Federal Way girls basketball coach Danny Graham made it clear that the 64-55 victory over visiting Thomas Jefferson Thursday was supposed to be that way. Hard. Not an easy, fun win for the current AP poll 10th-ranked Eagles.

“TJ always plays us well,” said Graham. “First off, they are well coached by Jerry Krueger. They always get to their spots on the floor. That is a credit to what their coach does.”

Both these teams’ records have already got themselves credited with qualification for the postseason tournaments coming up very shortly. Starting in early February is the South Puget Sound League Tournament. Then, for those that qualify, it’s time to move on to district play. Then state is next in early March.

The Eagles moved to 10-3 in the SPSL North, and 13-4 overall, while the Raiders dropped to 8-5 and 11-5.

Federal Way built a 10-2 lead through the first four minutes of the first quarter. TJ came back to tie it in the second quarter, 19-19, with a Jayme Carbon bucket with four minutes left in the second quarter.

The halftime score was 27-24, Eagles, as Krueger left his bench clapping his hands all the way into the locker room. At the same time, Graham looked puzzled, sitting on his bench seat for a good 10 seconds after the second quarter buzzer sounded before walking off to the locker room.

Maybe that was because TJ went away to their locker room after it’s 4-0 run to end the second frame.

And TJ would not go away in the third quarter, getting ahead, 33-31, in fact, as midway through the third it was Samantha Pham hitting an outside jumper. Pham also made some nice shots in this game at key times to keep things close. Before this lead-changing shot, Pham had made quarter-ending baskets in both the first and second quarters for the Raiders.

The game stayed close in the third quarter, with the most thanks to Tyshana Burgess’ two baskets and 2-for-2 free throw shooting for the Eagles. For the Raiders, giving the most help to keep the game tight, 6-1 senior post Stacey Albrecht did it with four boards and scored six for her team.

Not to forget the Raiders’ senior captain, Hannah Kiyohara, finished with a game-high 25 points, leading the maroon and gold from the point guard position. She scored 10 of the Raiders’ 12 first quarter points and another six of 12 in the second quarter. Her driving to the basket not only produced offense, but also got some of the big players in foul trouble early, having to have Graham switch them in and out of the game.

“Kiyohara was great and kept us in it early,” said Krueger. “We knew we needed to take that first punch from Federal Way to stay in it. Everyone helped that happen. Samantha, Stacy, Ariel, the whole team.”

By the end of the third quarter, despite hard trying from TJ, it was Federal Way that built a five-point lead, 41-36..

Krueger called a couple time outs to try and get his team back in it and on a Holman bucket it was still 44-42 with six minutes to go in the fourth quarter. But that would be all as sophomore Brittany Barrington drove to the basket, made it, and was fouled. She made the bonus to make it 47-42 Eagles just like that. Then Burgess hit a short jumper off an Evenson assist to make it 49-42 with 5:30 to go in the game. And Federal Way never looked back after that, getting mostly a series of fast break buckets. That was the difference in the pull-away -- too many easy baskets in the end for Federal Way.

“We like to run a lot,” said Graham. “We had five or six layups that we didn’t have to work for. They’re thin. They were tired.”

Eagles senior captain, 5-10 Jacqie Evenson, thinks her team needs to keep itself energized throughout games.

“We have to maintain energy throughout the whole game,” said Evenson. “We started off leading, 10-2, but we fell off. We just have to sustain our energy throughout the whole game, especially against the good teams.”

And TJ, make no mistake, can be a very good team. They weren’t the first time this season when the two met as Federal Way led, 22-0, after the first quarter and won it by 12, 55-43, easily. This time, even without a leading scorer, and best free throw shooter, Unique Taufa`asau, of TJ proved worthy competition for the state-ranked Eagles.

“We were short-handed and played only six players,” said Krueger, in his fourth season coaching the Raiders. “They really gave it a great effort. Federal Way is a top 10 team and they deserve to be there. And I feel we are not very far behind.”

The Eagles are an improving team this season. They lost to Auburn-Riverside the first time they met on Dec. 5, 77-60, but then changed things around next time. Federal Way beat A-R, 62-59, on Jan. 15. They also lost to Kentwood, ranked third in the USA Top 25 national poll, and, second in the state of Washington. by 18 the first season meeting on Dec. 9. But then these young ladies cut that Kentwood win margin to 12, 76-64, on Jan. 17.

This Eagles team is young and still learning a lot of things, even though players like Evenson, Amanda Earlywine and Joanne Parker provide senior leadership spark. When Evenson wants to, she can be clutch and when she finds a good stroke, she can hit the outside shot. Evenson can drive to the rim with her 5-10 frame, too. But the best strength of this team is the post players, like Walton, a sophomore, and tall sophomore teammates Jaleecia Roland and Tyshanna Burgess.

“Talia, Tyshanna, Jaleecia, Joanne, we want to go through our bigs,” said Graham.

In this game, freshman Dhara Huertas-Vining excelled at getting the ball to the big players with five assists.

But she’s holding her own, frenetically playing defense along with Chantel Dixon, a sophomore. Brittany Barrington hounds ball dribblers quite well, too. Barrington’s shooting touch can also be dead-eye, which opens up a whole new world inside for the Eagles to roam in the paint.

This Eagles team has some real good basketball players and athletes both. But getting it to click into a workable opening combination is taking time.

Walton scored eight of the Eagles’ 16 first quarter points, knocking in a couple of her four baskets with great off-glass shots. Most players don’t know how to use that backboard to their advantage. Walton sure does, using all of her 6-2 big frame to muscle inside and shoot up a feathery touch shot.

TJ was doing a good job, getting help on the weak side to make the bigger players like Walton, and the other strong players inside for the Eagles, like Tyshana Burgess, work for their points. The Raiders proved that they can stay with the best quality of teams in the state in this game.

Graham likes his team’s abilities, but there are still things to get going in a further right direction.

“In order to be a really good state team, we have to do better on the offensive end, and, also, on the defensive end,” he said. “But the girls are doing well out there. Our girls have good efforts all the time.”