The Tualatin girls basketball team knows they’re going to see everybody’s best shot this year.
That’s the price that comes with being the state champs. Last year, the Timberwolves pulled off the upset, beating nationally-ranked Clackamas in the championship game to win the school’s first girls basketball title.
With nearly the same team intact this year, the Timberwolves aren’t shying away from the pressure of a title defense. They’re anticipating it.
“We have to get prepared for every single game and come out ready to play for every single game, because everyone is going to try to play their best against us,” said sophomore Love Lei Best. “We’re the big game on the calendar. It’s just a different type of mindset we have now, getting prepared for everybody.”
Best burst onto the scene as a freshman last year, leading the Timberwolves from the guard position with her ability to make shots from all over the floor. She scored 26 in the state title game, and picked up right where she left off this year, dropping 28 points in Tualatin’s season-opening 65-45 win at West Salem.
She said that while other teams are gearing up to try and take down the champs, the Timberwolves know the best way to be ready for that is to stay ready themselves.
“It starts in practice,” she said. “We compete. We really challenge each other. We always say we want to make it harder than the game. That’s what we try to do at practice. I feel like that really helps us to stay high and come out strong in each game.”
Tualatin’s success in recent years has been led by its swarming defense, which picks up opponents for much of the court, trying to force turnovers or just knock the other team out of its rhythm. It has been a signature of the program under Head Coach Wes Pappas.
That stingy Timberwolf defense made an early appearance in the season opener against West Salem. Tualatin was all over the ball early, so much so that West Salem called a timeout 36 seconds into the game to discuss how to break the pass and get into its offense.
Tualatin jumped out to an 11-0 lead before Salem hit a free throw for its first point of the game. Salem hit a three-pointer with three minutes to go in the opening quarter for its first field goal of the game.
The Timberwolves lead by 10 after one, and a Best jumper at the buzzer put Tualatin up by 13 at the half. West Salem made a run in the third, cutting the Tualatin lead down to seven with 5:16 to go in the third quarter.
From that point on, Tualatin went on a run to eventually win by 20. A few of the girls ended up in foul trouble in the first half, which Pappas said he thought threw them off a little bit.
“We were the last team to play in the state, which was a weird schedule thing,” he said. “We just didn’t have the live reps. West Salem is well coached and played a good game. We had some struggles. We didn’t shoot the ball well, but we were still able to get a 20-point win.”
In the win, sophomore Kendall Dawkins continued to build on her impressive freshman season by netting 16 points to go with her 14 rebounds.
There will be plenty of chances for the Timberwolves to pull down rebounds this year. From the state title team, Tualatin only graduated one player: Jordyn Smith, who is now playing at Cal Poly Humboldt.
Smith was the anchor for Tualatin in the middle, both on offense and defense. In the state title game, Smith pulled down 15 rebounds, seven on the offensive end. With her graduating, a lot of that responsibility in the middle will head to senior Alex Padilla, who saw a lot of time on the court last year, as well.
Padilla is committed to playing collegiately at Portland State after she graduates. One difficulty this year is Pappas said Padilla will probably be a guard in college, whereas Smith played down low last year.
“Defensively, she’s doing a great job,” Pappas said of Padilla. “In terms of a true post-up kid that Jordan was, we like to go inside-out and play off of that. We’re going to have to piece that together. We’ve got some kids that can post, but they’re mostly guard-types that can post, and it’s not the same as having a true kind of dominant post like Jordan was.”
Still, the team is confident as they look to defend their title. Padilla is one of three seniors, along with Ries Miadich and Maaya Lucas, all of whom have multiple years of varsity experience heading into this year.
In the state title game, Miadich sank a three-pointer to break the tie game with 1:53 remaining to give Tualatin its first lead of the entire contest.
Miadich said it’s a little intimidating to be the team the rest of the state is chasing this year.
“As one of the seniors, I just mainly want to be a leader on the court,” she said. “Our team feels confident in the way we play and in each other.”
