TOLEDO — Morton-White Pass finally got the monkey off its back.
In each of the last two seasons, the Timberwolves have fallen one win shy of competing in the District 4 2B Tournament, losing in a district play-in game each time.
Two years ago, Kalama cut Morton-White Pass’s season short in the play-in game in Toutle. Last year, the Timberwolves fell behind big early to Toutle Lake and couldn’t catch up in the same scenario in Toledo.
But Thursday night, the Timberwolves flipped the script entirely.
MWP ended up back in Toledo for a third straight district play-in game and finally got over the hump, routing Winlock 66-47 to clinch its first district berth in three years. For the second year in a row, the story of the district tiebreaker was a lopsided first quarter, but this year’s game went emphatically in favor of the Timberwolves.
One year after trailing 17-4 after the first quarter to Toutle Lake, the Timberwolves roared out to a 30-7 lead against Winlock in what head coach Kevin Dunlap described as the best quarter the team has had all season.
“We shot the ball very well. We ran the floor very well. We pushed the tempo. I was very proud of how hard they worked,” Dunlap said of the opening quarter.
Before Winlock could score its first point of the night, MWP already tallied 12 points, with Michael Biacan drilling a pair of 3-pointers. The Cardinals’ first bucket came with four minutes and 26 seconds left in the opening quarter, but they couldn’t find a spark to stop the 3-point barrage from MWP. The Timberwolves hit five triples in the first eight minutes.
“I just think the moment was too big for some of these kids,” Winlock head coach Adam Deck said of the first quarter. “They’ve never been in this position. We had two great days of practice. I just don’t even know what I watched.”
In the second quarter, Winlock closed out on 3-point shooters and was able to relatively tame MWP’s offense, but the margin still grew to 27 at halftime. Winlock brought the margin to fewer than 20 points multiple times in the second half, led by Freddy Patching catching fire from deep and scoring 17 of his 24 points in the second half.
The Cardinals outscored MWP 12-5 in the third and 18-17 in the fourth, but the first-half explosion by the Timberwolves was too much to overcome. Winlock’s season comes to an end with a 2-19 record and a 1-15 mark in C2BL play. Arean Thapa is the lone senior who will graduate from Winlock.
“They were fighting for Thapa, our senior,” Deck said of Winlock’s second-half effort. “We moved the ball better in the second half. We didn’t do any of that in the first half. I don’t know if it was nerves or if it was inexperience.”
MWP moves on to see another day and will face No. 3 seed Napavine in the opening round of the district tournament Saturday at Rochester High School. Over the course of the season, Dunlap has praised his team for their consistent effort and growth despite some lopsided outcomes. During the second go-around against C2BL teams, the Timberwolves showed vast improvement and nearly shook up the league standings with some close games.
“We’ve continued to get better and grow all season. We’ve matched up well with teams that are tough and are probably more talented than we are,” Dunlap said. “I think that’s given us confidence to win games like this.”
Many of the Timberwolves, including the three seniors, have played together since they were quite young, and their collective desire to keep playing triumphed through.
“We said before the game that we didn’t want to go out like we have the last two years. We had a fire under our belt,” Kohen Ingalsbe said.
Dunlap is confident that the scrappy T-Wolves can pull off a shocker or two in the district tournament. The last time they made it to districts, they were the top team in the C2BL and won the district title in blowout fashion over Adna.
“I just think they’ve got to believe and they’ve got to work hard. The best thing we could do is come out and battle for four quarters,” Dunlap said. “Sometimes, offensively the shots are going to fall. Sometimes, they’re not. But as long as they battle on the defensive end and give ourselves opportunities, that’s what really counts.”
