W.F. West freshman Brock Wade doesn’t get too rattled.
Ten first-quarter points? Part of the game. Gut-check free throws in a late-season league contest? Nothing to worry about.
“When Brock goes to the line, it’s 2 points,” Bearcat senior guard Ben Ternan said. “He’s one of the most clutch players in this league, and he’s going to keep getting better.”
That quote, predictably, drew only a laugh from Wade. The freshman knocked down a pair of foul shots with 19 seconds to play to put W.F. West up 3 points in what turned out to be a 73-71 Evergreen 2A Conference thrill-ride win over Tumwater. The Thursday night win in Chehalis pushed W.F. West’s win streak to four games and kept the Bearcats in a tie for second in the league standings.
“It was wild,” Ternan said. “Coach keeps saying, all these games are like playoff games. This was a big win.”
Wade scored a career-high 21 points, including the aforementioned breathing-room foul shots — which shouldn’t have come as any surprise.
“He’s shooting 91 percent, so he’s the guy you want on the line,” W.F. West coach Ryan Robertson said. “But that’s a lot of pressure for a freshman.”
On the ensuing play, Tumwater missed a 3-pointer and Ternan was fouled pulling down the rebound. He also knocked down two freebies to put the Cats up 73-68, and Tumwater’s Jimmy Jensen buried a late 3 for the final margin.
The back-and-forth finish came after a 29-point first quarter outburst from the Bearcats (9-7, 7-3 league) that featured six 3-pointers, and a 13-point deficit erased by the visitors.
“I liked our finish,” Robertson said. “I thought we started playing as well as we can, but I think it’s hard to maintain that for four quarters.”
W.F. West’s Mitch Gueller picked a Tumwater guard midway through the third quarter and finished with a one-handed jam that brought the crowd to its feet and, more importantly, gave W.F. West a 13-point lead — matching it’s biggest advantage of the game.
The Thunderbirds, though, went on a 19-3 run to pull ahead by 3 early in the final frame before the Cats battled back with an 8-0 run, featuring fast-break buckets from Tyler Coleman, Q Davis and Gueller in less than a minute to pull back ahead.
Tumwater took the lead one last time, but Wade put the Bearcats back up with a lay-up with under two minutes to play, and Davis knocked down a 3 on the next play to extend the lead.
Jensen, who scored a team-high 20 points for Tumwater, completed a 3-point play with 34 seconds left to set up Wade’s foul shots.
“We finished strong,” Wade said. “The second quarter, we kind of let off a bit, but we finished strong.”
Both teams shot well — 57 percent for W.F. West, and 53 percent for Tumwater — and the teams combined to hit 14 3-pointers. Davis scored 15 with seven rebounds, and Gueller added 14 for the Bearcats, while Jordan Boede, Kyle Warner and Daniel Hinkle each scored 11 for Tumwater.
“I told the guys, I’d have paid to see that one,” Robertson said. “That was a great high school game.”
The win keeps W.F. West in a tie with Aberdeen for second place in the Evergreen 2A Conference, behind only River Ridge (9-1) — which lost 54-49 to Aberdeen Wednesday night.
The Bearcats play at Elma on Tuesday.
