ROCHESTER — There was about 90 seconds left until the second half commenced. The Tenino High School boys basketball team had just walked out of the locker room and barely got shots up.
The reason for the hold up?
“We put in a new zone (defense) that worked very well,” senior forward Jack Burkhardt said. “And we didn’t practice it all year.”
It worked to near perfection.
Tenino scored 25 unanswered points and didn't allow a field goal by Rochester for 15-plus minutes on the way to a 53-32 triumph on Thursday night to spoil the Warriors’ senior night in an Evergreen league matchup.
In another rendition of the Scatter Creek Showdown on the hardwood, the Beavers (8-12, 6-2 Evergreen) have at least clinched the No. 2 seed for the Class 1A District 4 tournament that begins the day before Valentine’s Day.
“We are athletic and we have to bring that athleticism along with effort and that’s what you saw,” Tenino head coach Ryan Robertson said. “We did adjust and started attacking. I thought that was very important.”
Nursing a one-point halftime cushion, Tenino’s senior leaders Austin Gonia and Burkhardt took matters into their own hands to put the game out of reach. Outside of a Jaxson Gore 3-pointer, the two forwards were responsible for all third quarter points.
They combined for 37 points on the night and dominated extra possessions on the glass.
That zone defense was used at times in last season's run to the state tournament in Yakima and Robertson picked Thursday to re-introduce it. He knew this group would have to be detail-oriented on defense to have success.
“(In the) first bunch of games, we couldn’t make a shot. We better be so dang good to hold them under 40 (points),” Robertson said. “We have to turn people over to get easy stuff.
Both Robertson and Burkhardt pinpointed the first meeting versus Elma was the turning point.
“We realized it came down to our defense,” Burkhardt admitted. “It has always been preached.
Rochester (1-18, 0-7) tried everything it could to generate any second half offense, but cuts and screens were missed and turnovers began to pile up. It took until there was 2 minutes, 34 seconds left that Tristan Nelson ended the drought.
The loss ended any chance for the Warriors to squeak into the district tournament.
“For whatever reason, I don’t know if they got caught up in the night and the emotions of it all, we didn’t execute,” Rochester head coach Caleb Sells said. “We’ve seen a lot of zone, but the length, the trap and the aggressiveness of it. Think we ran out of gas.”
For a moment, Rochester had most of the momentum after honoring eight seniors.
Brayden O’Connor came out firing to the tune of three 3s in the opening half while Kole Smith swished home a trifecta and was fouled to complete a four-point play to go up 19-13 in the second quarter. The Warriors built the lead up to 23-17 late in the stanza.
O’Connor led the way with 11 points while freshman Emmit Mancuso added nine and Kole Smith chipped in eight.
“They looked like five kids functioning as one, which we strive for,” Sells said.
Tenino answered with a 10-0 spree in the second to grab the lead it never would give up. It had a quick turnaround to wipe away a road loss to Hoquiam 48 hours ago.
Now, this group of Beavers – senior-laden that never lost to their arch rivals in their prep careers – are back in the postseason with the chance at school history to reach state in back-to-back seasons for the first time since the last-90s.
“It has always translated very well and it is going to help us a lot in the long run,” Burkhardt said. “We still have confidence we can be a lot more aggressive.”
