The Bearcats weren’t about to go into the playoffs with a bad taste in their mouths, and the Tigers weren’t about to lay down in their last game of the season.
It all made for an exciting Evergreen 2A Conference boys hoops contest Thursday night in Centralia, where W.F. West put on an offensive show in a 75-59 win over the tenacious hosts.
The Bearcats knocked down 13 3-pointers and got a pair of dunks from sophomore Mitch Gueller, spoiling a 23-point performance from Centralia’s James Green in the final game for six Tiger seniors.
“It feels really good,” W.F. West guard Tyler Coleman, a senior, said. “It’s the last time the rest of us seniors’ll beat them.”
The Tigers came out with more energy than in the teams’ first meeting, a 70-45 W.F. West win.
“I thought the effort was there,” Centralia coach Ron Brown said. “We’ve proven through the course of the season that we lack some things, but we fought hard and competed.”
The hosts trailed by as many as 10 in the first quarter, but cut the deficit to 2 points late in the second quarter on a 3-pointer by Andrew Pullin.
Pullin’s shot, however, came between back-to-back 3-pointers by freshman Brock Wade in the final 90 seconds of the first half. The visitors went into the intermission up 6, and Wade — who finished with 17 points — immediately hit two more triples to kick off the second half and put the Bearcats up 12. Centralia wouldn’t come closer than 9 points the rest of the way.
“I thought Centralia played a lot better (than the first meeting),” W.F. West coach Ryan Robertson said. “They made it a competitive game.”
The difference in the second half, he added, was simple defensive intensity.
“We disrupted them a little better,” he said.
Gueller scored 17 points and grabbed eight rebounds, and Coleman added 14 for Chehalis. Green scored 15 of his points in the first half, and Easton Masteller and Steven Hamilton both finished with 10 points.
It was the final game for Masteller, Dominick Courcy, Tyler Shumate, DeVan Hawes, Ean Goodeill and Jason Cowin. Centralia finished the season at 3-17 (1-13 league).
“It sucked to go out the way it did,” Masteller, the Tigers’ leading scorer on the season, said. “But it’s been an honor to play for Coach Brown. I’m definitely going to miss it.”
Brown, for whom Centralia’s court is named, completed his 49th season leading the Tigers.
“I’m proud they competed to the end,” he said. “They came to play, but our record speaks for itself.”
Brown said that, despite the dismal record, the players had fun.
“I can live with that,” he said, “If they feel like they gave it their best.”
The Bearcats went 7-1 over the second half of the season, finishing with a 10-4 league mark (12-8 overall) to secure home court advantage in the first round of the District IV 2A Boys Basketball Tournament.
It could have been easy for W.F. West, with its playoff situation secure, to look past the rivalry game, Robertson said.
“They had nothing to lose,” he said. “That’s why I was happy with our energy.”
The playoff road starts next Saturday for W.F. West, which will host the Greater St. Helens League’s No. 3 team, R.A. Long, at 7 p.m. The Lumberjacks (9-10, 5-4 league) play at Washougal tonight.
