TOLEDO — Brian Layton, girls basketball head coach for the Toledo Riverhawks, believes the “Holy Trinity” of basketball is rebound, play defense and don’t turn the ball over.
That combination has helped keep Toledo right in the thick of the Central 2B League race this season, but the Riverhawks struggled in all three of those facets in their final game of the regular season, a 62-46 loss to Toutle Lake Tuesday night.
It was just the second time all season that a team scored more than 60 on the Toledo defense, the other being Napavine. Entering Tuesday’s game, the Riverhawks allowed an average of 32.4 points per game.
In the first quarter alone, Toutle Lake dropped 30.
“We gave up too many offensive rebounds, and against a good team like that, you can’t give them any more than one opportunity,” Layton said. “When they set a screen on us, I didn’t think we switched fast enough and got a hand up to make them uncomfortable.”
Toledo, typically accustomed to low-scoring slugfests, appeared bound for a shootout in the opening minutes. The Riverhawks scored the opening bucket of the night on a Sidney Kruger layup in the lane before Lainey and Kendal Dean got to work for the Ducks with outside jumpers and inside drives.
Toutle Lake led 16-14 with over three minutes to go in the first quarter after a Ryah Stanley 3-pointer. But the Ducks closed the period on a tear, finishing with a 12-4 run capped off by a Payton Thayer triple at the buzzer to take a 30-18 advantage into the second quarter. The Ducks cashed five of their seven 3-pointers in the game just in the first quarter.
Both offenses slowed down after the fast-paced opening frame. Toledo scored seven unanswered early in the second quarter, capitalizing off of Ducks turnovers to cut into the lead. But the Ducks pushed the margin from nine back to 14 at halftime.
In the first moments of the second half, Toledo turned the ball over on a bad pass, Thayer knocked down a triple to push the lead to 17, and Stanley missed a jumper. Layton had seen enough and burned a timeout 36 seconds into the half.
“I don’t think we came out with very much urgency after halftime. In a game like that, you can’t take a possession off,” he said. “We just had to get our urgency back. We had to play every possession like it’s our last possession.”
Toutle Lake jumped out to a 21-point lead late in the third before Toledo answered with 11 unanswered points to draw within 10 with six minutes left in the fourth quarter. Kendal Dean and Thayer delivered the daggers, as Dean hit a pair of layups and Thayer drained her fifth 3-pointer of the night to extend the margin back to 15 and end Toledo’s comeback chances.
“I was really proud of our girls. We made a run there in the fourth quarter. Our girls never quit believing,” Layton said. “They never give up. They’re always giving you their best effort, and that’s why they’re a fun group to coach.”
Stanley led the Riverhawks with 13 points, while Kruger added 11 and Ellie Fallon scored nine. Kailea Lairson and Gracie Layton each tallied four points.
Tuesday night marked the final home game of Stanley’s Toledo career, one that started when she was a freshman. A lifelong Toledo resident, Stanley was the lone senior on the varsity team honored during the pregame senior night festivities.
While she enjoyed getting to see friends and family from the community show up in support of her, Stanley made sure to quickly lock back in and focus on the task at hand.
“I didn’t want people to think about it as senior night. I just wanted it to be a game,” she said. “But it meant a lot. The stands were packed, and I got to see faces of people that I’ve grown up with on the floor that has watched me grow up. This gym has done so much for me. The hours, the blood, sweat and tears and the late nights with my dad. Seeing the whole community come around was a great thing. It was surreal.”
Stanley said the heaviness of Tuesday being her final home game didn’t hit her until she sat in the locker room with her team.
“I was thinking that this is the last time I’ll sit in front of this whiteboard talking about the game,” she said. “It’s the last time that I’ll take my shoes off on this bench. It got me at the end. I kind of pushed it out in the beginning, but it got me in the end.”
Layton said Stanley has grown as a leader in the program and called her “one of the best shooters in the area.” What has separated her, according to Layton, is her time spent in the gym.
“Basketball is her love. She’s in the gym all the time. You’ll be here at eight or nine o’clock at night and she’ll be here with her dad shooting for an hour every night,” Layton said. “If you look at all the great players at Toledo, they’ve all put in extra time.”
Both Stanley’s season and basketball journey are not complete. She will play basketball at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma next season, but first, the Riverhawks will face Ilwaco in the opening round of the District 4 2B Tournament on Saturday, Feb. 7. Time and location will be announced at a later date.
Layton understands that the district is “wide open” and thinks his team can make a deep run toward a state tournament bid.
“There’s always that team that comes out of nowhere,” he said. “Our league is pretty tough. It’s the ‘Holy Trinity’ of basketball. If you rebound, you play defense and you don’t turn the ball over, you’re gonna be in a lot of games. We’ve got to get a little bit better defensively and get back to what we’re capable of, but we feel like we can play with anybody.”
