As the tried and true hoops saying goes, it’s tough to beat a team three times.
It’s even tougher, though, to beat these Loggers.
Onalaska improved to 24-0 on the season and put away Toledo, 50-37, for the third time this season in the District IV 1A Boys Basketball Tournament championship game Friday night in Chehalis, stepping on the gas in the third quarter and holding the Indians to just 4 fourth-quarter points.
“We worked so hard for this,” Logger guard Dalton Ritchey said, grinning after cutting down the nets at W.F. West High School. “It’s almost like a dream come true.”
That dream, though, was closer to a nightmare in the first half. Toledo held a 6-point lead midway through the second quarter and put the Loggers in an unfamiliar 4-point deficit at halftime.
“I told the kids, it’s like a boxing match,” Logger coach Dennis Bower said. “They hit us in the mouth first, and we kind of staggered, and didn’t know what to do.”
Despite the lead, Toledo coach Scott Merzoian said he still felt like his team was having trouble executing in the first half — and things got a bit worse after the break. Ritchey scored 10 of his game-high 16 points in the third quarter and swatted away the Indians’ last-second 3-point attempt to help his team to a 5-point lead going into the fourth.
“We couldn’t get anything going offensively,” Merzoian said. “They found a way to score in the second half, and we didn’t.”
The Indians were just 4 of 18 from the field after the break, despite turning the ball over just three times in the second half.
“We knew what we had to do,” Onalaska’s Cody Naillon said. “Once we get on a roll, it’s hard to stop us.”
Naillon scored 13, and David Wallace paced Toledo with 9 points.
“I can’t say enough how hard Toledo played,” Bower said. “It was just a backyard brawl. Toledo’s so well-coached, and they play the game the right way.”
Both teams will now head to Yakima for the State 1A Boys Basketball Tournament, which begins on Wednesday.
“They’ll bounce back,” Merzoian said, of his 16-7 team. “You can’t fault the effort.”
It’ll be the first trip to state since 2007 for Onalaska, while Toledo was last in Yakima in 2008.
“It’s a whole new game, going to state,” Ritchey said. “That’s what we’re looking forward to.”
Notes: Ilwaco beat Stevenson 59-58 in the third/fourth place game, sending the Fishermen to state. Karl Oman fired a pass to Kyle Breckinridge, who was open under the hoop, for a lay-up just before time expired to give Ilwaco the win.
