ONALASKA — Grady Fallon saw the trap game coming, with his Toledo boys basketball team coming off an unexpected 11-day break due to snow cancellations and returning to action in a hostile environment.
“Just having all those days off, we were out of the routine for sure,” he said.
Turns out, he didn’t have much to worry about. The Riverhawks broke double digits on offense before their defense even allowed Onalaska to take a shot, and never looked back in a 71-36 blowout.
“You look at every play one at a time,” Fallon said. “And then you look up like, ‘Oh gosh, it’s 8-0; oh it’s 12-0. Okay, I can relax a bit now.’ But you know, it’s never over until it’s over. I’ve been around long enough to see people come back, I’ve seen people squander away leads they shouldn’t.”
Instead, the Riverhawks, who started the first quarter on a 17-3 run in the opening five minutes, came back and did it again to begin the second quarter with a 13-2 run to balloon the lead up to 19 points.
The Toledo defense forced 11 turnovers in the first half, and the Riverhawks (9-2, 4-2 C2BL) scored 10 points in transition before halftime.
“I think we had a good game plan, we just couldn’t execute a few little things,” said Onalaska coach Brent Wood, who is now 0-2 against his alma mater and former coach. “When that happens, their confidence starts to drop, you don’t believe, like ‘Is the gameplan really working?’”
For the Riverhawk, just about everything was working.
Five separate players hit 10 points for Toledo, with Trevin Gale taking his turn to lead the scoring effort with 13 points to go along with three assists and two steals.
“He needs to play with more confidence, because he’s long… and he’s capable of that,” Fallon said. “That was good for him.”
Kaven Winters added 12 points, Rogan Stanley had 11 — including a team-high nine in the first half — and Cooper Fallon had 10.
But it wasn’t just the starters for Toledo; Christian Malunat came off the bench and led the way on the glass with six rebounds, and also canned four 3-pointers to finish with 12 points.
“We had a summer league game a couple years ago where he hit like seven threes,” Grady Fallon. “We knew he could shoot.”
Ethan Thayer led the Loggers (3-7, 1-5 C2BL) with a 12-point, 10-rebound double-double.
Toledo is set to host Toutle Lake on Wednesday, but Toledo will be right back on the road, with a trip to Wahkiakum on Wednesday, followed by a game in Morton on Friday.
