2A Girls Basketball: Bearcats Kick the Hornet's Nest, Run Away With Win

Theoretically, the best way to bounce back from a tough loss to the No. 2 team in the state is not to play, four days later, the No. 1 team in the state.

Nobody bothered to explain that to W.F. West over the weekend.

The Bearcats out-shot, out-ran and out-hustled top-ranked White River on Monday night in Chehalis, leaving the Hornets reeling in a 71-38 victory in a matchup of two of the top four teams in the state.

Just where each team falls in the rankings, however, is now certain to change.

Julia Johnson scored 24 points and the Bearcats — ranked No. 4 in last week’s Associated Press poll and No. 4 in the latest RPI rankings — went on an 18-2 run covering the end of the first quarter and start of the second to build an advantage that left the Hornets honey-stuck to the court.

“We just wanted to win,” Johnson said. “We wanted it more than them, I think. We worked hard at practice and we wanted to have fun and still win.”

The Bearcats’ half-court trap harassed White River into 27 turnovers, and the defense didn’t allow many open looks as the Hornets were just 14 of 55 (25 percent) from the floor. By the end of the first half the lead was already at 20 points (36-16), and the Hornets didn’t manage a field goal until almost 4 minutes into the third quarter.

It was both a statement win and a reflection of the wakeup call delivered by W.F. West’s 67-45 Evergreen 2A Conference loss to Black Hills (No. 2 AP, No. 1 RPI) on Thursday.

“I think it was. It showed us what we needed to work on,” Johnson said. “We just needed to work harder and have more fight in us. We didn’t really fight that much, or as much as we should have.”

The result was a shift in focus, both in terms of strategy and mental preparation.

“It wasn’t pretty at Black Hills. It was hateful, because a lot of it was we were playing intimidated, with the big crowd and everything,” Bearcat coach Tom Kelly said. Star guards Kiara Steen and Julia Johnson were both benched in the loss. “They just couldn’t get it going. It was hard for them, and it was hard for the whole team.”

Kelly noted — perhaps joking — that he started taking heart medicine shortly thereafter.

“I don’t think I can take another game like that,” he said. “But it was a hateful deal, and the next day it was still hateful, because they had to hear what I thought it. But it all wasn’t on them, either, because we hadn’t prepared them as well as we should have.”

The big key, aside from the extra effort, was the halfcourt trap, which produced the majority of the turnovers for the Bearcat defense on Monday — a contrast to the typical backcourt steals pilfered by Johnson and Steen. Johnson finished with five steals against White River, and Steen nabbed three.

“We worked on the halfcourt trap, and we’ve worked on it since,” Kelly said. “So from now until the end of the season, that’s what we’re going to work on — the halfcourt stuff.”

The Bearcats did all the little things on Monday, shooting 57 percent from the field (against 33 percent at Black Hills), scoring in double-figures in each quarter and holding the Hornets’ 6-foot-2 forward Kendall Bird to 8 points on 3 of 11 shooting. Bird, a University of San Diego signee, picked up her second foul late in the first quarter and had her third 2 minutes into the second.

Mostly, though, W.F. West was just ready.

“I think all our coaches were just ready to kick some butt and go after White River,” W.F. West senior Shasta Lofgren said. “I think (the loss) exposed some things we need to work on as a team, but I think we’re just ready to go now.”

Lofgren finished with 13 points, while Lexie Strasser added 12 points on 6 of 9 shooting. Erika Brumfield added 5 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.

Lofgren’s bucket with 2:40 left in the first quarter started the 18-2 run, and Johnson scored 12 points in the second quarter. The speedy junior guard scored on a drive to the hoop early in the fourth frame, stole the ball in the backcourt and found Lofgren for an open 3-pointer that pushed the lead to 55-31 and highlighted a 15-2 run that turned a comfortable lead into a rout.

“We just played our game,” Johnson said. “We had not that good of a game against Black Hills, and it made us look better today.”

How much better, though, was a bit of a surprise, even to Kelly.

“I thought we’d give them a good game,” Kelly said. “I thought we could win. But, you know, I didn’t have any idea it would be like that.”

W.F. West (11-2, 3-1 league) is back in Evergreen 2A Conference action on Wednesday with Rochester in Chehalis.

Note: W.F. West’s JV won, 40-25. … White River coach Chris Gibson won his 500th career game last week, and was presented a congratulatory card, by Kelly, prior to tipoff. … Georgina Lavinder led White River with 14 points. Bird finished with nine rebounds. … White River dropped to 16-2 on the season with the loss, though the Hornets did not move in the RPI rankings. W.F. West, however, moved up to No. 3 on the RPI board, as of late Monday night.