Tualatin’s Love Lei Best spent much of the early parts of Friday night’s playoff game looking for her teammates, but with just 11 seconds to go in the first quarter, the star freshman knew just what to do.
The Timberwolves in-bounded the ball deep in their own territory, and Best calmly dribbled the ball up court, and once she was over the halfcourt line, Best darted to the hoop and weaved between multiple Nelson defenders and drained a floated with no time left in the quarter.
The shot gave Tualatin a 20-8 lead after one quarter, as the Timberwolves were in control from start to end at home Friday night in the second round of the playoffs. Tualatin won 69-41 and advances to the Chiles Center at the University of Portland, which hosts the final three rounds of the playoffs.
Even though Best is just a freshman, Tualatin Coach Wes Pappas said she has a knack already for knowing when to look for her teammates and when to look for herself.
“She has a tremendous basketball IQ,” he said. “She’s a super unselfish kid. She runs the show out there. It’s so valuable to have a point guard like that.”
The ball was moving around plenty on Friday, as the scoring was even throughout the entire team. Jordyn Smith led the way with 14 for Tualatin, followed by 13 from Maaya Lucas, 12 for Best, and 10 apiece for Ries Miadich, Alex Padilla, and Kendall Dawkins.
At different points in the game, different Timberwolves were focal points of the offense. After a few empty possessions in the third quarter, Best took over, hitting a few tough lay-ups and a three-pointer.
“She’s just totally in control of this game,” Pappas said. “She picks her spots, and she knows when to get others involved. She knows when to take over herself. She just had a great game.”
Nelson kept things close for the first few minutes of the game, but Smith proved too tough a matchup. She scored eight of her 14 points in the first quarter, including a few second-chance points after pulling down offensive rebounds right in the middle of a sea of Nelson players.
“She was huge for us,” Pappas said. “She’s so valuable for us all over the floor. She got in a bit of foul trouble, and I think we had quite a bit of a letdown defensively when she was not on the floor. Thankfully, she came back in and was able to stay in until the end of the game. She was an absolute killer for us.”
Another strong performance in the first half came from Padilla, who saw a ton of open looks near the hoop. Pappas said the team planned on trying to get the junior more involved offensively by drawing up plays that allowed her to cut to the hoop.
“She’s a real defensive power for us,” Pappas said. “She’s a skilled offensive kid who can do a lot of things around the basket. We called her number a lot tonight because I believe in her and her ability to score.”
Next up for Tualatin is a return to the Chiles Center and a quarterfinal matchup against South Medford. Tualatin plays at 6:30 p.m. at the Chiles Center on Wednesday.
