TUMWATER — It was no secret that Black Hills was looking forward to its rematch against Tumwater. When the two teams first faced off on Jan. 14, the T-Birds overcame late deficits in both regulation and the first overtime period before topping the Wolves on the road in double OT.
In their second meeting on Friday, Black Hills wasted no time taking control, dominating the first quarter and riding that fast start to a 57-36 win.
The Wolves scored the first 11 points of the game and led 20-2 early in the second quarter.
“That was huge,” Black Hills coach Herb Guscott said. “You never know with (Tumwater). My girls persevered … We just kept rolling on that.”
Tumwater went into the locker room down 17 at halftime, but they came out strong, going on a 9-3 run to cut the deficit to nine early in the third.
Tumwater coach Nathan Buchheit took responsibility for the start of the game, saying he should have called a timeout to reorganize things, but he also gave credit to his team for getting back in the game after the break.
“You have to fight and claw all the way back, your energy kind of gets sucked in the moment of it all,” Buchheit said. “I was really proud of the girls about the start of the second half and some of the adjustments we made to give us a chance there.”
A pair of threes from Kylie McMahon helped settle the Wolves down, and by the end of the third, their lead was back up to 13.
“We knew they’d make a couple runs, and they did,” Guscott said. “We just stepped up and hit some timely shots … I’m just proud of the girls. They played really, really well.”
Natalie Buchanan had one of her best games of the season, hitting four threes in the first half to help the Wolves build the early lead en route to finishing with 22 points.
McMahon added 12, and Tyler Venable scored 12. Cassidy O’Reilly also had success in the paint, scoring seven, and Ellie Johnson added three.
The win leaves Black Hills (11-7, 4-4 2A EvCo) and Tumwater (6-12, 4-4 2A EvCo) tied for third in the EvCo standings, but the team that finishes higher will earn the No. 2 seed in the district tournament because Shelton will compete in the 3A postseason.
With the win, Black Hills now controls its own destiny towards the No. 2 seed. If the Wolves can beat Centralia on Tuesday and Aberdeen on Thursday, they’ll avoid a pigtail and get a home game in the first round of the district tournament.
“We still have to take care of business,” Guscott said. “We can’t take it for granted. But if we play like we did tonight, we are golden.”
While the T-Birds will now need help to avoid a pigtail, they’ll turn their attention to Aberdeen on Tuesday and Shelton on Thursday.
“It’s about simplifying the game for us,” Buchheit said. “They’re very controllable things … We’ll see how the chips fall when we come to each opportunity that we get.”
