The Tumwater girls basketball team let things get a little interesting late, but held onto stay perfect on the season with a 52-43 win over previously-undefeated Aberdeen in 2A EvCo play.
The T-Birds welcomed back Kylie Waltermeyer to the lineup, and the senior went right back to her old habits with 24 points, six rebounds, and two steals.
But after going into the fourth quarter up 18 points, Tumwater saw its lead diminished back to single digits in the final period, as the Bobcats never threw in the towel.
“Having Kylie back is always a plus on both sides of the ball,” T-Birds coach Nathan Buchheit said. “More importantly, we won the game in a different way tonight. Not an ideal fourth quarter, but it’s a learning experience for our team.”
Freshman Rhylee Beebe put in nine points, all of which came from the free-throw line. The same was true of Regan Brewer’s six points, but Brewer had a bigger impact on the glass, leading the T-Birds with 10 rebounds, and on defense, where she drew the main assignment of containing Aberdeen star Maddie Gore to 14 points.
Kendall Gjurasic added seven points, and Sydney Sumrok had six and five rebounds.
Part of Tumwater’s struggles — and why it never completely pulled away — came on defense. The T-Birds kept the clamps on Aberdeen’s offense, but sometimes did so a bit too much, racking up 23 fouls as a team.
“Minus the fouls, I thought we played a good three quarters of basketball defensively,” Buchheit said. “The girls were in good help position and we did a good job keeping them off the offensive boards.
Tumwater (5-0, 3-0 2A EvCo) will wrap up its week at home against Centralia on Thursday.
