If you hang around the White River High School girls’ basketball program long enough, you’ll know how to accurately grade one of the Hornets’ games.

Points scored? It varies greatly with the SPSL 2A champions.

Shooting percentage? Something in the 40-percent range is generally lights-out.

No, the best indicator is a number not seen on any statistical sheet – pass deflections. And those quick, active hands will be what determines how far No. 6 White River advances in the Class 2A playoffs.

So far, so good – the Hornets are in the West Central District semifinals, courtesy of their 64-33 victory over Bremerton at Foss High School on Thursday night.

Kennedy Hobert and Amanda Lance each scored 19 points for White River (20-3), the defending 2A district champion. Terra Driskell had 14 for the Knights.

On a night when the Hornets, frankly, were a big sluggish offensively, they did force 28 first-half turnovers, which fed the team’s decisive 22-0 run in the second quarter in building a 40-11 cushion.

“We aren’t real big,” White River coach Chris Gibson said, “so we have to rely on our pressure.”

The thing about watching the likes of senior Sutton Mills, or sophomore Amanda Lance prowl around the backcourt, looking to create something on defense – it is their hands that almost defy logic. Very rarely when they are able to get to errant passes does the basketball bounce away – or off their hands out of bounds.

Instead, they are able to corral most loose basketballs in mid-air, like how an outfielder snares a line drive in baseball.

It netted them 32 steals against Bremerton.