The Battle for Billy was an electric atmosphere at Black Hills High School on Tuesday. Tumwater and Black Hills’ student sections each had a victory to cheer about, but ultimately, only one school could take home the billy goat. Tumwater superintendent Kevin Bogatin awarded the billy goat to Black Hills.
On the court, it was a split.
Black Hills girls 42, Tumwater 40
Tumwater's Kendall Gjurasic missed a shot at the buzzer to tie the game as Black Hills hung on for a 42-40 win at Black Hills High School on Tuesday in Tumwater.
“I thought they grinded it out, it was a tough game,” Black Hills coach Herb Guscott said. “I knew Tumwater, they always play really good defense.They put a few wrinkles in there, tried to take away a couple of our guards. They did a really good job in that respect. They always play hard every game. Our girls persevered, they won the ugly game, especially at the end when they could have tightened up. I’m just proud of them all. The three guards did a good job handling the press all night.”
Guscott highlighted freshman Natalie Buchanan, who came off the bench for Black Hills and contributed significant minutes in the win.
Black Hills scored just 12 points in the first half, including just five points in the second quarter. But the Wolves came out furious in the second half and scored 22 points in the third quarter and 10 more in the fourth quarter to earn the win.
But it was not without drama. The Wolves had a 41-35 lead late in the fourth quarter but Tumwater had two steals to close the gap to 41-40. A Black Hills free throw pushed the lead to 42-40, and Tumwater had a couple attempts before the ball went out of bounds with two seconds left for the final Tumwater inbound play.
The Black Hills crowd got into the game at the end of the third as Kiley McMahon banked in a half court shot for a 34-29 lead.
“That was huge because that got the crowd going for us. The girls got pumped up and remember, it is Tumwater,” Guscott said. “We’ve got the Tumwater mystique here right because for the last four or five years here, they’ve had our number, excluding our win earlier in the year. I thought they came out a little bit tight and based on what happened the last game and with them having injuries, I thought they may have taken them a little too lightly to begin the game. But again, they knew right away that wasn’t going to be the case.”
Black Hills is locked in as the No. 2 seed in the EvCo and they end the regular season against Rochester on senior night before the district tournament. It was the final game of the season for Tumwater, who is locked into the No. 3 seed from the EvCo into the district tournament.
Tumwater boys 54, Black Hills 41
Black Hills led most of the game but in the fourth quarter, it was all Tumwater, scoring 25 points to cruise to a 54-41 win against Black Hills.
The game was tied at 18 at the intermission, and it appeared Black Hills might sweep all of the competitions during the night after Black Hills’ principal Dave Myers won a sumo wrestling contest at halftime against Tumwater principal Zach Suderman.
The Wolves led 30-29, but big fourth quarters from Sahara Anthony III and Clay Morgan down the stretch, along with the superior size of Tumwater, was too much for Black Hills to overcome.
Tumwater ends the regular season as the No. 2 seed out of the EvCo into the district tournament. Black Hills is the No. 3 seed out of the EvCo into the district tournament and ends the regular season Thursday against Rochester on the road.
