If Thomas Jefferson had not fallen into the Grand Canyon in the first quarter, it might have been an easy hike the rest of the way.

The Raider girls basketball team fell behind Federal Way, 22-0, by the end of the first quarter Thursday, then climbed back to outscore the Eagles, 43-33, over the final three quarters to close the final gap to 55-43.

“I don’t know what happened,” said TJ head coach Jerry Krueger. “They took it at us and we were on our heels. They put the pressure on us the first quarter. It was just too big of a hole to climb out.”

Federal Way head coach Danny Graham was surprised to get a big lead of any kind against the Raiders.

“We knew that the start was not typical of TJ,” he said. “We knew that they were really good. It was obviously important to them. They led the last three quarters.”

The game was important for both teams.

Federal Way improved its South Puget Sound League North Division record to 5-2 with an 8-3 mark overall including a 66-42 win over Tahoma Friday. That put the Eagles in third place, while the Raiders fell into fifth at 4-3,7-3 and did not play Friday.

“They’re well coached and we knew that going in,” Graham said. “They forced us into a lot of turnovers.”

TJ did manage to close the gap to 29-17 by the time 48.8 seconds remained in the first half. The Raiders came the closest with 47 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter when they only trailed, 52-43.

They were at the end of an 8-0 and a 12-2 run, but the Eagles broke it.

Jacqie Evenson sank two free throws with 40.4 seconds remaining to make it 54-43 and Chantel Dixon sank one of two free throws with 24.4 seconds to go after a traveling call against TJ. That brought the score to its 55-43 margin.

But the winning drive for the Eagles came early.

Evenson made one of two free throws to start off their 22-0 first quarter run with only 11 seconds elapsed.

Brittany Barrington banked in a shot with 5:58 to play in the first quarter and Talia Walton struck from the outside at 5:06.

Dixon banked in an outside shot to make it 7-0 and Barrington scored again at 3:44 for a 9-0 lead. Dixon then canned a three-point shot at 3:13 to go and TyShana Burgess hit a putback at 2:39 for a 14-0 lead.

Darah Huertas-Vining made two baskets sandwiched around a banked putback shot by Walton.

Burgess capped off the string by icing two points from the field with four seconds to play in the quarter.

The Raiders finally got on the scoreboard with 7:37 to play in the second quarter with a shot by Stacy Albrecht from underneath the right side of the basket. Liz Fitch put in a putback at 6:53 to make it 22-4 and TJ was off on its gradual comeback that fell short.

Albrecht led all scorers with 16 points and Unique Taufa’Asau hit 14. Hannah Kiyohara added nine and Samantha Pham four.

Vining, Walton, Barrington and Burgess led Federal Way with 11 each. Dixon scored six and Evenson five.

Federal Way 66, Tahoma 41

The Eagles also got off to big early leads against the Tahoma Bears of Maple Valley Friday.

Federal Way led, 22-9, with 7:15 to play in the second quarter after TyShana Burgess opened the period with four-straight free throws.

A basket by Burgess gave the team a 41-24 advantage by 4:17 in the third quarter, and the Eagles went up, 58-34, with 6:17 to play in the fourth on back-to-back three-point scores by Jacqie Evenson and Brittany Barrington.

The final score also had Federal Way ahead by 24 at 66-42 with 1:31 remaining.

“I was proud of all the girls today,” Graham said. “We played four games in six days.”

Graham used Huertas-Vining, Amanda Earlywine and Molly Campbell more often than normal to give regulars a break.

“They played a lot of minutes,” Graham said. “The girls did a good job of keeping us in the flow.”

Evenson led with 22 points as Talia Walton scored 12, Burgess 11 and Barrington 10. Chantel Dixon added seven, Huertas-Vining three and Earlywine two.