WOODLAND — Knock, knock, knock.
For much of Thursday night, that noise was all the Tumwater High School boys basketball team made against Ridgefield.
The door kept creaking open. It was never broken down.
With 4.1 seconds left in regulation, the Thunderbirds had a chance to leave Woodland High School victorious, but the game-winning shot never went in the air. They instead left with heartbreak in dropping a 51-50 verdict to the Spudders in a winner-to-state contest to wrap up the bottom half of the Class 2A District 4 bracket.
“With no timeouts, especially off a rebound, there’s nothing you can do,” Tumwater head coach Josh Wilson said. “You got to get it and go and do your best to get a shot off.”
With Columbia River upending W.F. West in the elimination game prior and Civil War Round 3 between R.A. Long and Mark Morris for the title on Friday in Kelso, it marks a clean sweep of state bids from the GSHL.
For the third consecutive tournament, the EvCo will not have multiple teams at state. The league had not been shut out of state since 2014.
Tumwater nearly pulled off a stunner.
Spudders senior Jack Hughes missed both free throws — the exact opposite of what happened down to the wire in the quarterfinals versus Black Hills — and Tumwater suddenly had life.
The bounce off the second missed free throw went towards the sideline and Luke Overbay heaved it towards Sahara Anthony III. One little stumble and Anthony never could regain composure. His shot was after the buzzer.
The senior point guard sat with his head buried in his jersey.
“Sahara played a fantastic game, felt like his best game of the year,” Wilson said. “That’s what you got to hang your hat on.”
And Ridgefield, a year after experiencing heartbreak in the same building in the same setting, were sent into euphoria.
“We hadn’t played a lot of close games and for me, that was a concern going into the playoffs” Spudders head coach Jason Buffum said after clinching career win No. 150. “We’re lucky he wasn’t able to make a play in that situation.”
The final frame was an offensive struggle for both sides.
No basket was scored until 5:20 left on a Hughes layup. The T-Birds (16-7) crept to within three points twice and two after Anthony III was fouled in the corner and made all three free throws.
Beckett Wall swished a deep triple with 5.3 seconds to go to make it a one-point game.
“He’s a gamer,” Wilson said. “I wasn’t surprised.”
A year after losing to arch rival W.F. West in a winner-to-state game, the five seniors left with the same bitter taste.
And for moments, it could have been reversed.
Tumwater led 4-0 early, but a 9-2 run by the Spudders put them in front for the majority of the first half.
Wilson was far from pleased.
“Just trying to wake them up,” he said. “Looked like a little bit of a funk. I was going to give it my max effort.”
The T-Birds countered and used a 7-0 flurry to take a 28-26 lead, but back-to-back 3s by Isaiah Ashenfleter and Jamison McCann gave Ridgefield a four-point cushion at the half.
It built a 10-point advantage in the third and Tumwater never led again.
“I think Tumwater is such a well-coached team, we knew it was going to be a grind,” Buffum said. “We had to get ourselves in check.”
McCann finished with a game-high 26 points on 10-of-16 from the field and Hughes added 15.
For Tumwater, Anthony III paced the scoring with a team-best 18 points and Wall chipped in 13. Those two plus Bryce Morgan, Josh Schlecht and Jake Dillon played their final basketball game as T-Birds.
“It is hard to say goodbye to five guys and send them off like that,” Wilson said. “This is one of my favorite groups of all-time.”
A sophomore trio of impact players plus junior Braeden Konrad are expected to anchor the 2025 roster. Wilson, emphatically, doesn’t expect a drop off.
“Tumwater is coming every single year, forever,” he stated. “Everyone can take note of that.”
