Tumwater caught fire from downtown and Centralia struggled to convert shots offensively as the Tigers took a 76-44 defeat in 2A Evergreen Conference action here on Wednesday night.
“We started off really well,” Centralia coach Kyle Donahue said. “Defensively, we were moving around and flying around. We just got a little flat-footed, our energy dropped and our conditioning caught up with us a little.”
The Tigers were led by junior Landon Kaut’s team-high 12 points, while junior Jayden Pannette added 10 and senior point guard Brady Hoyt scored eight.
Senior post Benito Valencia and Kaut each hauled in a team-high six boards. The Tigers were outrebounded 29-22.
“Offensively, we executed,” Donahue said. “But we missed a lot of transition points and easy looks inside... we came out the second half and played well.”
Centralia was coming off a 70-56 season-opening win over rival Rochester on Monday. The Tigers drop to 1-1 and travel to Shelton (0-2) on Friday. The Highclimbers fell, 78-55, to Rochester Wednesday night.
Onalaska posted three double-digit scorers and the Loggers came away with a 55-25 victory over South Bend on a long road trip Wednesday night to Pacific County.
Mason Ulery scored a game-high 15 points, while Cole Taylor and Alex Pankuk each pitched in 10.
As impressive as the Loggers’ offense was, it was their defense that drove them to victory, Onalaska coach Todd Dalsted said.
“I thought this was our best defensive performance of the year,” Dalsted said. “Ulery had a good, overall game taking care of the ball and limiting turnovers.”
The Loggers turned the ball over just nine times while forcing the Indians to around 30, Dalsted estimated.
Senior point guard Danny Dalsted pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds to help the Loggers collect 51 total boards. Onalaska outrebounded South Bend 28-4 in the second half.
The Loggers improve to 1-3 overall and host undefeated Napavine (4-0) on Thursday.
