2B Boys Basketball: WWVA Shocks Toledo in Regionals, 45-40

TUMWATER — It was not the ending anyone associated with Toledo had expected.

The Indians — one week removed from giving top-ranked Morton-White Pass all it could handle in the District 4 championship game — went cold in the fourth quarter and lost, 45-40, to Walla Walla Valley Academy here Saturday in the regional 2B playoffs, closing out the year one win shy of the state tournament in Spokane.

Walla Walla Valley Academy (20-6) now moves on to face Brewster (22-2) in the state tournament on Thursday.

The postgame discussion, according to senior Grant McEwen, was more of a retrospective.

“For us seniors, we’ve had a pretty good career, and been pretty successful, so coach was just trying to put into us, ‘don’t let this game define your career,’” McEwen said. “Which, it shouldn’t, but it just shows that anybody can win on any day.”

The game itself was eerily similar to the Indians’ 34-32 district semifinal win over Life Christian Academy a week and a half earlier, in the same gym. Brent Wood scored 8 points in under a minute to give Toledo an 8-2 lead early on, and cashed in a 3-pointer that put Toledo up 21-15 in the second frame.

The Knights, though — with a starting lineup going 6-foot-7, 6-5, 6-3, 6-3 and 5-10 — hung around, knotted the game at the intermission and trailed by 2 after three quarters.

“It was very weird. It seemed like it took forever, like it was in slow motion. It was uncharacteristically quiet,” Toledo coach Grady Fallon said. “Things didn’t seem to go very well. Usually you run a play, you get a bucket off it, and we executed, but the ball bounced weird tonight. I don’t know. It was very strange.”

Donevin Merly completed a 3-point play to put Toledo up 35-34 with 4:50 to play, but it was the last time the Indians would lead. The Knights went on a 7-0 run before a 3-pointer from Wood trimmed the lead back to 41-38 with 37.5 seconds left, and Toledo intentionally fouled WWVA and snagged the rebound off a missed free throw. Wood got another look from the corner that was off the mark, as was McEwen’s attempted tip-in on the rebound.

Cameron Fitzgerald drew a foul on the ensuing rebound, and wound up hitting four foul shots in the next 10 seconds to put the game away at 45-38.

“We didn’t have a great week at all at practice, I don’t think, and on the floor, things just weren’t flowing,” McEwen said. “Things just weren’t gelling together, but I think their size and length bothered us.”

Toledo was outrebounded, 31-22, with Merly picking up 11 rebounds. The Indians went 6 of 20 from the 3-point line and 16 of 47 from the field (34 percent), but attempted just four foul shots, while WWVA was 12 of 17 at the line.

“We had our chances. We had a lead. I don’t know what happened,” Fallon said. “I don’t know what I would re-do, if I had to do it again. It just seemed like it didn’t bounce our way.”

Wood finished with 17 points to lead all scorers, while Merly, McEwen and Forrest Wallace each scored 7.

Caleb King led WWVA with 10 points.

It was the final game in the careers of Toledo seniors McEwen, Wood, Merly, Wallace, Riley Bowen and Isaiah Johnson. McEwen and Wood had both played starting roles on the Indians’ 2012 State 1A championship, while McEwen, Wood, Wallace, and Merly had all started on last year’s sixth-place team.

Toledo finished with an 18-7 record, with three of those losses coming against MWP — the last two of which, McEwen said, provided the most memorable parts of the season.

“Just the fan support, that’s my favorite thing. Just how packed it was, like at the district championship,” he said. “The worst part’s not being able to get back (to state), for all the support they gave us. That’s the hardest part.”