If the Centralia girls basketball team’s game against Rochester on Friday was arbitrarily made a minute longer, things may have ended very differently. If the Warriors had hit one or two more free throws in the final quarter, the story might have been about the massive comeback the guests from Thurston County pulled off. If the Tigers hadn’t been able to scrap just enough offense when it mattered, a tide of momentum in blue and gold might have just been enough to send the orange and black to yet another loss.
But it wasn’t. The Warriors couldn’t. And Centralia did, holding on by the slimmest of margins to what was at one point an 18-point lead in the second half to win 58-55.
“We were fortunate to pull it out at the end there,” Centralia coach Austin Danielson said. “But we played better team basketball than we have all season, particularly with our guards seeing the floor well and looking to be a threat. That makes a big difference. And our post defense was working hard too. Those are the things we love to see.”
And Danielson and the rest of the Centralia fans in attendance also loved to see the scene at the final buzzer, as the Tigers spilled out onto Ron Brown Court — half in excitement, half in relief — to celebrate their first 2A EvCo victory since Feb. 4, 2022.
For just about three quarters, it looked like it was going to be a downright easy road for the Tigers (2-14, 1-7 2A EvCo) at that. The Warriors (8-8, 3-6 2A EvCo) went on runs in each of the first three periods, but every time, the hosts answered. Centralia ended the first quarter on a 16-4 run to take a 22-10 lead. By halftime, the gap was 14 points, and with 28 seconds left in the third quarter, Brooklyn Sprague canned a pair of free throws to put the Tigers up by 18, at 46-28.
Then the Warriors showed up.
“It was blunt (with them), and said ‘Centralia looked like they came ready to play today, and you didn’t,’” Rochester coach Keeli Rivas said. “I think they kind of let those words settle in, and decided to go to work.”
Starting the fourth quarter down 14, Grace Hoover drove to the bucket, drew a foul and hit two free throws. The next time down the court, Keiki-Lani Kinsella Cintron converted in the post, and drew another foul.
So it went, possession after possession. It took Rochester just two and a half minutes to get into the bonus, and the Tigers just couldn’t stop fouling.
All told, Rochester earned 17 free throws in the fourth quarter alone, and while the Warriors only converted eight of them, that — along with a withering press that forced eight turnovers in the final eight minutes — helped them whittle away at the gap.
“We had a lot of fouls, which gave them opportunities at the line and slows the clock down,” Danielson said. “We made some bad passes, and turnovers resulted in points. That was a very long fourth quarter.”
With three minutes left, Grace Hoover — who finished with a game-high 22 points — hit easy layups off of back-to-back Centralia turnovers to get the deficit to single-digits. Then Delany Winter hit a bucket in the post, and with 47 left on the clock, Lizzie Hoover scored on a putback — her only bucket of the game — to cut it to four points.
But Centralia finally got the possession it needed on the other end, draining nearly half of the clock before getting to the line itself. Makayla Chavez split her free throws, and after a key stop, Sprague split hers, making it 58-52 before the Warriors hit a meaningless 3-pointer at the buzzer.
Sprague finished with 17 points to lead Centralia.
Chavez added 14 points, and also dished out six assists from the point, the bulk of which down the stretch turned broken plays into easy looks in the post.
“She’s a good ball-handler, she can see the floor well,” Danielson said. “When she’s passing well, that’s when we're at our best, and that’s when it’s the most fun to watch.”
Gracie Schofield pitched in nine points on three 3-pointers. She, Ayana Saucedo and Makenzie Erickson all had five rebounds.
And the Tigers needed just about all of it from everyone, finishing on fumes and guts but finishing nonetheless to snap their league skid at 19 games.
“As a coach, I’m not going to go into the locker room and say, ‘That fourth quarter was a mess,’” Danielson said. “They just get to be happy tonight.”
