WINLOCK — Tiffany Tornow scored 31 points to help Toledo jump on the host Cardinals for a 68-52 Southwest Washington 1A League Evergreen Division win here Thursday night.
The Indians opened up a 20-8 first-quarter lead, that was ultimately the deciding factor — as Winlock hung steady in the final three periods, outscored by only a 4-point margin.
“The first half, there were just too many turnovers on our part,” Cardinal coach Scott Ashmore said. “We tried to force the action too much and turned the ball over and didn’t recover too well."
The coach said there was also too much of something else: Tornow.
“She was 7 of 13 from 3-point range and we usually had a hand in her face,” he said. “She was just consistent.”
Julie Jacobo came out of a scoreless first half to lead Winlock with 17 points.
“She single-handedly tried to take us back,” said Ashmore, whose Cardinals cut the lead down to single digits in the third. “But it was too much to try to come back on. They dominated us on the boards, and controlled the ball well.”
Brittany Hope contributed to the winning effort, scoring 14 points. Haley Hellem added 8.
Courtney Suter and Kayla Rakes tallied 8 apiece for the Cardinals.
Toledo shot 17 of 30 from the free throw line, while Winlock sank 11 of 19.
Ashmore said the game plan going in was to take care of the basketball.
“We talked and talked about not forcing the action and making (Toledo) play defense,” he said. “But we didn’t do that. And you can’t give a good team like Toledo as many opportunities to score as we did.”
League-leading Toledo (13-1, 8-0 league) hosts Montesano Tuesday at 5:45 p.m, while Winlock (10-4, 4-4 league) plays at Rochester the same night at the same time.
