Preview: Napavine Tigers vs. Brewster Bears
Napavine is on a 11-game streak of home wins (dating back to last season), while Brewster is on a three-game streak of away wins: one of those streaks is about to end. The Napavine Tigers will be home for the holidays to greet the Brewster Bears at 12:00 p.m. on Friday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
Last Wednesday, Napavine made easy work of Toutle Lake and carried off a 55-34 victory. Despite the win, that was the fewest points Napavine has scored all season.
Napavine got their victory on the backs of several key players, but it was Keira O'Neill out in front who dropped a double-double on 14 points and 16 rebounds. Those 16 rebounds set a new season-high mark for her. The team also got some help courtesy of Hayden Kaut, who scored 14 points along with six rebounds and four blocks.
Meanwhile, everything went Brewster's way against Reardan on Tuesday as Brewster made off with a 67-42 win. 67 seems to be a good number for Brewster as the team scooped up a victory with the same number of points in their previous game.
Brewster found their leader in underclassman Pepper Boesel, who scored 30 points along with five rebounds and five steals. That makes it three consecutive games in which Boesel has scored at least 25% of Brewster's points. Paige Wulf was another key contributor, scoring ten points along with eight rebounds and five assists.
Napavine's victory bumped their record up to 5-0. As for Brewster, their win bumped their record up to 6-0.
Keep an eye on the arc in Friday's game: Napavine have made nailing deep shots look easy this year this season, having only averaged 5.4 threes per game. However, it's not like Brewster struggles in that department as they've been averaging only 5.2 threes per game. Given Napavine's sizeable advantage in that area, Brewster will need to find a way to close that gap.
Napavine strolled past Brewster in their previous matchup back in December of 2022 by a score of 55-37. Will Napavine repeat their success, or does Brewster have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
