Tumwater girls hang on to beat Port Angeles in 2A regionals, 58-57
Seemingly determined to ensure a nail-biter finish on Saturday afternoon, the Tumwater T-Birds managed to survive and earn a coveted first-round bye to the 2A state girls basketball tournament that begins Wednesday.
Despite missing a layup and three front ends of 1-and-1 free throw chances, Tumwater hung on for a 58-57 regional victory over Port Angeles at Mount Tahoma High.
“That was not one of our better games,” Tumwater coach Robin Johnson said. “Maybe it was being our first trip to state. We were more nervous than I thought we’d be. We didn’t flow. To get out of here with a win, I’m just really happy.”
The victory puts the T-Birds into a 12:15 p.m. quarterfinal on Thursday against a yet-to-be determined opponent. For the first 13 minutes, it felt like a Roughriders runaway. But when Eve Burke scored inside for Port Angeles with 3:33 left in the second quarter, the lead was just five at 28-23. The rest of the first half belonged to Tumwater.
More specifically, the last three minutes of the second quarter belonged to the T-Birds 5-foot-11 forward Natalie Sumrok. The sophomore scored nine of Tumwater’s 12 points as the T-Birds closed the half with a 12-3 run that turned that deficit into a 35-31 lead at the half.
“That was kind of stressful,” said Sumrok, who finished with a career-high 27 points. “We were getting down, and I knew we had to keep the energy going. Once we were getting behind, I was feeling like we need to get this back.”
Port Angeles had scored the first five points of the game and never trailed until Sumrok stepped outside the three-point line along the left baseline and made her only shot from distance of the game with 2:00 left. That put Tumwater up 31-28. The Roughriders responded with a 3-pointer of their own to tie it again at 31-31, but Sumrok scored twice more in the final 1:25 to give Tumwater its halftime advantage.
Sumrok was needed offensively over that span after Olivia Bailon was forced to the Thunderbirds bench with 4:56 left in the half, having picked up her second foul of the game. Bailon, the only senior on the Tumwater roster, had carried the load early with eight points that helped keep the T-Birds close. Tumwater never trailed during the second half, though the last two minutes were never comfortable.
With 2:01 left to play, in fact, Mikkiah Brady made a 3-pointer for Port Angeles that tied the game at 54-54. Over the next 50 seconds, Bailon scored twice as she finished with 14 points, and Tumwater took a 58-54 lead into the final minute. Down the stretch, though, the T-Birds missed a wide-open layup on a breakaway with 29 seconds to go, still leading by two, and then couldn’t make a free throw.
But with 4.5 seconds to go, the Roughriders inbounded after a timeout. Aubrey Amandala stepped in front of a long pass for Tumwater, intercepted the ball and the clock ran out for the victory.
