The outlook was — for at least a few minutes — grim for the Vikings on Saturday.
With 7.5 seconds left in the first half of their 1B state basketball playoff opener, Mossyrock’s Payton Torrey hit the deck, clutching her leg.
The No. 2-seeded Vikings had just given up a bucket to trail No. 7 Oakesdale 21-20 after something of a slow start. Losing their three-time 1B Columbia Valley League MVP was a bad omen at best.
Torrey, though, had other plans. Her return helped spark Mossyrock to a 52-48 win — and automatic entry into the double-elimination portion of the state tournament next week in Spokane.
“All the girls stepped up. It was a great team effort,” Torrey, who suffered a sprained ankle, said. “We were not letting this game go because of some injury.”
Caelyn Marshall led the Vikings with 20 points and nine rebounds, and Mossyrock went on a 7-0 run once Torrey returned with 4:30 left in the third quarter. The senior guard, a step slower than she had been in the first half, snagged a steal and hit Hailey Brooks for a fastbreak layup to cap the run and draw a raucous applause from the crowd.
“Just having her leadership on the court is a game changer,” Mossyrock coach Autumn Moorcroft said. “Even if she’s not scoring, she’s just helping everybody and directing out there.”
It was a gutsy return, the coach added.
“As she was sitting on the court, laying there, she was like, ‘Uh, can I just tape it up?’” Moorcroft noted. “That kid has some grit and a lot of heart. I don’t know how she played on that in that second half.”
Mossyrock stretched its lead to double figures in the fourth quarter, then held off a late Oakesdale rally to seal the win.
The Nighthawks, however, trimmed the lead to 50-48 with 1:30 left to play on a steal and layup from Marilla Hockett. Mossyrock held on and absorbed fouls until they hit the bonus a minute later, with Marshall and Torrey both hitting the front end of 1-and-1 situations to keep the lead safe.
It was a rare close game for Mossyrock, which won all of its league games by at least 20 points.
“Just not having a ton of experience with those close games kinda got us a little bit, but we pulled through,” Moorcroft said.
Torrey finished with 13 points and eight boards for the Vikings, while younger sister McKenna Torrey added nine points. The win was extra sweet given that the Vikings had lost to Oakesdale in the last two state volleyball championship matches.
That was a point of conversation leading up to Saturday’s game, Torrey noted.
“We were like, ‘They got us twice for volleyball,’” she said. “We’re getting them for basketball.”
Mossyrock now advances to Spokane to face either Yakama Tribal School or Waterville-Mansfield at 2 p.m. on Thursday.
Jessie Reed scored 20 points with 12 boards for Oakesdale (20-4), which faces Wellpinit on Wednesday in a loser-out game at 10:30 a.m.
