The Bearcat girls got off on the wrong foot with Aberdeen Friday night, to say the least.
W.F. West managed just 4 first-quarter points in a 54-41 Evergreen 2A Conference loss to the Bobcats in Chehalis, putting a damper on the host club’s postseason hopes.
“We came out tight,” Bearcat coach Henri Weeks said. “As soon as we start getting down, we just don’t have the ability to recover.”
The Bobcats went on a 20-0 run in the first half to go up 23-4 at one point, behind 11 first-quarter points from freshman Maureen Donovan and 11 first-half points from Jenny Voss.
W.F. West rallied in the third quarter, kicking off a 13-4 run to cut the lead to just 4 points, but Donovan knocked down a 3 — one of four on the night — and the Cats wouldn’t get closer than 5 points the rest of the way.
Weeks praised the play of Tori Long, who came off the bench to help slow down the Aberdeen guards in the second half.
“She was a stopper on defense,” Weeks said. “That gave us an opportunity to get the ball down the court.”
Kaylee Hartman had 6 points and 11 rebounds for the Bearcats.
“Kaylee just worked her butt off,” Weeks said. “Those girls did what we needed to do to get us back in the game, but we couldn’t finish it out.”
Another bright spot for W.F. West was the play of freshman Jamika Parker, who scored 10 points off the bench, and Uriah Thomas, who played well inside and out, according to the coach.
The Bearcats drop to sixth place in the standing with a 4-8 league record (8-10 overall) and head to Lacey to play the state’s top-ranked team, River Ridge, on Tuesday, before wrapping up the regular season at home on Friday against rival Centralia.
