Prep basketball roundup: Timberline’s offense stalls against Puyallup in district tournament opener

First-year Timberline coach Tim Borchardt wasn’t going to sugarcoat his team’s performance after the Blazers’ West Central District 3 opening-round loss to Puyallup.

Timberline needs to play better, point blank, if the Blazers wants their season to make it past this weekend.

“We just didn’t execute offensively. We gave up a lot of offensive rebounds,” Borchardt said. “It kind of boils down to everybody executing. That’s why we lost, because everyone wasn’t executing.”

Poor execution, missed chances and turnovers late in the fourth cost Timberline, 35-31, in their playoff meeting with Puyallup (16-8, 8-4).

The loss has Timberline (9-12, 6-6) playing Kent-Meridian (12-11, 1-7) on Friday at Mount Tahoma High.

“When we played them earlier this year, they kind of had a feel for what our offense was like,” said Sara Bowen, who finished with 12 points on 5 of 9 shooting.

Timberline lost to Puyallup, 44-39, on Jan. 12.

Entering the fourth quarter trailing the Vikings by one, 23-22, the Blazers started to break down.

After shutting down Puyallup’s top scorer, Sophie DeWitt, for most of the game, the Vikings guard began to find creases in Timberline’s defense.

On back-to-back possessions, DeWitt (five assists) passed the ball through the Blazers defense to find Tina Holland (five points) and Grace Marvin (four points) on the back end to give Puyallup a 27-22 lead with 5 minutes, 32 seconds to play.

Sophomore Keshara Romain’s (nine points) putback ended Timberline’s 10-minute scoring drought after nabbing the offensive board from Deidrah Sutterlict’s (five points) miss.

With 4:48 left, Bowen snapped a pass to Sutterlict, who hit the corner jumper and brought the game within a single score, 27-26.

The turnaround was short-lived, however, as DeWitt (12 points) hit a pull-up jumper to help Puyallup regain a three-point edge.

With 1:10 left, Bowen sliced through Puyallup’s tight defense to cut the lead to one score again, 30-28 — but then the wheels fell off.

On back-to-back offensive rebounds in the next series, Romain (11 rebounds) couldn’t find a way through the Vikings’ defense to finish the Blazers’ drive and Timberline was forced to send Puyallup to the line.

“We all played our roles, but none of us finished our layups. We should have had more offensive rebound on (our) side,” Romain said.

Bowen iced a buzzer-beating 3-pointer at the end, but Puyallup was too far in front at that point.

“We’re a young team, but we can pick it up next time,” Bowen said.

At River Ridge 61, Foster 30: The Hawks got off to a fast start, outscoring the Bulldogs by 18 points in the first quarter. Senior guard MaKenna Schultz scored a game-high 21 points.

“We got them in a situation where they had to play their half-court offense and we played the lanes. I don’t remember being in an offensive set that entire first quarter, we just kept pressure and kept stealing the ball,” River Ridge coach Steve Schultz said.

The Hawks (13-7) advance to play Port Angeles in a winner-to-state game at Foss on Friday at 1:45 p.m. Foster (6-13) will play Steilacoom at Curtis on Friday at 1:45 p.m. in an elimination game.

At Auburn Mountainview 70, Shelton 37: Taylor Flores scored 25 points in three quarters as the Lions routed the Highclimbers. Flores was 7 of 10 from the 3-point line (8 of 13 from the floor). The Highclimbers were led by Timber Ware, who scored 10 points.

The Lions closed out the third quarter on a 27-8 run to seal a winner-to-state matchup. They advanced to face Lincoln, the seventh-ranked team in 3A play, at Franklin Pierce on Saturday at noon. The Highclimbers will face Kennedy Catholic in a loser-out game at Clover Park on Saturday at noon.

At Bonney Lake 55, Capital 28: The Panthers started the game on a 15-2 run and outscored the Cougars 30-10 during the first half. Samantha Bourdreau led all scorers with 18 points for the Panthers. No Capital player reached double digits in points; Delani West was the Cougars’ leading scorer with six points.

Capital will face Enumclaw at Clover Park on Saturday at 1:45 p.m. in a loser-out contest. Bonney Lake moves on to face Prairie at Franklin Pierce at 1:45 p.m. Saturday.

At Elma 61, White Salmon 43: The ninth-ranked Eagles were in control the whole way. Peyton Elliott put up a double-double (17 points, 11 rebounds) and had six steals as Elma coasted to a first-round win in the 1A Southwest District 4 tournament.

The Eagles (17-3) head to Vancouver to take on Kalama (17-4) in the second round Saturday.

BOYS

Washougal 46, at W.F. West 41: The Bearcats’ season ends after the play-in game, with no trip to the postseason.

W.F. West trailed by two points at the end of the third quarter, but the Panthers slipped away late to earn the final spot in the 2A Southwest District 4 tournament. They’ll play Mark Morris in the first round Saturday.

This story was originally published February 11, 2016 at 11:34 PM with the headline "Prep basketball roundup: Timberline’s offense stalls against Puyallup in district tournament opener."