LACEY — A step up the classification ladder, a date with one of the best players in the state, and a rabid environment all combined to be too much for the Tumwater boys basketball team Tuesday, in a 74-58 loss to 3A Timberline.
It’s the fourth loss of the season for the Thunderbirds (7-4, 4-0 2A EvCo); all four came to either 3A or 4A schools in a loaded non-league schedule set up by coach Josh Wilson and his staff.
“I want to come out and compete against the best teams in the state, so the guys feel confident in what it is we do and the defensive effort that we put out,” Wilson said. “I want them to feel good about going against the best teams in the state, and that they can hang, so when we go play at a 2A level, it makes it that much easier.”
The T-Birds certainly hung around for fits and spurts, but never led Tuesday evening, and saw four-star UNLV commit Brooklyn Hicks put on a show. The Blazers’ star — 247sports’ second-ranked recruit in the state — threw down a thundering dunk a minute in and never slowed down, scoring a game-high 36 points to lead the way for the hosts.
“I think they just worked harder than us,” Wilson said. “They got out and applied some pressure that got us out of our rhythm, and that carried over for most of the game. We let Brooklyn Hicks have a great game, and they just outworked us today, no ifs, ands, or buts about it, that’s what happened.”
Andrew Collins led a balanced-but-quiet Tumwater offense with 13 points. Brayden Oram had 12.
Luke Brewer added 10 points, leading the T-Birds at halftime with eight, but took a hard fall midway through the third quarter and sat out much of the remainder of the game.
“Luke’s obviously an important player for us, so when he went out, it was challenging for a whole bunch of different reasons,” Wilson said.
Timberline surged out to an early lead, going ahead by 12 points in the first quarter and threatening to turn the game into a blowout, but Brewer hit a 3-pointer, then fed Collins on an alley-oop to trim the deficit to 17-10 at the end of the period.
The T-Birds started to open things up in the second quarter, cutting the lead to three at one point and five at a couple others, but never pulled any closer, and always saw momentum fall away as soon as it came.
“We just turned the ball over at bad times,” Wilson said. “We did have little spurts where we did okay things, but at the end they seemed to hit a big shot when they needed to, and things went back their way.”
That left the window open for a Timberline run, and in the third quarter, the hosts seized the chance, building the lead up to 20 with a 10-0 run. The T-Birds clawed their way back as best they could late, dropping 20 points in the fourth quarter, but never really threatened.
Tumwater will go back to 2A EvCo play in rivalry fashion Friday, taking on Black Hills in a battle of the top two teams in the league standings.
