TUMWATER — No one said it would be relaxing.
And three times already this season, the Tumwater High School boys basketball team has made the fourth quarter eventful. They pieced together rallies versus Washington High and Adna, plus they needed a Luke Overbay reverse putback layup with .1 seconds left on the clock to beat Kelso.
“I’m losing my hair, for sure,” T-Birds head coach Josh Wilson said. “Trying to figure out how to flip that switch.”
While there was no buzzer-beating shot or final frame magic, Tumwater didn’t have a smooth sailing end on Tuesday night. It didn’t end up mattering.
Despite unforced turnovers and empty possessions, enough defensive energy over the final 90 seconds allowed the Thunderbirds to walk away with a 60-51 triumph over W.F. West at home in both teams’ Evergreen Conference openers.
At 7-1 and now 1-0 in league, Tumwater is off to its best start since the 2019-20 campaign that jumped out to a 12-1 record.
“Beating W.F. West is always a good thing,” Wilson said. “We have high potential, so we have to figure out how to maximize (it). We’re working on it each and every day.”
Even with six consecutive wins and having a flair for the dramatics, there was still a long conversation between coaches and players afterwards. For a roster that spots two seniors and a boatload of juniors, varsity experience is limited.
Only Julian Balsley, Landon Anchors, Braeden Konrad and Overbay played significant minutes last winter. Wilson admitted he isn’t 100 percent certain this group believes how talented they are.
Balsley pointed to slow starts as a primary reason.
“We can start to doubt ourselves,” he said. “We’ve been trying to get more into pre-game warmups because we can start slow (even in) warmups.”
For a moment early in the fourth stanza, Tumwater was on its way to a convincing win. Reserve guard Tyler Johnson went on a heater with three triples in a 14-2 run to lead by 13. He finished with 12 points on the night.
“It was huge,” Balsley said. “Turned the whole game around for us.”
“He’s an incredible shooter, we see it every day in practice,” Wilson added. “That’s what brought the energy back into the gym.”
Errant inbound passes and W.F. West took advantage to whittle the deficit to six with 1:33 left in regulation. It never got a clean look at the bucket the rest of the way and struggled to get up quick shots with time not on its side.
The Bearcats (3-7, 0-1) have lost four straight and five of their last six.
“Proud of the fight we had,” W.F. West head coach Chris White said. “Just being gritty. We had some hollow possessions; put that on the list.”
It was 18-18 after the first quarter, but neither side broke away until Tumwater’s Jake Reid buried a triple and Balsley threw down a dunk to lead by seven. The Bearcats trimmed the margin to one on the strength of a 9-3 spree in the third and the first possession of the fourth.
Sophomore Wyatt Hoffman finished with 11 points while Race Rockey added 10. The Bearcats now head to Black Hills on Friday to face the other half of Thurston County’s contender for the league title.
Post Cody Schwarz, a bright spot this season, left the game in the first quarter and didn’t put any pressure on his left leg. W.F. West’s forward options are down to Rockey and a host of 6-foot players.
“We’re having some growing pains, putting in new ideas, but unable to use them,” White said. “You don’t want to ignore the new idea; you want to massage it.”
Balsley led the Tumwater scoring with 17 points while Anchors and Bello each contributed five assists and Overbay grabbed nine rebounds. The T-Birds get their third straight game on Wednesday versus Foss before battling Centralia on Friday.
“We need to start off strong and stay smart the whole time,” Balsley said. “This will show who we are and we can bond over this and become a better team.”
