Bears place third, will play in Wenatchee

OMAK – The Brewster Bears clinched third place with their District 6 playoff win against Okanogan last Friday night, Feb. 9, and will travel to Wenatchee on Saturday, Feb. 17, to face their crossover opponent from District 7.

In a game expected to be more of a back-and-forth battle, the Bears took the lead from the opening gun and never gave it up through the remainder of the contest. Brewster led by seven points at the end of the first quarter and maintained that margin to a 23-16 halftime. The Bulldogs could not get their shots to drop despite several third and fourth opportunities from offensive rebounds. In the first quarter, Okanogan was held to just five points.

During the regular season, the Bears lost to Okanogan, 47-46, on Jan. 9 and beat the Bulldogs, 52-48 on Jan. 30.

A second-half momentum shift by Okanogan never occurred as the Bears came out strong in the third and ended the quarter with the same six-point advantage, 32-26. Just before the end of the third, Mario Camacho, Jr. hit his fourth three-pointer to lead Brewster in that department.

Head coach Michael Taylor benched three starters in foul trouble in the third quarter. The subs, Henry Miller, Sam Arevalo, and Preston Thompson, did a good job holding the line against the Bulldogs, only allowing a point to be shaved off the Bears’ lead.

Brewster scored nearly 20 points to Okanogan’s eight as the fourth quarter wound down and won going away, 51-34. The Bears will meet Northwest Christian (Colbert) at Wenatchee High School on Saturday, Feb. 17 (time TBD).

Bears fall to Tigers

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 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 Tigers' threes uncorked to begin the game were not one-and-done. The team hit 14 treys to score more than half of their 78 points from beyond the arc.

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

The win set up a District Six championship match between the Tigers and Lake Roosevelt on Feb. 9 that the Raiders won handily by more than 30 points.

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