Friday's Girls Basketball: Bearcats Too Much for Tigers

Posted

The drama leaked out of the girls rendition of the Twin Cities faster than the air from a basketball left out in the cold.

The girls from W.F. West ran out to a 29-0 lead on the road Friday night before finishing the encounter with a 78-36 advantage over Centralia in their Evergreen 2A Conference matchup.

W.F. West blanked the Tigers 25-0 in the first quarter and then scored the first two buckets of the second quarter before Danika Jensen hit a soft touch leaner in the paint break the seal for the home team. That early onslaught was fueled by the Bearcats blitzkrieg full court press and a commitment to aggressive help defense in the half court set.

By the end of that first quarter the Bearcats had forced 14 turnovers and gathered 12 rebounds to boot. They would finish the game with 31 forced furntovers and 34 rebounds whereas they coughed the ball up just 15 times and allowed Centralia to gather only 21 boards.

“It’s tough to simulate. Yesterday we used our coaches to do the best we could and have the girls coming in and out on them, but it’s just tough to simulate. And they keep bringing girls off the bench and it’s non-stop with them keeping the pressure on,” said Centralia coach Doug Ashmore. “They’re just in the right spots. We made great decision like cross court passes like we taught them to do and then there’s a girl right there getting a hand on it. It’s just a lot of credit to them. They played great with great team D.”

From the midway point of the second quarter through the end of the third frame the teams played essentially even basketball. W.F. West took the second quarter by a 12-7 tally but Centralia came out on top in the third quarter with a 17-15 edge.

“We talked at half time and I just said keep your heads up. We’re a good basketball team and we’ve been playing good defense lately. I just said we gotta keep going and doing the things we’re taught and we executed and got some clutch shots from Kaut and Jensen rebounding,” explained Ashmore. “We’d talked about basically needing to block out and get one-and-done because we were giving them a lot. I think we gave up 26 rebounds in that first half and 11 of them were offensive, so they were getting a lot of extra looks.”

Carissa Kaut led Centralia with 10 points and six rebounds while Danika jensen added four points and a team-high seven rebounds. Makayla Erickson added six points for the Tigers and Hannah Porter lodged seven points.

The Tigers suffered a regression to the mean in the final frame though as W.F. West cycled in another unit of fresh players and added 14 points to the difference. For the game Centralia managed to hit just 10 of 35 shots from the field for a 28 percent clip while W.F. West connected on 41 percent of their 68 shots.

Madi Haakenson led all scorers with 12 points and Courtney Bennett chipped in 10 points for W.F. West. Chloee Akins added nine points for the visitors and Lexi Roberts had seven points. Annika Waring and Maggie Vadala anchored the Bearcats glass cleaning effort with seven boars each.

After absorbing the rivalry loss from a well-oiled W.F. West squad Ashmore said he was pleased with the way his team persevered and continued to work on playing quality basketball. He said that’s what it will take to get the Tigers back on track for their next league game against Tumwater.

“I love the pride of our kids. We played 32 minutes of hard basketball and that’s all I can ask right now,” Ashmore said.

Centralia (3-12, 1-4 conference) will play at Tumwater on Tuesday while W.F. West (9-5, 4-1) will host Rochester.

Note: The game served as an opportunity to raise funds for a Centralia student who is dealing with the effects of cancer in their family. Through the multiple school fundraising effort a total of $3,725 was raised.

Rochester Cruises Past Aberdeen

ABERDEEN — Rochester’s Lexi Sederberg-Jones and Paige Winter combined to match Aberdeen as the Warriors earned a 64-44 win in an Evergreen 2A Conference girls basketball game here on Friday.



Sederberg-Jones scored 23 points and Winter recorded 21 points. Sofie Sand grabbed 12 rebounds for the Warriors.

Aliyah Tageant led the Bobcats with 13 points and Randie Stewart added 10 points.

Rochester put up plenty of shots against Aberdeen, converting 25 percent of their 75 field goals and making 18 of 30 shots from the charity stripe.

The Warriors jumped ahead to a 19-6 lead after one quarter and kept the momentum going for a 37-16 lead at halftime.

Each team scored 28 points in the second half to allow the Warriors to cruise to victory.

“I was pleased with how they played. We were able to put good defensive pressure on them,” Rochester coach Davina Serdahl said. “I was pleased at how our bench came in and gave us a lot of valuable minutes. Lexi came back strong and didn’t miss a beat. It was a great team effort by all the girls.”

Rochester (9-6, 2-3) travels to Chehalis on Wednesday to take on the Bearcats in an EvCo game.

Beavers Beat Forks on Letts’ Late Shot

FORKS — Charlie Letts tossed in a half-court shot with eight seconds left to play, and Tenino beat Forks, 38-37, here Friday in 1A Evergreen League girls basketball action.

Letts finished with nine points, and Kaylee Schow paced the Beavers with 14.

Forks, though, kept things close and led 31-26 heading into the fourth frame.

“We definitely struggled on the boards tonight,” Tenino coach Brandi Thomas said. “Forks did a good job of rebounding and getting second and third opportunities.”

Freshman guard Megan Letts played well defensively, Thomas noted.

“She did a great job anticipating and she really made things happen and was a spark when she stepped on the court,” Thomas said.

Rian Peters led Forks with 14 points.

Tenino (13-4, 4-1 league) hosts Montesano on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.