The league-leading Thunderbirds were without the services of their regular point guard and leading scorer on Tuesday night.
With Spencer Dowers running the show, however, it didn’t make a ton of difference.
Dowers scored 18 points, and Tumwater stayed undefeated in Evergreen 2A Conference play with a 60-44 win over the Tigers in the Hub City.
The win seals the EvCo regular-season championship for Tumwater, while Centralia drops to 2-3 in league play with its regular-season finale coming Friday at rival W.F. West.
“They were a better team than us tonight, in my opinion,” Tiger coach Ron Brown said of Tumwater. “Just stronger, and I thought they ran their stuff well. And they had guards who aren’t necessarily wonderful, but definitely more than average.”
Jacob Gibbons added 17 points for Tumwater, while Cade Otton grabbed nine rebounds.
Christian Peters led Centralia with 19 points, and Nolan Wasson scored 14 with eight boards, but no other Tiger topped four points.
Tumwater started on a 7-0 run, and held Centralia without a field goal from its half-court offense for the game’s first six minutes. The Tigers found their footing in the second quarter, scoring three buckets on backdoor cuts, and trailed 26-22 at halftime.
Wasson scored on a fastbreak with 2 minutes, 17 seconds that cut Tumwater’s lead to 2 points, and missed what could have been the go-ahead 3-pointer on their next possession.
The Thunderbirds then went on an 11-2 run to wrap up the third quarter, and only pulled further away in the fourth.
“That was really the last thing,” Brown said. “They started hurting us with penetration and dishing.”
The Tigers turned the ball over 16 times in the loss, and — with short bench and shorter rotation — lost a bit of steam in the second half.
“We did contribute some unforced turnovers,” Brown said. “And so many of them were almost ‘Oops!’ which, when you do that, you never get into much of a rhythm.”
Tumwater, meanwhile, found plenty of open looks from long range — shooting 8 of 24 — and 14 points on 7 of 11 shooting from 6-foot-10 forward Weston Vandenhazel.
The Tigers will wrap up the regular season on Thursday in Chehalis.
“It’s a rivalry game. They haven’t had much of a season, and we’ve been disappointed in some of ours, so it’ll be an interesting game over there,” Brown said.
The game would have tiebreaker implications, which could mean the difference between opening the postseason at home or on the road for Centralia.
“I don’t know,” Brown joked. “You’d rather have it than not, but I’m not sure it makes a heck of a lot of difference with this group.”
Note: Should Centralia and Black Hills finish in a tie for second in the final EvCo standings, the tie will be broken based on each team’s point differential against playoff teams, up to 10 points per game. With five games down, the Tigers’ point differential is negative-8, while Black Hills’ is plus-1 — meaning that if Black Hills loses to Tumwater on Friday, Centralia can wrap up the No. 2 seed to districts with an 8-point win over W.F. West on Thursday.
Should that, too, result in a tie, the tiebreaker will be based on numbers drawn. … Tuesday was senior night for the Tigers, who honored Peters, Wasson, Voetberg and Giorgio Schioppetti. … Gentry is reportedly no longer with the Thunderbirds’ team.
Mickelson's Buzzer-Beater Lifts Wolves Past Bearcats
By The Chronicle
TUMWATER — W.F. West held reigning Evergreen 2A Conference co-MVP TJ Mickelson to just 13 points but couldn’t stop him from hitting a last-second buzzer beater to lift the Wolves past W.F. West 51-49 here on Tuesday.
“I was really happy with the effort in this game and there were a lot of positives,” W.F. West coach Chris White said. “We would have liked to win the game but things are headed in the right direction.”
W.F. West trailed 18-6 in the first quarter but battled back and outscored the Wolves by 10 points in the second half. Dylan Boman played stellar defense on Mickelson, White added.
Nole Wollan led W.F. West with 12 points while Brandon White had 11 points.
“Nole did a good job in the post,” White said. “Basically this game was a gut check after that first quarter and we’re just really pleased with the effort.”
W.F. West (4-15, 0-5 league) hosts Centralia on Thursday, then will host Aberdeen on Tuesday in a playoff pigtail game.
