Friday's State 2A Girls Basketball: Black Hills Overcomes Early Deficit to End Bearcats’ Season

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YAKIMA — W.F. West built an early lead against Black Hills and appeared to be in line for their third straight season with a state trophy.

Like Wolves do though, Black Hills slowly wore down and pounced on their prey at the very end and came from behind to win 63-55 in a State 2A Girls Basketball Tournament consolation match at the Yakima SunDome on Friday afternoon.

Black Hills will face Lynden on Saturday at 9:30 a.m. in the 4th place game. The Wolves snapped an eight game overall losing streak to the Bearcats that dates back to 2016.

“I’m real proud of them. The seniors, you go in there, you show me your locker room at the end of the season, it will tell me where you’re going to be next year and they’re heartbroken,” Coach Tom Kelly said. “They were champions and things just didn’t go right. Lay-ins, free throws and offensive boards, it all just snowballed and there we are.”

Drea Brumfield led the Bearcats with 19 points, five rebounds and four blocks. Annika Waring tallied 17 points, eight rebounds and three assists. Madi Haakenson, in her final prep basketball game, recorded a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Maggie Vadala scored the other six points and also had five rebounds.

Black Hills’ Megan River had 17 points and Addie Anisworth came off the bench and had a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Mia Flores was also in double figures with 10 points.

“Overall, we played hard. We wanted it and just couldn’t end up coming out on top but we definitely wanted it and it hurts but for the seniors,” Waring said. “It’s the last hurrah but for everyone else, we’re going to remember this feeling coming into the season next year.”

Black Hills won the rebounding battle 51-41, including 25 offensive rebounds for the Wolves. W.F. West didn’t get any contribution from the bench while the Black Hills’ bench scored 26 points.

“Those offensive rebounds, that’s what’s killed us all year. There was a stretch there where we pretty much outrebounded people and stuff and it seemed like as of late, we didn’t,” Kelly said. “We were getting outrebounded and even Black Hills, we outrebounded them before. There was no 25 offensive boards, we didn’t have the legs, it had to be. That was the ninth time that we would have played them, we beat them eight straight times. They say it’s hard to beat a team three times, it’s hard to beat them nine times...It’s a real good team.”

River hit a 3-pointer to open the scoring, but W.F. West put up the next 13 points and led 16-8 after one quarter.



The Bearcats held their largest lead at 19-8 early in the second quarter, but the Wolves made their move and tied the game at 22 with just more than two minutes remaining before gaining a 26-24 lead at halftime.

Black Hills got hot in the third quarter, with 3-pointers by Lauren Sayahod and Flores and short two pointers by Anisworth expanding the lead to 46-35 after three quarters.

W.F. West wouldn’t go quietly, as the Bearcats stormed back into the game early in the fourth quarter, with a layup by Haakenson followed by a two-point bucket from Brumfield cutting the lead to 48-46 with just over four minutes left in the contest.

The Bearcats were never able to tie or take the lead as River knocked down some shots and free throws down the stretch to help the Wolves hold off the Bearcats for the win.

“I’m real proud of them. We lost three potential starters and then we lost two seniors, they were all defensive people,” Kellys said. “It was really a killer but we never made no excuses and I thought we turned into a pretty good team.”

It was the final game for Haakenson, Courtney Bennett, Sarah Haakenson and Erika Brumfield, although Brumfield missed the entire season with an injury. Bennett and Brumfield are both playing in college, with Brumfield playing for Portland State next year while Bennett is committed to play at Oregon Tech.

Looking back on the season, W.F. West overcame some obstacles to get to the SunDome.

“Overall, we’ve been through hell and back. We were at one point in hell. We came out,” Waring said. “I’m so proud to be here and it’s just awesome being at state but it sucks. I’m just glad we made it. Sometimes I wonder how we made it but I just knew we could so it’s awesome.”

With a solid core of young players seeing significant minutes during the season and two juniors returning, the Bearcats believe they will be right back in Yakima in a year’s time.

“I can’t wait, I know that a lot of us are going to put in individual time over the summer so come back first game of the season,” Waring said. “People got to watch out, that’s all I know.”