The Rainier girls basketball team did it with defense Monday, wrapping up its regular season with a 38-22 win at Toledo.
The Mountaineers put in 19 points in the first quarter, then settled in for a grind, with the two teams combining for 33 points in the final three quarters. Toledo maxed out at eight in the first, then scored just 14 the rest of the way.
“We played a good defensive game, forced a lot of turnovers, and rebounded the ball well,” Rainier coach Brandon Eygabroad said.
Acacia Murphy took her turn to lead the Mountaineers’ offense with a season-high 12 points, as the only Rainier player to score in all four quarters. Angelica Askey added eight points for the visitors, and Haleigh Hanson had six.
Ryah Stanley put in 13 points for Toledo, leading all scorers.
Rainier ends its regular season a game slot early with a 10-3 record in Central 2B League play, locking up the third seed to the District 4 tournament. The Mountaineers will face the C2BL’s No. 7 seed. Currently, that belongs to Kalama.
Toledo’s path is murkier and much less hopeful. Falling to 3-9 in C2BL play, the Riverhawks are currently a half game behind the Chinooks — who also are done with their league slate — with only a game against Morton-White Pass on Wednesday to go, and Kalama owns the tiebreaker against them. The wild card remains Toledo’s earlier matchup against Winlock, which the Riverhawks had to forfeit due to low numbers at the time, but were trying to reschedule. If they can find a way to play that game, win it, and beat MWP, there’s a wisp of a chance of Toledo sneaking into the final spot of the tournament, but that chance seems to fading with each passing day.
