Brewster Bears fall to Tonasket in playoff upset, 78-63

OMAK – After dealing defeats of 22 and 12 points to the Tonasket Tigers in their two regular season games last month, the odds appeared to favor the Brewster Bears when the two teams met in post-season district play here on Tuesday, Feb. 6. The Tigers thought otherwise.

Tonasket opened the quarter with back-to-back three-pointers to take a brief six-point lead before the Bears hit their first bucket. Tonasket led by those six points, 21-15, at the end of the first and served notice that they came to play.

Brewster battled to within one point during the second quarter, but the Tigers kept sinking shots from three-point land just when they needed them to hold the lead through halftime, 41-35.

Halftime is a twilight zone all its own and has a habit of messing with momentum. It is not unusual for the team trailing going into the locker room to emerge transformed and surge ahead in the third quarter. The Bears began that way sinking six unanswered points to tie the game 41-all and prompt Tonasket’s coach to call a timeout to top off the Tigers’ tank. Whatever he added must have worked. Tonasket returned to the floor, regained the lead, and never let the Bears get closer than two points for the remainder of the game. Tonasket won by 16 points, 78-62.

As it turned out, the threes that the Tigers uncorked to begin the game were not one-and-done. The team hit 16 treys to score more than half of their 78 points from beyond the arc.

The win sets up a district six championship match with Lake Roosevelt at 7:30 p.m., Friday, Feb. 9, at Omak High School. The Raiders defeated Okanogan, 91-69, following the Brewster-Tonasket game at Omak.

Brewster and Okanogan will play for third and fourth places at 6 p.m. Friday, Feb. 9, in Omak. Their game will be preceded by a 4:30 p.m. meeting between Manson and Liberty Bell for fifth and sixth place.

 Tonasket senior guard Jade Ramon led all scorers with 24 points. Brady Wulf paced the Bears with 22, Karden Gebbers scored 12, Cort Gebbers and Mario Camacho added eight apiece, followed by Preston Thompson, 5, Grant Baker, 3, and Henry Miller, 2.

BREWSTER: 15-20-19-8  63

TONASKET: 21-20-21-16  78

Mike Maltais: 360-333-8483 or michael@ward.media