The Todd Beamer Titans didn’t play their best in the first half of Tuesday’s girls basketball playoff opener against the Gig Harbor Tides, but they still led by nine points at halftime.
When Beamer found its groove in the second half, things quickly got out of hand.
The Titans scored the first 13 points of the third quarter en route to a 52-24 victory over the visiting Tides in the first round of the 4A West Central/Southwest bidistrict tournament.
Beamer (18-4) was coming off a one-point loss to top-ranked Mount Rainier in last week’s South Puget Sound League title game, and it took a while for the Titans to find their bearings against the Tides (9-12), who barely squeezed into the playoffs as the 4A Narrows League’s No. 4 seed.
Beamer’s talented freshman trio of Quinessa Caylao-Do, Bria Rice and Nia Alexander led the victory.
Caylao-Dao and Rice combined for 19 points, and Alexander posted 12 of her game-high 16 points after halftime.
Titans coach Cory Alexander said his players developed more of a “loser-out mentality” in the second half. They’ll face Kentwood in the quarterfinals at 6 p.m. Friday at Rogers High in Puyallup.
“If you want to be one of those top teams, you’ve got to be able to play hard at all times,” Alexander said. “Gig Harbor, you can’t fall asleep on them. A team like that, they’ll come back.”
The Tides played strong defense in the first half but struggled to find any consistent offense. Taylor Talen and Katy Larson scored six points each in the loss.
“The key to it was the transition game, and that’s what cost us the game,” Tides coach Bob Boback said. “They got layups. We wanted to get them in a half-court game.”
Gig Harbor faces an elimination game against Skyview of Vancouver at 6 p.m. Friday at Bellarmine Prep.
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