CASTLE ROCK — When the Napavine Tigers woke up on Tuesday morning, they were ready to go. It had been a week since they had last played, and that quarterfinal win over Toledo had been their only game in the month of February.
So when Napavine got news that their district semifinal against Forks had been pushed to Wednesday due to weather in Forks?
“Everyone was definitely a little frustrated,” Hayden Kaut said.
Twenty-two hours after the originally scheduled start time, the Tigers got to take out their frustrations on the Spartans. They built an insurmountable lead in the first quarter and never looked back, running away with a 73-15 victory in Castle Rock.
“They came out ready to play today,” Napavine coach Shane Schutz said. “There was no doubt what we were on a mission for.”
It was complete dominance from the very start. The Tigers opened the game with six straight points, and a 22-0 run in just 4:43 of game time helped Napavine build a 28-1 lead.
The Tigers went on another 22-0 run in the second, ending the half with 22 straight points across a span of 6:20 to enter the locker room up 54-6.
Takeaways fueled both runs, and Forks finished the first half with 17 turnovers.
“That’s what we do,” Schutz said. “We turn our defense into offense and try to wear teams down.”
The takeaways didn’t come as frequent in the third, but the points still continued to pile up. After Forks opened the second half with a basket, Napavine scored 13 straight to go up by 59, which ended up being the largest lead of the game.
Kaut finished with a team-high 17 points, Nicholle Valentine added 16, and Ava Ondong added 13. Taylen Evander and Sophia Bittner also nearly hit double-figures, scoring nine and eight, respectively.
“Isn’t that cool?” Schutz said. “That’s what makes it fun … That’s what makes a great team.”
The win puts the Tigers back in the district title game for the third time in four years, and it sends them through to the state tournament for the fourth year in a row. In each of the previous three years, they have placed in the top five, including their state title in 2024.
“We don’t take those for granted,” Schutz said. “That’s what we work all summer for, what we spend time in the weight room for, and we’re excited. We can’t wait. This is the best time of the year.”
Kaut said that she’s happy for the younger girls in this group that haven’t been to state before, and she’s also happy that they were able to overcome the loss of Jessie McCoy, who graduated in 2025.
She also took a second to praise Bittner postgame, saying that she has learned the offense and “played a big role” for this year’s group.
Before their Regional Round game and a trip east, Napavine will play Toutle Lake in the district title game. If the Tigers win, it would be their third district title in the last four years.
The Ducks are coming off a win over Adna in the semifinals, and they only lost by eight in Napavine in their first meeting on Jan. 16. They will be playing for their first district title since 2016.
Napavine and Toutle Lake will meet at W.F. West High School in Chehalis on Saturday at 6 p.m.
“Toutle’s a really good team,” Schutz said. “They play really scrappy, and we’re all really excited to play them.”
