Tumwater loses thriller to No. 2 Lynden, places fifth at 2A state tournament

With a bandage wrapped around his head, Weston VandenHazel gave Tumwater High School a lead.

With 3  1/2 minutes to play Saturday, the senior forward sank two free throws to give the T-Birds a 1-point advantage. And they nearly pulled off the upset over second-ranked Lynden.

“We can compete with anyone, we won’t back down,” VandenHazel said. “We just go out and play our game, and anything can happen. It didn’t go our way today, and that’s basketball.”

What happened on Saturday was Lynden’s Sterling Somers. With seven seconds remaining, he nailed a 3-point dagger from the right side to restore the Lions’ lead.

“We struggled scoring for a while, so I just thought I needed to give my team a spark,” Somers said. “Luckily, I got a good screen and I was able to get (a shot). We battled all game, we had ups and downs, and we came back. That’s a tough victory.”

Lynden squeaked by, 54-52, on the final day of the Class 2A boys state tournament at the Yakima Valley SunDome, The T-Birds wound up with a fifth-place finish.

VandenHazel — a 2A boys all-tournament first-team selection — scored a team-high 20 points for Tumwater, but missed seven minutes in the second quarter with a head injury.

In the closing seconds of the first quarter, he collided with a Lynden player under the hoop.

“I went up and under and faked him out, and I think he just came down on me,” VandenHazel said.

VandenHazel sat on the baseline for nearly 10 minutes as officials cleaned up blood that pooled beneath him.

“That’s what choked me up,” VandenHazel said. “I was choking up when they said I might need stitches and might have to sit out. I started crying, but they were able to stitch it up and help me out so I could go back in.”

VandenHazel’s absence in the second quarter made a substantial difference. The T-Birds scored only five points without him. In every other quarter, they either tied or outscored Lynden.

“You’re not prepared for things like that, and it set us back a little bit — not only emotionally, but on the court because of size,” Tumwater coach Thomas Rowswell said. “I’m thinking, we can’t finish without him. He lost a lot of blood, and suddenly here comes a kid with a headband, ‘Coach, I’m ready to play.’

“I said, there’s just no way. And he did, and he played great. And the guys played great. We just fell a little short.”

VandenHazel scored 12 of his points in the second half. Jacob Gibbons added another 16 points.

“I just used it as motivation,” VandenHazel said. “We can get through anything. We’ve been through so many obstacles. This is nothing compared to some of the stuff we’ve been through as a team. We just rallied behind it and used it as motivation.”

But Somers, with his game-high 28 points, stifled Tumwater’s run for third place. The T-Birds finished their season at 18-8.

This is Tumwater’s first state trophy in the 2A classification. The T-Birds took fifth in 1998 and third in 1976 — both in 3A.

“I’m just happy for the guys,” Rowswell said. “You can look back on that and come back to the gym, and it’s really going to be something they can take for the rest of us. I’m just so happy for them and thankful to be a part of it.”

Said VandenHazel: “It’s everything; I love my team. I think the record shows how good we are and how well we played together. It was just fun.”

This story was originally published March 5, 2016 at 7:16 PM with the headline "Tumwater loses thriller to No. 2 Lynden, places fifth at 2A state tournament."