Tanner Townsend Freeman Year: Senior Sport: Basketball Position: Guard

The basketball season is a week old and Tanner Townsend already has his game plan down perfectly.

The senior point guard from Freeman scored 29 points in a two-point win over Garfield-Palouse and then led a balanced attack as the Scotties pulled away from Valley Christian.

“Whether I put a lot of points on the board isn’t a big issue,” Townsend said. “Like everybody that plays, I want to win a state championship.”

He knew the 1A Scotties were in a tough position playing smaller schools, but he’s encouraged by the results. Last year, Freeman started 0-2 as Gar-Pal and VC were starting on the road to first- and third-place finishes at the State B tournament.

“Last year, it probably helped us a little,” Townsend said. “Going into the season, I don’t think we had a total understanding on the makeup of our team… . after those two losses, we had to start kicking ourselves. It made us realize we’re not as good as we thought, we had to work to do.”

The Scotties worked their way to fourth at the State 1A tournament.

Freeman coach Mike Thacker was pleased with the way Townsend protected the ball, but he’ll be even more pleased with Townsend’s reaction.

“There were times I could have taken better care of it,” he said. “That’s definitely important.”