Who knew the craziest game of the year in the Central 2B would be in Morton Tuesday night? Even after a half, it looked like the matchup in Morton between Morton-White Pass and Napavine wouldn’t be much of a contest.
But somehow, some way, the Timberwolves came back from an 18-point halftime deficit, and then the madness ensued.
Trailing with seconds remaining, T-Wolves coach Chad Cramer called up a play for Carter Dantinne out of a timeout, and the junior guard banked a shot in at the buzzer to the delight of the home MWP crowd, sending the game into overtime.
With all the momentum, the MWP rushed out to a small lead, and with mere ticks left on the clock, held a 3-point lead looking to steal away a home victory, and a share of second place in league.
Cael Stanley for the Tigers, however, had other plans. The sophomore guard bobbled the ball a bit on a long inbound pass, but turned around about two and a half feet past the halfcourt line and drilled a long ball to bring the visiting crowd to its feet, and the home fans in shocked silence.
Another tied-up second overtime meant three extra periods in Morton, and finally, after 44 minutes of play, Kysen Collette drilled a couple late free throws, and the Timberwolves emerged victorious, 70-67.
Senior MWP forward Gary Dotson had 25 points, with 15 coming in the three overtime periods.
“We continued to pound it away,” Cramer said. “Gary was having a ton of success there. We knew we had a mismatch with Gary on the block.”
It took a lot for the Timberwolves just to get to that point, with a packed house and just 11 points to show for their first half efforts.
“Their defensive game plan was awesome,” Cramer said of Napavine, who dropped 29 points in the first half. “They owned us in the first half, that’s my fault as a coach.”
But with Napavine’s Keith Olson and MWP’s Josh Salguero playing evenly inside, with Olson scoring 15 points and Salguero dropping 10, the T-Wolves made some defensive adjustments, and made sure to exploit Dotson’s mismatch on the inside.
“My kids bought in the second half, we talked about handling adversity and we did tonight,” Cramer said. “I was real proud of my guys, they were resilient.”
The Tigers were led by James Grose’s game-high 28 points, with Stanley scoring 12 and Olson’s 15 rounding out double figure scorers.
The game’s result means Kalama has clinched a league championship with no league losses this season, and MWP, Napavine, and Adna are in a tie for second in league, with no team holding any tiebreakers over the other two.
The Timberwolves will close out the regular season against Wahkiakum in White Pass on Thursday while Napavine looks to bounce back against Toledo for their senior night.
