WASHOUGAL — The Woodland boys basketball team has its sights set on the playoffs.
But before the Beavers can get to the postseason, there is first the matter of the gauntlet called the Class 2A Greater St. Helens League.
The Beavers strengthened their playoff position by battling out a 51-39 road win Friday at Washougal.
“That’s what we’ve got to keep doing,” junior Tanner Sixberry said. “Just take each game and keep grinding it out.”
Sixberry had a game-high 19 points and Tyler Flanagan added 12 as Woodland (10-7, 5-4) held onto third place in the 2A GSHL.
“We saying ‘Just get to the postseason’ because once you get there, it’s a new start,” Woodland coach Jason Buffum said. “We’ve got stretch of three games to go before that, with two of them on the road. We’ll need to at least — depending on what happened tonight — probably two to make the playoffs. But really, second place is still in reach for us.”
Woodland trails R.A. Long (6-3) and leads Hudson’s Bay (4-6) with four teams earning berths to the district tournament.
To get there, the Beavers used their strength, defense, to take control Friday.
The Beavers clamped down on the Panthers in the second quarter, going on a 9-0 run that put them up 19-14 at the intermission.
“We live and die by our defense,” Sixberry said. “We try to make teams work for their shots.”
The Beavers pushed their edge to 29-17 late in the third quarter and things looked well in hand.
“But we’ve had games like that before, when we let teams back in it,” Buffum said. “That’s why we put ‘finish’ on the board tonight.”
Washougal got within 33-28 early in the fourth quarter before the Beavers went on a 9-2 run to make the lead 12 again.
From there, they sealed the win by knocking down 9 of their last 10 free throws. Flanagan was 6 for 6 in that stretch.
Daniel Davis had 10 points and Brody Oberg and Jake Klackner added nine each for Washougal (7-10, 3-6), whose postseason hopes cling by a thread after dropping its fifth in a row.
WOODLAND 51, WASHOUGAL 39
WOODLAND — Bryce Mulder 6, McKay Flanagan 0, Devin Rice 2, Hayden Huddleston 7, Wyatt Harsh 3, Tanner Sixberry 19, Christian Mendez 2, Tyler Flanagan 12. Totals 15 (3) 18-24.
WASHOUGAL– Daniel Davis 10, Collin Prangley 9, Brody Oberg 5, Jake Klackner 9, Curtis Crosby 3, Matt Rotundo 2, Josh Bischoff 1. Totals 13 (6) 7-15
Woodland 8 11 12 20–51
Washougal 8 6 8 17–39
JV — Washougal 54-40.
