Tahoma learned the hard way early in the season to come out from tip off at top speed and that lesson paid off Tuesday night in a 80-56 victory over first place Auburn in a South Puget Sound League 4A North boys basketball match up.

The Bears raced out to a 22-9 lead by the end of the first quarter and never looked back against the Trojans.  That doesn’t mean Tahoma had any plans to let up just because it had a double digit lead.

“The first time (against Auburn) we had a 25 point lead going into the second half,” said Tahoma center Paul Loranger. “We got cocky. We wanted to make sure we won the next two minutes.”

Dominic Smith, one of four seniors on the Tahoma squad, said it was important to keep up the pressure.

“When you build a lead like that, you keep doing what you’re doing, you don’t change anything,” Smith said. “Make sure you finish the game strong. We just made sure we kept moving the ball and playing as a team. It’s just important to finish games like that.”

Not only were the Bears aggressive offensively — DeShon Williams, for example, went to the foul line seven times in the game on drives in the paint while fellow junior Coleman Wooten led all scorers with 27 points — they crashed the glass.

Tahoma pulled down 48 rebounds, of those 22 were offensive boards, while Auburn collected 25 boards of which five were offensive.

In addition, eight different players scored for Tahoma including all four seniors on Senior Night, and had four players score in double digits: Wooten, Smith with 12, Williams with 15 and Loranger chipping in 11 points.

With the victory, Tahoma pushed its winning streak to six since Jan. 5, improved to 11-3 in SPSL North play and moved into first place in the division thanks to its hot streak along with Auburn’s two game skid.

Tahoma has two games left in the regular season but already it is the most successful and most memorable for its seniors, who played on a team as freshmen which won just two games. A year ago the Bears were knocked out of playoff contention in a series of play-in games.

“It’s really cool, seeing us work hard in practice and seeing it transfer to games, especially being seniors,” Smith said.

Next up for Tahoma in league play will be Kentridge at home with tip off set for 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 29.

Loranger noted that the Bears need to keep up the pace as they wrap up the regular season.

“We’re gaining lots of momentum right now which we need to sustain going into the last two games of league,” Loranger said.