Tumwater turns into “D”-Birds in win over Black Hills, punches ticket to 2A state regionals
The door swung upon a couple of times for Black Hills High School during the second half of Tuesday night’s District 4 boys 2A semi-final at Chick Rockey Gym in Olympia, but Tumwater’s defense wouldn’t let the Wolves through.
After the Thunderbirds took a 34-21 halftime and neither team spent a lot of time drawing up adjustments as both returned to the court after barely five minutes, Tumwater seemed to go ice cold.
With Black Hills ramping up its own defense in what was as physical a game as could be expected for two arch-rivals meeting with a berth to state on the line, the T-Birds didn’t score for the first five minutes of the third quarter, finally breaking the ice when Cam Oram knocked down a pair of free throws.
But over the same period of time, the Wolves could score just seven points of their own. After Oram’s free throws, Black Hills would never get closer than five points the rest of the way and Tumwater went on to a 59-48 victory, sending them into the district championship game.
“Defense, defense, defense,” said T-Birds head coach Josh Wilson afterward. “It’s been our focus all year. This last little part of the season we’ve really tightened it up.”
Tumwater advanced to the semi-finals with a 42-40 road win over R.A. Long that Wilson still thinks may have been his team’s best defensive effort.
“I’m not going to get mad about our defense tonight. Our guys played fantastic. Definitely in the top three defensive games we’ve had,” he said.
Damon Gaither, the T-Birds’ 6-foot-7 senior post, who finished with 15 points, said the team recommitted to defense after W.F. West ensured a sweep of the teams’ season series two weeks ago, 67-62.
“We all bought into the idea of ‘It’s me versus you, don’t let your man score,’” he said. “We help each other out when we need to. It got us a win tonight.”
The T-Birds, ranked 12th in the WIAA’s RPI with a 18-4 overall record, will meet upset-minded No. 36 Woodland (11-11), 48-45 winners over W.F. West, at Battle Ground High School at 8 p.m. Friday.
No. 9 Black Hills (16-6) must now win twice more, beginning with an 8 p.m. game against No. 6 Columbia River (16-4) at Tumwater on Thursday to reach state.
The first eight baskets in Tuesday’s game caused the shooter’s team to either tie or take the lead, but Tumwater went on a 9-2 run to end the first quarter. Two baskets during the streak came when Peyton Peterson, who would lead the T-Birds with 16 points, drove to the basket with reckless abandon, scored and was fouled.
“We were trying to attack the holes, see what we could get,” Peterson said. “Running in transition is what opened things up for us. It all started with our defense.”
Then, with Black Hills hanging around late in the first half, Gaither nailed back-to-back 3-pointers that gave Tumwater its first double-digit lead, 31-18.
“I was in the right place, right time, got a couple of kick out passes,” said Gaither. “It felt good. I’ve been shooting the ball well from the perimeter lately. It gave us a little energy boost.”
The Wolves’ final opportunity to overhaul Tumwater, which had beaten them 54-51 just 11 days before to achieve a split of the regular season series, came during a fourth quarter during which the T-Birds made just three field goals.
Eight times during the final period, Tumwater went to the foul line to shoot two. Only twice did they make both.
With two minutes to play, Black Hills finished off a mini-run of two baskets by senior guard Degan Hurley and one by junior post Justin Hicks, who ended the game with 11 points, to pull to within five at 53-48.
But the Wolves wouldn’t score again.
Black Hills’ senior guard Avery Armin led the game in scoring with 17 points before fouling out in the final minutes. Also fouling out was the Wolves’ leading scoring for the season, Zach Crumley, who was sent out three-and-a-half minutes from the end, departing with four points, almost nine below his 12.5 average.
Tumwater’s Jaylen Clay also reached double figures with 11.
No one on the current Tumwater roster has experienced the state tournament.
“This is great,” said Gaither. “We’ve been working super hard the last three years to get to this point. We’re not done yet. Hopefully we’ll cut down the nets on Friday, then go place at state.”
Peterson had similar thoughts.
“I’ve been working toward this since I was a kid,” he said. “Ever since I decided basketball was my thing I’ve wanted to make it to state, to play in one of the domes.”
This story was originally published February 18, 2020 at 9:47 PM.