The core four of seniors – Gage Brumfield, Ross Kelley, Grady Westlund and Weston Potter – have been in tight, blowout plus triumphant wins and losses for the W.F. West High School boys basketball team.

They all bring a different skillset to this group of Bearcats, buoyed by their experience and leadership. It was a vital influence that head coach Chris White wanted out of his group of four-year guys.

In various ways, those four had their fingerprints all over Friday night’s Evergreen Conference matchup.

Westlund, Potter and Brumfield combined to score 15 of W.F. West’s 21 fourth quarter points and that was enough to hold off Tumwater and prevail 54-44 in Chehalis to make the league and seedings for the Class 2A District 4 tournament less crystalized.

“We stepped up on all fronts – defense (and) offense – transition is where we really needed to work and that's what we did,” Westlund said. “Let’s find a new gear.”

Winners in four of their last five games, the Bearcats (8-9, 4-2 EvCo) sit in a tie for second in the standings. Coupled with Black Hills’ win against Shelton, the Wolves are two games up on the Bearcats and T-Birds.

Still, the league leader has one contest each left versus W.F. West and Tumwater. If Black Hills loses both games and everything holds serve the rest of the way, there’d be a three-way tie four first at 8-2.

“It feels good, for sure.” White said. “We’re trying to rediscover what we wanted to be.”

Up 33-31 heading into the fourth quarter, the Bearcats scored the first seven of the frame to up the lead to nine. They got the cushion up to as many as 11 on a Potter floater behind an efficient 7-for-8 from the field in the last eight minutes.

Westlund scored six of his game-high 13 points in the fourth and ended the night with 17 rebounds and plenty were on the offensive glass. The 6-foot-4 forward has dominated the boards this winter, averaging a double-double on the season.

Fresh off two 20/20 games last week, Westlund hasn’t let the foot off the gas.

“I like working hard down there and playing fast,” Westlund said.

One of Tumwater head coach Josh Wilson’s top priorities was to make it difficult for Westlund to control the rebounds. The T-Birds were undermanned by the basket and didn’t block out effectively.

“The goal was to send two guys on him,” Wilson said. “The dude can rebound. I really think he is a great basketball player. We didn’t get it done.”

Sahara Anthony III scored nine of the T-Birds’ 13 points in the last period, single-handidly keeping them in it. They got as close as seven once and eight three times, but never any closer in the fourth.

Tumwater (11-4, 4-2) played the foul game starting at 55 seconds. The Bearcats proceeded to make six free throws, five of them by Brumfield, to fend off their league rivals. Kelley made some hustle plays that kept the ball in play and finished with nine points. 

“I knew I could count on him to run through the catch and draw some fouls to get out of that pressure,” White said of Brumfield. “He’s the perfect piece, cat and mouse, to come get it and secure it.”

The start of the game went similarly to the first meeting, won by the T-Birds 37-31, where the tempo was slow and plenty of missed shots. Luke Overbay scored all of his team-best 11 points in the opening stanza on five mid-range shots plus an and-one.

After seven made field goals in the first, Tumwater made just nine field goals the remainder of the night.

“This is a very tough place to play,” Wilson said. “We got rushed, the moment got to us and we ended up making poor decisions. That ended up being the ball game.”

Tumwater will face Prairie on Monday in the last non-league game of the regular season while W.F. West will travel to take on Black Hills on Tuesday.