Blazers run away from Todd Beamer after halftime to advance in bidistricts, 70-40

After his team’s biggest regular season victory, over Gig Harbor last month, Timberline High School boys basketball coach Allen Thomas said he didn’t want his team to be at its best in mid-season.

“I want to be good in February,” he said then. The Blazers, after earlier claiming the 3A South Sound Conference championship and walloping visiting Todd Beamer, 70-40, Saturday night in the first round of the West Central/Southwest 3A Bi-District playoffs look good, indeed.

The rout of the Titans, achieved via a 42-18 second half edge after Timberline led by only six at halftime, was the Blazers’ 14th win in a row.

Top-seeded Timberline (16-3) moves on to play fourth-seeded Kelso, a 70-47 winner over Spanaway Lake on Saturday night, on Thursday at Auburn High School’s gym at a time to be determined. Eighth-seeded Todd Beamer (12-8) drops into a loser’s bracket game with Mountain View of Vancouver at home on Wednesday.

“It’s been a long process for us.” Thomas said Saturday. “Our guys are trusting each other and playing good basketball at the right time.”

Brooklyn Hicks, scoring most of his points during the second half, led Timberline in scoring with 22 points while Miles Gurske added 18 and Darell Gipson 14. Chris Hogan led Todd Beamer with 11 points.

Gipson and Hicks cleaned up the boards as well, vital in a game between two teams unafraid to fire from distance.

“That was huge. Darell and Brooklyn do a great job on the glass for us. Without them, we struggle to rebound, but collectively we did a good job tonight,” Thomas said.

“That’s very important,” agreed Gipson. “If they’re throwing up threes, we can’t give up second chance opportunities.”

The first quarter was air tight, ending with Timberline ahead 12-11 after every basket scored in the opening period either tied the game or put the shooter’s team ahead.

A pair of threes by Gurske he said came as the result of “good finds by my teammates” and a short jumper by Hicks early in the second allowed the Blazers to pull ahead, 20-11, but Beamer battled back to tie the game one last time, 20-20, on a post move by Malik Agbo with 2:50 left in the half.

Gurske wasn’t worried.

“I always believe that we can execute down the stretch defensively,” he said. “We fixed some things at halftime.”

After Hicks hit a pull-up jumper a minute later, Timberline had the lead for good.

Counting the final two baskets of the first half, the Blazers’ ended the game on a 46-18 run that turned into fun time for the Timberline student section as their team put on a show.

Hicks broke loose for a variety of floaters and dunks – one on a set play cross-court lob from Gurske that brought down the house. Tyler No drilled a long three.

“Brooklyn usually gets better as the game goes along,” Thomas said. “He doesn’t need plays called for him, he can just go get a bucket.”

Gurske made the lob sound like business as usual for Timberline.

“We go over our plays every day and try to execute them as well as possible,” he said. “That’s one that will get the crowd going and the fans cheering. It’s fun to be the passer on that one.”

Midway through the fourth quarter, 6-foot-5 sophomore post Gipson went coast-to-coast and behind his back before laying the ball in. Later, Gipson passed ahead to Gurske for a layup that gave the Blazers their largest lead of the night, 33 points, at 68-35.

Although Thomas spun and looked into the stands in relief after Gipson’s highlight play, he’s confident in exhibiting his athleticism more often.

“I’ve been working on it over the summer and looked forward to executing on the court and showing what I can do,” said Gipson, also a talented wide receiver on the Timberline football team.

The Blazers are confident that they have indeed hit their stride in February and can continue to succeed during the post-season.

“We’ve got a lot of things we can fix to come in sharper next game, but we’re confident,” said Gurske. “If we can lock in on defense and play the way we play, we should make a run.”

Added Gipson, “With this team, our confidence and how we’ve bonded together, if we play together there’s not a team in Washington state that can beat us.”