TUMWATER — Shasta Lofgren scored 29 points on her birthday, but the Bearcats lost their first Evergreen 2A Conference game since Jan. 3, 2012 here Tuesday night.
Black Hills came away with the 63-61 victory over W.F. West and Bearcat coach Tom Kelly wasn’t impressed with the officiating in the contest.
“I want to take nothing from Black Hills, they played hard and they played a good game and they they deserved to win,” Kelly said. “But to take that game from our kids like the referees did was arrogant and it was nothing but being a bully in the game.”
Lexi Strasser led the Bearcats with nine rebounds and notched 8 points, while Julia Johnson had 9 points.
Kelly was assessed a technical foul with the score tied and 30 seconds left in the contest. Kelly said he was sitting down and mentioned to his assistant coach that one of his players had been knocked out of bounds when an official dealt him the technical.
“Anybody at that ballgame can tell you that was a disgrace and they ruined a good game,” Kelly said.
He also said he felt bullied by the officials and couldn’t properly coach his team.
“I couldn’t even coach, I couldn’t even get behind my team,” Kelly said. “They feed off emotion and that wasn’t even part of the deal.”
Kelly said the unfair calls began from the start of the game, and pointed out the discrepancy in foul shots: W.F. West was 12 of 19, while Black Hills was 21 of 36.
“We couldn't touch them on defense, and then they wouldn’t call them on the other side,” he said. “For the technical I wasn’t even standing up or anything. The Black Hills team said they couldn’t believe it either. There’s no recourse either and all I can do is complain. I want to take nothing from Black Hills winning, though.”
Kelly added that the Wolves presented injured Bearcat guard Jessica McKay with a bouquet of flowers before the game, which he called a classy act.
Black Hills led 40-29 at halftime but the Bearcats clawed back, outscoring the Wolves by 9 points in the second half.
Nicole Nurmi led Black Hills with 20 points, while Emma Duff added 18.
“Officials are going to make bad calls sometimes and that’s to be expected. They can’t make every call,” Kelly said. “But let’s just be fair. That’s all. That’s the WIAA slogan: just play fair.”
W.F. West (11-4, 2-1 league) will host Columbia River in a nonleague game on Friday.
Tigers Strike Back Against Tumwater
Centralia’s defense got better each quarter and its offense went off in the fourth for a 46-41 Evergreen 2A Conference victory over Tumwater on Tuesday in the Hub City. The Tigers, trailing 30-23 heading into the final stanza, outscored the Thunderbirds 23-11 for their first league victory of the season.
“In the fourth quarter we were just moving the ball and we did a great job of finding people,” Centralia coach Doug Ashmore said. “Madi [Crews] and Alyx [Fast] got hot while Chloee [Akins] and Ellie [Corwin] hit some big buckets.”
Crews led the way with 19 points, while Fast added 16. Crews hit the back end of three 1-and-1 free throw situations down the stretch for the Tigers.
“Defensively we kept getting better as the game went on and it was good to see us win the rebounding battle,” Ashmore said.
Centralia outrebounded Tumwater 31-26 with Corwin hauling in 10 boards. The Tigers allowed just five offensive rebounds.
Centralia (9-6, 1-2 league) plays at Fort Vancouver on Friday.
