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Case in point was Wednesday’s 3A Narrows League game against Yelm when the visiting Tornados made one of their multiple scoring runs after trailing by double digits after the first quarter.
A Blazers’ loss would’ve led to a tiebreaker at a neutral site for district playoff seeding, but Weber and Timberline beat the Tornados, 66-52, on Wednesday night.
A 9-0 second-quarter run by Yelm was enough to spark Weber, who scored 12 of Timberline’s 15 second-quarter points en route to a game-high 22 points and 10 rebounds.
The win secures Timberline (13-6 overall, 8-2 league) the No. 2 seed from the 3A Narrows League into next week’s West Central/Southwest bi-district girls basketball tournament.
The opponent will be the 3A Greater St. Helens League’s No. 4 team, which will be determined Saturday, with the first-round game taking place at Franklin Pierce High School next Wednesday.
“This was pretty important,” said the New Mexico State-bound Weber, who is the Blazers’ all-time leading scorer. “We didn’t want to make it harder on ourselves to play an extra game. With Senior Night on the line, we didn’t want that to be a loss. Even more motivation for us to come out strong.”
In the past four games, Weber has been on a scoring tear. She’s averaged 28.5 points per game, including a season-high 33 in a 64-47 win over Lincoln.
Timberline used its hot outside shooting to grab a 19-6 lead after the first quarter, but the Tornados (13-7, 6-4) were nearly toe-to-toe with Timberline in the next two quarters.
Yelm, which was 6-for-12 on 3-pointers, trailed 50-45 with 5 minutes, 9 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter following a steal and layup by Jessica Amundsen, who finished with seven points.
But Weber and the Blazers went on an 8-1 run to push their lead back to 12 at 58-46.
Sarah McKee made four out of five free throws down the stretch for Timberline.
“The girls have that desire to win,” Timberline coach Zandrea Edenstrom said. “They knew this was a game we had to win. It was one of those things where they knew they needed it.”
It was the second game back for Yelm junior post Anushka Maldonado, who finished with one point and nine rebounds before fouling out. Monday’s game against Foss was her first game since Dec. 16.
As the third seed, Yelm will open the district tournament at 8 p.m. Wednesday at Franklin Pierce against an opponent to be determined.
A win sends the Tornados against top-ranked and undefeated Prairie.
Meg Wochnick: 360-754-5473 mwochnick@theolympian.com
