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Bounce Back Win for Bearcats

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By Aaron VanTuyl avantuyl@chronline.com

The Bearcats needed a bounce-back game, or a bit of momentum, or just a little fresh confidence with the playoffs looming next week — and they didn’t have to go far to find it.

W.F. West’s defense harassed the Tigers into a rough shooting night, and took advantage of Lexie Strasser’s improved play in the post to dominate on the offensive end in a 68-39 win at rival Centralia.

The win wraps up second place in the final Evergreen 2A Conference standings for W.F. West, which had lost two straight league games heading into Friday’s rivalry matchup.

“We’ve got to have a little fun. They’re happy. It’s no fun how it was, so it was huge,” W.F. West coach Tom Kelly said, referencing the Bearcats’ recent losses to Black Hills and Tumwater. “They couldn’t have been more excited. We needed a win. We’re not the team that had been losing, for whatever reason — our shots haven’t been going in, and shots cover up a multitude of sins.”

The shots were falling at a 52 percent clip on Friday, with Shasta Lofgren’s 21 points leading the way for a rejuvenated W.F. West.

“I think it’s a huge boost for us,” Strasser said. “I feel like we had more confidence in ourselves, and as a team.”

Strasser added 19 with 10 rebounds, and the Bearcats will now play at home to open the postseason.

“We needed this,” Bearcat guard Kiara Steen said. “Our confidence was down, so it’s a good confidence booster, for sure.”

The confidence started creeping up late in the first quarter, which the Bearcats ended on an 8-0 run.

Madi Crews opened the second with a pair of 3-pointers for Centralia, but W.F. West answered with a 15-3 run to head to halftime with a 29-17 lead.

Things only went from bad to worse for the Tigers. Strasser went to work inside to score 12 points during a 14-2 Bearcat run to open the third quarter, while Centralia went without a field goal for the first six minutes of the second half.

“I think she’s one of the most improved players in our league,” Kelly said of Strasser, a 6-foot-2 junior center. “She’s boarding well, and scoring inside for us, and her and (Erika) Brumfield really rebounded for us.”

The Cats closed it out with a 25-point fourth quarter, and — spearheaded by perimeter defense from Julia Johnson and Steen — held Centralia to 24 percent shooting for the game.

“We struggled, and I give credit to Chehalis. Defensively, they just were taking us out of our game,” Centralia coach Doug Ashmore said. “We were trying everything we had, offensively. They beat us in every single aspect of the game.”

The Tigers turned the ball over 17 times, and were outrebounded 29-23, with Erika Brumfield adding nine boards for W.F. West.

Steen added 10 points for W.F. West, while Crews led Centralia with 10.

W.F. West finishes the regular season with a 13-7 record, and a 3-3 mark in EvCo play. The Bearcats will host the third-place team out of the Greater St. Helens 2A League on Thursday to open the District 4 2A Girls Basketball Tournament.

Centralia, meanwhile, finishes the regular season at 12-8, with a 2-4 mark in league action. The Tigers will play at the runner-up from the GSHL — likely Washougal — on Thursday in the first round of the district tournament.

“I know my girls. We’ve got some great senior leadership,” Ashmore said. “We’ll get back after it and bounce back.”

Notes: Centralia’s last win over W.F. West came in January of 2010. … It was senior night for Centralia, and Tiger seniors Crews, Alyx Fast, and Hayden Blaser were honored. Prior to the game Crews received the ball from the Tigers’ game against Black Hills last week, in commemoration of hitting the 1,000-point career scoring mark.

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