With another 2A EvCo title in hand, now No. 2 Tumwater can shift its attention toward the biggest of goals - a final Yakima dance
TUMWATER - A one-sided winning non-league record against Class 4A and 3A contending teams? Check.
A compelling run to defending the 2A Evergreen Conference title? Check.
What's left for the second-ranked Tumwater Thunderbirds?
The stretch run ending in Yakima.
And that means, in a sense, starting over in the postseason. But the Thunderbirds will certainly enjoy this one in the meantime - a 55-24 victory Wednesday night over No. 3 W.F. West.
Natalie Sumrok led all scorers with 22 points, 18 coming in the second half for Tumwater. Isabella Lund added 14 points, six rebounds and four steals.
"Defense is key ... so this feels amazing," Tumwater point guard Aubrey Amendala said. "It makes us feel awesome with all the effort and work we put in, and seeing it pay off."
It's also a result that the rest of the state has to take notice of.
At worst, W.F. West is a consensus top-five squad in 2A, led by all-state forward Drea Brumfield, who was bottled up Wednesday, scoring five points on 1-for-6 shooting from the floor.
And Tumwater started fast on a 10-2 run in the first 3:13 as four different players scored baskets.
After that, the Thunderbirds' pressure really controlled the action, netting 13 steals that led to easy transition buckets.
"They click well together," W.F. West girls coach Kyle Karnofski said. "When you play thousands of AAU games together, and you've played as a group - it helps."
If the Bearcats had any thoughts of a comeback, trailing 22-9 at halftime, they were buried by a Sumrok scoring spurt in the third quarter. She scored the team's first five field goals over a 4:34 span. And she tallied 14 points total in the quarter.
When asked about facing Tumwater, a couple of others coaches around the state pointed to its chemistry much in the same way as Rob Adams' last team at Lynden in 2019-20, which ran away with the 2A title.
Thunderbirds coach Robin Johnson sees validity in the comparison.
"It's a huge compliment ... but the story is the same - it was a group that played together and had chemistry," Johnson said. "So in those ways, we are similar.
"And I would love a similar result."
Here is a photo gallery from the Tumwater-W.F. West game:
