Call it smothering defense or call if sluggish offense, but there’s one thing Tualatin Coach Wes Pappas definitely won’t call his team’s quarterfinals win Wednesday night.
“It wasn’t pretty,” Pappas said after Tualatin’s 47-37 win against South Medford. “It was rough. It was physical. Defense is a thing that can show up every night for us. We relied on it tonight.”
The rock fight of a game Wednesday night at the Chiles Center at University of Portland saw the Timberwolves look to keep their impressive season alive against the reigning state champs in South Medford.
The teams were pretty evenly matched throughout the game, except the second quarter. Tualatin was up 11-1 after one, but the Tualatin defense had its strongest showing in that second quarter, holding Medford to just two points, which came with 49 seconds left in the quarter.
Tualatin didn’t run away with the game, but scored 10 points in the second to push ahead. The Timberwolves also had their struggles scoring in the second quarter, as they didn’t make any field goals until there were just under two minutes to go before the half. At that point, juniors Maaya Lucas and Ries Miadich both hit three-pointers on consecutive possessions.
Medford hung around in the third, cutting the Tualatin lead to just five with around a minute to go, but freshman Love Lei Best connected with Miadich on a long pass to set up an easy fastbreak score for Miadich. Then Best hit a lay-up with a second left in the quarter to bring the Tualatin lead back up to nine heading into the fourth.
“She runs the show,” Pappas said. “I’ve never had a guard that we just opened it up for them like that, but she’s in charge and I trust her judgments on the things because she is a high IQ kid. She knows when to push and she knows when to distribute and she knows when to take over and go get hers.”
Best led Tualatin with 15 points and a game-high five assists. Senior Jordyn Smith was the only other Tualatin player in double figures, as she dropped 14 points to go with her 11 rebounds and four blocks.
Freshman Kendall Dawkins scored eight points to go with her seven rebounds. She played all 32 minutes, and midway through the fourth, she took over running the offense while Best sat due to foul trouble.
“Kendall is tough as nails,” Pappas said. “When Love is not in, then the go-to kid in terms of, ‘hey, we need somebody tough to bring this ball up and not turn it over and get us into our offense and that that goes to Kendall.’”
The Timberwolves forced 19 turnovers, including four steals for Miadich and three steals for junior Alex Padilla.
Pappas thinks the team still has room for improvement.
“We’re now in the semifinals and we didn’t play our best basketball,” he said. “We can finish better. I think we can do things better. I think we can even defend better. I think we definitely need to rebound better.”
The win earns Tualatin a spot in the state semifinals against Willamette, who Tualatin beat way back in the second game of the season. Willamette is heading into the semifinals as the winners of 18 straight. The game will take place at 3:15 p.m. Friday at the Chiles Center.
