It was far from an easy path, but the Tumwater Thunderbirds are leaving the Yakima SunDome with a trophy.
It took an all-time game to save their season, but hardware is heading back to South Thurston County.
Tumwater, hours after a quarterfinals loss to Anacortes, looked sluggish once again in the first half of its 2A state elimination game against Renton Friday afternoon. The Thunderbirds were going through the motions, struggling to shoot and take care of the ball. But after walking into the locker room down 12 at halftime, something finally snapped.
The T-Birds didn’t want to go home, and it showed when it mattered the most.
After facing an early 14-point deficit in the third quarter, Tumwater roared back to tie the game midway through the fourth and eventually took the lead on a Landon Anchors putback layup with 49 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
Jake Reid missed two free throws that would have sealed the game in the final 12 seconds, but in a wacky last sequence, Renton head coach Rashaad Powell called two timeouts when it appeared his team had open looks. The first came with six seconds left, but the second left just .2 seconds on the clock. Julian Balsley batted away the inbound pass, and Tumwater survived 50-48 to advance to the fourth-place game.
“It’s an all-time win for me and for Tumwater basketball history,” Tumwater head coach Josh Wilson said. “We really showed some toughness and came back and got a win. It was awesome.”
Tumwater shot just 5 of 19 (26.3%) in the first half, but the T-Birds, fueled by Anchors, shot a remarkable 15 of 24 (62.5) in the second half, including 3 of 7 from 3-point range. After scoring just seven points in each of the first two quarters, they rallied back with 20 in the third and 16 in the fourth. Anchors finished with another 24-point outing in the state tournament on 9 of 17 shooting.
Wilson admitted that his team’s mentality wasn’t the strongest entering Friday’s game, but they flipped a switch after halftime.
“They just changed their mindset. We challenged them pretty good at halftime. It was one of those games where you’ve got to dig deep and decide how bad you want it,” he said. “Sometime midway through the third, you could tell they decided they wanted to be aggressive. We stopped turning the ball over in the second half, and they did a much better job trying to score the basketball.”
Tumwater (23-4) will now face Grandview in the fourth-place game Saturday at 9:30 a.m. Grandview is led by star senior Francisco Medina, who scored 37 points in the Greyhounds’ first-round win against Foster.
“They’re one of the best coached teams in the tournament. They play basketball the right way,” Wilson said of Grandview. “Medina is a super tough guard. We’ve got our hands full tomorrow.”
