W.F. Wests’ Deskins starts night on JV, finishes it with game-winning basket in varsity thriller against Tumwater
Carlie Deskins wasn’t guaranteed to play more than a few minutes in W.F. West High School’s Class 2A Evergreen Conference girls basketball showdown with visiting Tumwater on Monday night.
But Bearcats coach Kyle Karnofski didn’t want the promising freshman sitting around all night getting stale, so assigned her to play two quarters of the junior varsity game, saving two for the varsity game if he needed her.
WIAA rules limit players to four quarters combined at both levels.
“I thought maybe one or two minutes, maybe not even that,” Deskins said. “When Coach K put me in, I said, ‘Oh my gosh, get it together, Carlie.’ ”
Karnofski called timeout with 8.5 seconds remaining and the scored tied, 46-46, after a clutch 3-pointer by T-Birds junior Isabella Lund. Deskins had tallied a single point in the game, going mostly unnoticed.
That was about to change.
Senior guard Madi Mencke pushed the ball upcourt and into the lane. When the T-Birds defense rushed at her, she dropped a pass off to Deskins on the right block, who went up and scored, drawing a foul in the process.
“Coach told me to stay in the dump spot, so I said, ‘Just be a freshman and stay in the dump spot.’ I saw Madi coming and knew I had to step up,” Deskins said. “She made a really good pass.”
Deskins’ free throw finalized the score at 49-46 as Tumwater had just 1.4 seconds left to retaliate, and didn’t get the ball out of the backcourt.
“Madi’s a very heady player, she knew just when to dump it off to Carlie,” Karnofski said. “That’s a big play, for a senior to trust her freshman teammate. That’s good team growth. Carlie’s very intelligent. We don’t really think of her as a freshman.”
W.F. West’s versatile 6-foot-2 junior Drea Brumfield led the Bearcats with 14 points, but only four came before halftime as Tumwater frustrated efforts to get the ball to her in the post, building 24-18 lead at the break.
“We knew we weren’t going to lose,” Deskins said of the atmosphere in the W.F. West locker room during halftime. “We were really confident. We were just hyping each other up, saying, ‘We got this.’ ”
When Brumfield drained a 3-pointer to start the third quarter, the shot served notice that the second half might be different.
“I didn’t want to try to force the ball in to her, I wanted the game to come to her,” Karnofski said. “Of course their defense was going to go after her, she’s averaging 20 points per game.”
Four times late in the third, with Tumwater (6-2) holding only a one-possession lead, the Bearcats (8-0) brought the ball up but couldn’t score. W.F. West went away from trying to get the ball to Brumfield inside and had her come to the perimeter and go to work.
The result was a 12-2 run to start the fourth quarter that left the Bearcats with their largest lead, 41-35, three minutes from the end.
Brumfield scored seven points to fuel the run, hitting another 3-pointer and scoring on two strong drives to the hoop.
“We have the luxury that she’s a skilled enough player we can go to her and ask her if she’s comfortable bringing the ball up,” Karnofski said.
But, Tumwater, which suffered a subpar shooting night from start to just before the finish, proved it has a hefty dose of clutch built into its mindset.
Aubrey Amendala sandwiched a pair of 3-pointers around a crucial layup by Kylie Waltermeyer, who finished with 10 points, after an offensive rebound by Natalie Sumrok, who led the T-Birds with 11 points.
A free throw by W.F. West’s Kyla McCallum, who finished with 13 points, with 25.4 seconds to play set up Lund’s temporarily heroic shot.
The game was the only time the teams will meet during the abbreviated 2A EvCo regular season, so may well have decided the league championship. But, the Southwest District will conduct a postseason tournament, leading to the possibility of a rematch.
“That was a really big win for our program,” Karnofski said. “Tumwater’s a really good team that we really respect. They placed at state last year for a reason.”