A EvCo regular season title despite Thursday’s loss, however, the Bearcats have two tricky tests to finish up the regular season. They head to Centralia on Wednesday for a rivalry game before returning home next Friday for a matchup between Aberdeen who’s playing their best basketball at the moment. W.F. West did beat Aberdeen once this season, winning 52-31 over the Bobcats. If W.F. West wins out, they are the 2A EvCo regular season champs.

Tumwater (15-4) only has one game left in the regular season as the T-Birds host Black Hills on Tuesday. Tumwater needs to win and have W.F. West lose one of their next two games to claim the 2A EvCo regular season crown. If both schools win out, Tumwater will stay as the 2-seed in the 2A EvCo for districts.

We pondered on the broadcast of the possibility of these two teams meeting for a third time in districts. It very well could happen and should both teams advance to state, maybe they meet for a fourth time.

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