By CASEY OLSON

sports@fedwaymirror.com

The matchup between the No. 1- and No. 2-ranked teams in the state didn’t live up to the pregame hype.

Top-ranked Auburn Riverside Ravens controlled the Federal Way Eagles Thursday night on their home court en route to a 64-49 South Puget Sound League North Division victory. The win kept the Ravens (14-0, 10-0) unbeaten on the season and dropped Federal Way (11-3, 7-3) three games back of the North Division leaders with only six games to play.

But the Eagles did take a huge step to securing the North Division’s second seed into the postseason with a 80-77 overtime win over Kentwood Saturday night. The Conquerors (10-3, 8-2) now sit just one game up on the Eagles.

Against Kentwood, Federal Way made a frantic fourth-quarter comeback to force overtime. The Eagles outscored the Conks 26-18 during the fourth quarter to tie the game. Federal Way outscored Kentwood, 11-8, during the overtime session.

The Eagles were led by 24 points from Talia Walton and 20 from Darah Huertas-Vining. Kentwood beat Federal Way, 60-58, in their first meeting of the season.

The Eagles played both the Kentwood and Auburn Riverside games without two of their best post players. Leading scorer (15.4 a game) and rebounder (10.6) TyShana Burgess missed and 6-foot-1 Jaleecia Roland was on the Eagles’ sideline in a wheelchair after collapsing in class on Tuesday. Roland also averages double-figure rebounds (10.4) and 6.2 points a game.

Despite being shorthanded, Federal Way jumped out to an early 9-4 lead Thursday against Auburn Riverside thanks to the shooting of Brittany Barrington. The 5-foot-5 junior guard tallied all nine of the points and finished with a team-high 16.

But the Ravens answered Barrington’s barrage with a 12-2 run to take a five-point lead into the second quarter.

The two teams played a back and forth during the first half of the second quarter, before Auburn Riverside exploded with a 17-4 run to take command of the game.

Federal Way junior post Talia Walton finished with 10 points. Auburn Riverside, who also beat the Eagles in their first meeting of the season, was led by the 19 points of Brooklynn Hinkens and University of Washington-signee Mercedes Wetmore finished with 17.

In other girls basketball action:

• The Thomas Jefferson Raiders moved to 4-6 in the SPSL North and 7-7 overall by splitting games against Kent-Meridian and Auburn. The Raiders downed Kent-Meridian Saturday, 55-47, and lost to Auburn Thursday, 50-35.

Auburn (5-5, 6-8) outscored the Raiders 33-18 during the second and third quarters to take control of the game. The Raiders were led by the 11 points of Unique Taufa’asau and nine by Hannah Kiyohara.

Against Kent-Meridian, TJ got 24 points from Taufa’asau and 17 from Kiyohara.

• The Todd Beamer Titans remained winless in the SPSL South with a 48-30 loss to Emerald Ridge Thursday in Federal Way.

The Titans (0-8, 0-10) were led by the eight points of Meghan Graf.

• The Decatur Gators were upended by the Spanaway Lake Sentinels Thursday night, 61-52, and the Rogers Rams Saturday, 50-23.

Against Spanaway Lake, Decatur (1-8, 2-11) trailed by only one point at halftime, but the Sentinels controlled the third and fourth quarters. The Gators were led by nine points from Mik’kell Frier and eight from Denisha Green.

Decatur mustered only nine first-half points against Rogers and were led by the five points of A’yesia Rogers.