HS Boys Basketball: WF West Hot Start Carries Them to EvCo Win Over Shelton

12/7/23

WF West 54, Shelton 41

(Chehalis, WA) Basketball season is now in full swing as the WF West Bearcats looked for their second league win on Thursday night as they hosted the Shelton Highclimbers in Evergreen 2A play. WF West came into the matchup coming off of a blowout win over Rochester in a game where they set a program record for assists with 25 in the win. Shelton was still looking for their first win after losses to two SSC 3A opponents in Capital and North Thurston. While Shelton fought the entire way and made things interesting, the Bearcats hot start was too much to overcome as WF West earned their second straight win with a 54-41 victory.

WF West quickly took the lead after the opening tip as Tyler Klatush quickly found Gage Brumfield for an easy lay up just a few seconds into the game. The Bearcats were off and rolling after that as they firmly took control in the opening quarter. Threes were flying for the Bearcats and Tyler Klatush was leading the way with a couple of them in the opening quarter. Weston Potter, Lucas Hoff, and Gage Brumfield all hit early threes while Parker Eiswald was a good post presence for WF West. Shelton struggled to score in the opening quarter as they managed just five points and all of them were scored by Journey Bear Perez. After a quarter it looked as though WF West would run away as they led 20-5.

Shelton began to settle into the game in the 2nd quarter. WF West began to make some mistakes and turnovers allowed Shelton to not fall behind much more. Matt Carleton came off the bench and started to give the Highclimbers their own post presence. Offensive rebounds for Carleton quickly saw him score six points in the blink of an eye. Outside of him, Shelton mixed in some points from Bishop Manning and Dante Cruz while WF West couldn’t continue the hot three-point shooting. While Shelton couldn’t cut into their deficit, they prevented it from growing as they continued to trail WF West 31-16 at halftime.

Quarter number three was when Shelton made their move. The Highclimbers began to capitalize on defensive miscues by the Bearcats and they began to knock down some jumpers of their own. Gabe Conklin got his offensive momentum going as Dante Cruz splashed down the first three of the game for Shelton. The baseline drive was open for Conklin and Shelton also began to get WF West in foul trouble with both Parker Eiswald and Grady Westlund sitting with three fouls a piece. Losing that size down low hurt the Bearcats on both ends of the court. A late three in the quarter for Klatush did help open the lead back up a little bit as the Bearcats held a 42-30 advantage going into the final quarter.

While Grady Westlund would foul out of the game, Parker Eiswald would not pick up another foul and he helped lead the Bearcats to a strong finish. WF West began to get the second chance opportunities while Shelton dealt with foul trouble. Gabe Conklin was all of a sudden up to four and Tyler Klatush ran the Bearcat offense perfectly. WF West killed clock on every possession and even had one possession that was almost a minute long due to offensive rebounds. Shelton continued to struggle shooting from the field and the free throw line and the Bearcats were able to wrap up the win by a final score of 54-41.

Our Thorbeckes MVP of the game for WF West was Tyler Klatush who had a game high 18 points but also did a tremendous job running the offense for the Bearcats. Whenever the shot clock was winding down the ball was in the hands of Klatush and he showed great poise every single time. Taking strides from last season, Klatush looked like the leader on offense rather than just a scorer. While he is still going to get his points, Klatush looks like a leader on this team this season and that is exactly what the Bearcats need.

WF West moves to 2-1 and 2-0 in EvCo 2A play as they prepare for a nonleague game at home on Monday against the Battle Ground Tigers. Shelton drops to 0-3 and 0-1 in league play and they will return to the court on Monday when they visit Bremerton. Both games are scheduled for 7pm starts.

You can watch the entire match on the NFHS Network on-demand. Subscriptions are $11.99 per month and gives you access to the entire NFHS Network all across the country to watch the live broadcasts or any on-demand games. Literally hundreds of thousands of hours of game content. Go to https://www.nfhsnetwork.com/affiliates/eli-sports-network to sign-up if you don’t have a subscription or to find the on-demand replay of this game. The direct link to the game is below.

WF West vs Shelton – Boys Varsity Basketball 12/07/2023 | Live & On Demand (nfhsnetwork.com)