HS Hoops: Black Hills and Tumwater split double header; Wolves take the girls game, T-Birds win the boys

1/30/2026

(Tumwater, WA) It was Pioneer Cup chapter 2 for the Tumwater T-Birds and Black Hills Wolves. The crosstown rivalry packed the Wolf Den at Black Hills high school.

The Wolves were looking for a split by protecting the home floor in the 2nd go-round. Tumwater held serve on their home floor back on January 13 winning the girls game by 1 point 60-59. The boys followed suit holding off the Wolves 58-52.

Our coverage of both games is below beginning with the girls game followed by the boys.

Girls Game

Black Hills 56, Tumwater 45

Both teams got off to a fast start especially Maesyn Williams for the T-Birds who scored the first 10 points of the game for her squad, The Wolves countered with a balanced attack and stretched their lead at the end of the quarter to lead 19-15.

Tyler Venable was hot for the Wolves scoring 18 of her 23 game high points in the 1st half. Venable hit a 3 and was 5-5 from the line. Black Hills. Natalie Buchanan was consistent for the whole game knocking down 9 in the first with 5 boards. Ellie Johnson had 4 and helped Black Hills control the boards and paint.

Tumwater trailed at the half 35-27 and stayed in the game hitting 5 shots from behind the arc led by Maesyn Williams with 13 points and 3 long balls. Reece Brewer and Malia Eggers also hit from behind the arc.

As the 2nd half began, the T-Birds had a hard time getting anything going offensively in the 3rd quarter scoring just 8 points. The Wolves didn’t run-away and hide but extended their lead by with a 13 point quarter.

Neither offense blew up as the T-Birds did outscore Black Hills 10-8, but never really was able to make a run to make it close in the end.

The Wolves’ Venable led all scorers with 23, Natalie Buchanan added 17. Maesyn Williams led the T-Birds with 20. Black Hills dominated the boards by out-rebounding the T-Birds 32-19. Ellie Johnson led with 13, Buchanan had 8 and Cassidy O’Reilly hauled in 7 boards with her 5 points.

Kamryn Wilson and Reece Brewer each had 6 for Tumwater.

Black Hills is now 4-4 on the season and improved to 11-8 overall. The T-Birds drop to 5-3 and 11-8. The Wolves have a pair of home games to finish the regular season next with a game against Centralia on Tuesday and Aberdeen on Thursday.

Tumwater will wrap up with a game at Aberdeen on Tuesday and will wrap up the regular season on Thursday at Shelton.

Thorbeckes MVP

Natalie Buchanan was named the Thorbeckes MVP of the game with her 17 total points and 8 rebounds. Tyler Venable and Ellie Johnson were also considered for the Wolves.

Scoring Stats
Black Hills: Tyler Venable 23, Natalie Buchanan 17, Ellie Johnson 7, Cassidy O’Reilly 5, Haley McMahon 4
Tumwater: Maesyn Williams 20, Reece Brewer 7, Malia Eggers 7, Claire Buono 5, Anden DeMaris 5, Kamryn Wilson 1

Click on this link to watch the full replay on the NFHS Network (subscription required)

ESN Postgame Show

Video Highlights

Tumwater gets off to a fast start

Black Hills drains a 3 just before halftime

Wolves begin to pull away in the 3rd

Boys Game

Tumwater 59, Black Hills 46

The Black Hills Wolves jumped on the T-Birds in front of a packed house quickly in the 1st quarter with a 12-5 lead. Unfortunateley, that 12-5 run would be their best of the game. Tumwater responded with a 10-0 run to make it 15-12 and would finish with a 21-15 1st quarter lead.

Landon Anchors who led all scorers on the night was red hot in the first half scoring 16 of his 21 points. Anchors lit it up from deep with 3 3’s and then went inside for 3 inside the paint buckets and an old-fashioned 3-point play going 1-1 from the line.

For Black Hills, Peyton Faught and Hayden Burgess each had a pair of long balls to keep Black Hills in the game trailing 33-26 at the halftime.

As the 3rd quarter began the T-Birds scrappy defense and the rebounding of Luke Overbay who finished with 11 boards kept the Wolves from ever making a real run and kept them to a minimum of a 3 possession game. Tumwater’s defense clamped down as well as the Wolves settled for plenty of outside shots that weren’t going down for them and they were limited to just 20 2nd half points.

The T-Birds pulled away with an 11-9 3rd quarter and put them away in the 4th with a 15-11 run. Julian Balsley stepped up in the 2nd half scoring 8 of his 10 points including a dunk and Braeden Konrad had 5 of his 7 off the bench in the 2nd half.

Leading the Wolves were Faught with 16 and James Morgan had 15.

Tumwater remains unbeaten in EVCO 2A league play at 8-0 and 17-1 in league play. The T-Birds will wrap up league and regular season play next week with a home game on Tuesday against Aberdeen and then welcoming Shelton on Friday.

Black Hills is now 6-2 in conference play and 13-5 overall. The Wolves will travel on Wednesday to Centralia and then at Aberdeen on Friday.

Thorbeckes MVP

The Thorbeckes MVP of the game went to Tumwater’s Landon Anchors with a huge scoring night hitting for 21. Also in contention was a solid night from Luke Overbay and a big 2nd half by Julian Balsley.

Scoring Stats
Tumwater: Landon Anchors 21, Julian Balsley 10, Luke Overbay 9, Braeden Konrad 7, Ethan Bello 6, Jake Reid 3, Owen Reamer 3
Black Hills: Peyton Faught 16, James Morgan 15, Quinton Morrill 6, Hayden Burgess 6, Talon Morrill 3

Click on this link to watch the full replay on the NFHS Network (subscription required)

ESN Postgame Show