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The last time Dilyn Boeck touched the floor during a Swamp Cup rivalry matchup with Centralia, she scored 31 points.
Her mentality then as a sophomore was that of a true scorer. She wanted to locate her spots and dominate through getting buckets.
Fast forward 348 days later, and Boeck’s impact looks a little bit different.
The junior guard can still score with the best at the 2A level, but that’s not her approach anymore. The game has slowed down for Boeck, and she aims to play a more well-rounded game to include hounding opposing guards on defense, rebounding and distributing the ball.
She scored a game-high 15 points in W.F. West’s 79-34 rout of rival Centralia Tuesday night, but she also plucked away numerous steals and led the charge in transition, finding free runners to the rim.
“I’m really focused on contributing in ways other than points because I don’t want that to be my only skill in basketball,” Boeck said. “Filling up the box score is my most important thing.”
Centralia scored the first points of the night on an Ayana Saucedo jumper before W.F. West rattled off 12 straight points over the next three minutes. In that span, the Bearcats forced eight Tigers turnovers, five of which were steals.
W.F. West finished the first quarter up 20-7 and continued to put pressure on Centralia on defense in the second. Kaitlyn Chloupek and Joy Cushman connected on triples in the second quarter, and Boeck’s 3-pointer in the final minute made it a 42-17 advantage at halftime.
The Bearcats deployed a full-court press early in the game before switching out of it, leaving only one guard to pick up Centralia’s ball-handlers full-court. That guard, more often than not, was Boeck, no matter the score. She was a shadow on defense, playing aggressive defense without fouling.
“Last year, we had a great defense, but I don’t think it was as much pressure. This year, we’ve put a big emphasis on, ‘We have the skills to do full-court pressure. Why not use them?’” Boeck said. “It also helps us get conditioned for big games when we need to press really good teams.”
“Our key is transition. We want to get out and run. Lanes are a lot easier than trying to have to run a play,” W.F. West head coach Kyle Karnofski added.
After a scoreless first half, Centralia guard Maddie Ahern came out on fire in the third quarter, sinking four 3-pointers. From the naked eye, it didn’t appear that any of them touched anything but the bottom of the net. She also had the difficult task of defending Boeck, and she impressed her head coach Austin Danielson with her effort on that end.
“She had the toughest job. She was assigned to Dilyn, and she played really tough defense. That’s a discouraging situation because with such a skilled player, sometimes even if you do everything right she’s still gonna get a bucket,” Danielson said of Ahern. “But Maddie really stuck with it and had some great defensive effort tonight.”
W.F. West continued to steadily increase the lead into the third as Chloupek caught fire with seven straight points. Boeck finished the frame with a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer in a short-time situation to beat the third-quarter buzzer, with the Bearcats ahead by 33 points.
The Bearcats emptied their bench in the fourth but still got plenty of production from the likes of freshman Alli Ragsdale, senior Madi Baine and senior Amanda Linwood. W.F. West rolled to the finish line with a 16-4 fourth quarter.
“We want to keep taking a step forward every day, every practice, every game, and I think we’ve continued to do that. They may not be big steps, but everything is a step in the right direction,” Karnofski said. “That’s kind of our motto at practice: ‘Are we getting better right now?’”
Boeck led the way with 15 points, while Chloupek finished right behind her at 14. Joy Cushman provided 13, and Izzy Teeter had a nice night off the bench with eight. A dozen Bearcats scored at least two points in the victory.
Centralia was led by Ahern’s 13, which all came in the second half. Kendyl Guenther and Estella Bussanich logged six points apiece. Saucedo tallied five, and Makenzie Erickson added four.
The Tigers turned the ball over 30 times in the loss, but they also scored their most points in a game in the Swamp Cup rivalry in nearly seven years, breaking a 13-game streak of scoring fewer than 30 points against W.F. West.
“Early in the first half, when they were in a zone, Kendyl was really effective in the high post, so that was nice to see,” Danielson said. “We could have used less turnovers. We had mixed results with their press. Sometimes we got through it efficiently, and a lot of times they were tipping passes, forcing turnovers and they were making us work hard to get across halfcourt.”
W.F. West (12-4, 5-0 EvCo) has now won 32 in a row in the Swamp Cup rivalry. Despite the lopsided results over the past 16 years, the Bearcats still get fired up for the matchup.
“It’s the Swamp Cup. You always want to try to win a league game at home, which is important, but you also want to try to keep that tradition that we have going,” Karnofski said. “We’re the Bearcats, and we need to come out and play the right way and do what we do. Centralia has gotten a lot better. That’s a much better team than they’ve had in past years.”
The Bearcats will host Tumwater (10-6, 4-1 EvCo) Thursday night, while Centralia (10-6, 1-4 EvCo) will look to snap a four-game losing streak at home against Aberdeen (3-10, 0-5 EvCo) Thursday night.
