2B Prep Girls Basketball: Toutle Lake slips by Toledo in regular season finale

Grand Occassion — Lainey Dean passes 1K career points in Fighting Ducks’ 37-27 win

Toutle Lake junior Lainey Dean poses with a commemorative basketball after surpassing 1,000 career points in a 37-27 win over Toledo, Tuesday, Feb. 4, at Toutle. — Jordan Nailon / Blast Zone Media

Jordan Nailon / blastzonenews@gmail.com

TOUTLE — On a night where Toutle Lake’s Lainey Dean stole the show by scoring her 1,000 career point, it was actually the defense on both ends of the court that defined the evening in East Cowlitz County.

Entering the final day of the regular season there was a pileup in the middle of the Central 2B League girls basketball standings. Just one game separated Toutle Lake and Toledo, as well as Mossyrock, Onalaska and Morton-White Pass with just one game left to play. That meant that whatever happened Tuesday night would sort out who finished eighth and who finished fourth, and who took the spots in between as teams jockeyed for playoff positioning.

The Toutle Lake and Toledo girls basketball teams tip-off their regular season finale, Tuesday, Feb. 4, in Toutle. The Fighting Ducks defended their home court well in a 37-27 win. — Jordan Nailon / Blast Zone Media

No pressure.

And after 32 minutes of hound dog defense from the backcountry cousins, it was Toutle Lake that came out on top 37-27 over their C2BL foes from Toledo.

The Fighting Ducks had home court advantage, and have been ranked as high as No. 1 in the WIAA RPI rankings this season, so the math on paper appeared to make them sizable favorites before tipoff. But then the Ducks came out and were held scoreless over the first several minutes of action, and even when they did rip the net it was with a solitary free throw.

After six and a half minutes Toutle Lake still had just one measly point, and all the while the visiting Riverhawks were beginning to build up confidence that they might be able to pull off the upset and abscond with a victory back over over the river and through the woods of the Toledo cutoff.

But the Ducks’ confidence never wavered. They knew they just needed to settle down, preferably sooner than later.

“I feel like we weren't focusing on making our shots. They were a little rushed, a little off balance when we shot,” Lainey Dean said. “We just needed to slow things down a little bit and get into the flow.”