'I can tell you as a coach and a coaching staff, we tried to tailor it as best we could to figure out how we could win games this week,' Buchheit said. The tactics bore fruit in a win over Enumclaw in the Round of 12, earning Tumwater two more games, but while the T-Birds kept both low-scoring, they couldn't manage another victory. Without their leader on defense and the facilitator of their offense, the T-Birds shuffled their personnel around and prepared to grit out as much as they could in Yakima, slowing things down in the halfcourt and winning with defense.

'Īfter winning the 2A District 4 title, the Thunderbirds' State aspirations took a major hit last weekend, when junior point guard - and 2A EvCo first-team all-leaguer - Regan Brewer tore her ACL. 'Unfortunately, three games in three days, that's tough, and our rotation was a bit shorter than we're used to. 'We were talking about base, we were talking about getting your legs under your shot,' Buchheit said. Senior Kylie Waltermeyer scored half of her side's points on 4-for-24 shooting, with Cierra Larson adding eight points of her own. Tumwater jacked up 24 3-pointers, but only made two of them. Tumwater finished the day a tough 9 for 58 from the field - that's 16% for those without a calculator - a rate that improved in the second half after a miserable 10% shooting percentage in the first half.

The T-Birds held the Wolves to 32% shooting from the floor, but that's still twice as quick a clip as they themselves managed.

Tbirds