YAKIMA — For the third straight day, the Tumwater girls basketball team refused to give up an inch on defense. But for the second game in a row, the T-Birds couldn’t manage enough on offense to turn the defensive gem into a win, falling 38-24 to Sequim in a loser-out contest at the 2A state tournament.
“Today was tough,” Tumwater coach Nathan Buchheit said. “But you’re going to have those days, that’s life. Ultimately, I look at it as the whole season. We had a heck of a season. We faced adversity, maybe not as much as some teams, but we faced adversity in the locker room and had to endure some of that. I’m just so proud of the girls and what they accomplished this year. There’s no shame in all of that.”
The T-Birds held the Wolves to 32% shooting from the floor, but that’s still twice as quick a clip as they themselves managed.
Tumwater finished the day a tough 9 for 58 from the field – that’s 16% for those without a calculator – a rate that improved in the second half after a miserable 10% shooting percentage in the first half.
Tumwater jacked up 24 3-pointers, but only made two of them. Senior Kylie Waltermeyer scored half of her side’s points on 4-for-24 shooting, with Cierra Larson adding eight points of her own.
“We were talking about base, we were talking about getting your legs under your shot,” Buchheit said. “Unfortunately, three games in three days, that’s tough, and our rotation was a bit shorter than we’re used to. “
After winning the 2A District 4 title, the Thunderbirds’ State aspirations took a major hit last weekend, when junior point guard – and 2A EvCo first-team all-leaguer – Regan Brewer tore her ACL. Without their leader on defense and the facilitator of their offense, the T-Birds shuffled their personnel around and prepared to grit out as much as they could in Yakima, slowing things down in the halfcourt and winning with defense.
The tactics bore fruit in a win over Enumclaw in the Round of 12, earning Tumwater two more games, but while the T-Birds kept both low-scoring, they couldn’t manage another victory.
“I can tell you as a coach and a coaching staff, we tried to tailor it as best we could to figure out how we could win games this week,” Buchheit said. “The beautiful thing is that these younger girls that will be back next year got to experience what they dome was like, and the beautiful thing is that these seniors got a win this year and got to play three games here in Yakima.”
In three games, Tumwater held its opponents to an average of 35 points per contest. Through 10 games in the 2A girls tournament at the Sundome, 12 teams have been held under 40 points; three of those were Enumclaw, Burlington-Edison, and Sequim when they had to go up against the Thunderbirds.
On the flip side, Tumwater maxed out at 36 points in the win over Enumclaw, and finished its three-game run in Yakima averaging an even 30 per game.
Tumwater will graduate three seniors in Waltermeyer, Larson, and Hadley Woods.
“I’m so proud of them,” Buchheit said. “They’re awesome girls. I’m so thankful and blessed to be able to have coached them for a year. I hope they feel the same with our coaching staff, and I hope that what they’ve learned this year, there’s even a little bit of life lesson that they can build upon.”
