Prep Girls Basketball Roundup — Scores and Reports from The Blast Zone
Stepping Up — Local teams ride defense to big wins as seasons get started
Jordan Nailon / blastzonenews@gmail.com
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Toledo heats up, blows out Rochester on opening night
If at first the rims are tight, keep firing away.
That’s the sort of advice that the Toledo girls basketball team is liable to give you after a 54-12 win over 2A Rochester on opening night at home in Murdock Gymnasium.
Ask the Riverhawks coach, though, and he’d probably add in a caveat or two. For starters, it always helps to play mean defense, especially when the iron is unkind.
By the end of their first game of the season the Riverhawks had figured out both ends of that equation, with Ellie Fallon leading the way by scoring a game-high 22 points.
It was an encouraging performance after an uneven outing during a preseason jamboree at Lower Columbia College.
“I was really pleased with how we played and I thought our intensity was good,” Toledo coach Randy Wood told The Chronicle. “There was some sloppiness at times, but overall, pretty happy.”
The Riverhawks allowed no more than four points in any quarter. Lexi Dupont led the Warriors with eight points in the loss.
But it was the late show with Ellie Fallon that put smiles on the faces of the hometown crowd. The freshman, playing her second year of varsity basketball, was the only Riverhawk to make more than four shots on the night, and she did it in style, connecting on five long range attempts alone.
“(Fallon) had some big buckets,” Wood told The Chronicle. “She gets a lot of deflections and steals. She’s been working on her game this summer and it is showing.”
After needing nearly three minutes for either team to score a field goal, the hosts managed to run out to an 18-2 lead by the end of the first quarter. That windfall of offense was powered by a full court press that helped create 15 turnovers in the first quarter alone.
By the end of the contest the Warriors had coughed the ball up 25 times, and Toledo was busy converting the turnovers into transition buckets like they were making milk into cheese.
“I was really glad to see Zaya Norberg come off the bench with five points and several good passes on fast breaks,” Wood told Blast Zone Media.
Ryah Stanley added nine points and five blocks for Toledo, while Hope Gould led the Riverhawks with six rebounds. Kailea Lairson chipped in six points for the Cheese Town hoopers
Toledo (1-0) will play at Raymond-South Bend on Monday night.
Rochester will play at Aberdeen on Saturday afternoon.
Naselle gets nasty on ‘D’ to top Tenino
The Comets allowed just eight points in the first half, including only a single point in the first quarter, on the way to a 57-37 win over 1A Tenino to open the new season at home, Thursday night.
“The girls came out on fire tonight. Our press early on was spot on,” Naselle coach Marie Green said. “We went on an early 10-0 run and never fully looked back. Brooke (Davis) and Mylee (Dunagan) were all over the place on defense. In the first half alone we had 13 steals.
Aubrey Katyryniuk led Naselle with a game-high 25 points and the Comets led 32-8 at the intermission. Katyryniuk filled out the stat sheet with six steals, four assists and two rebounds.
Brooke Davis and Brianna Johnson each added 10 points in the win. Johnson posted six steals with two assists and two rebounds. Meanwhile Davis added a pair of steals and assists to go with three rebounds even as she battled foul trouble and was forced to sit for roughly two quarters.
Dunagan finished the night with six points, nine rebounds, six steals, and five assists.
“The team came out without missing a beat and we just sort of picked up where we left off,” Green noted.
Chloe Grayless led Tenino with 11 points. No other Beaver reached double digits.
Alicia Knight added six points to go with 10 rebounds and one steal for the Comets as the hosts kept the pressure on in their season-opener.
“Alicia was a big help on defense tonight and cleaning up the boards,” Green said.
Naselle (1-0) will host Ilwaco (0-1) on Monday at 7 p.m.
Mules stuck in the stall at Morton-White Pass
The Wahkiakum girls basketball suffered through a false start in Morton, Thursday, falling 40-29 to Morton-White Pass in a non-league contest between former Central 2B League foes.
“It was just a tough game. We never really got over the jitters,” Wahkiakum coach Ross Lofstrom said.
The Mules were only able to net more than seven points in one quarter, but trailed just 17-13 at the half thanks to a consistent defensive effort.
Keira Miller led the T-Wolves offense with 12 points. Malia Armstrong added nine points for the hosts, while Madyson Bryant and Ryelin Wiedenmann scored six points each.
Bailey McKinley led the Mules with nine points. Jessie LeFever added six points in the loss and Brienna Cothren posted five points.
“We kept it close in the first half but lost pace in the second,” Lofstrom noted. “Have to have a short memory though, because we play again tonight.”
Wahkiakum (0-1) will host Winlock (0-1) on Friday night at 7 p.m.
Morton-White Pass (1-0) will play another former C2BL foe on Monday when it heads to Kalama.
Rainier defense rebuffs Portland Adventist
The Columbians decided they didn’t want to give an inch to Portland Adventist, Thursday, and their defense delivered by shutting out the visitors in the first quarter and allowing just two points in the first half.
Destiny McKay was central to that effort with five steals and two assists to go with her three points for Rainier in a 56-24 non-league victory.
It was Lilli Dean who led the Columbian’s offense, again, with a game-high 26 points to pair with six steals, two blocks and two assists.
The victory improved the hosts to 2-0 after a win over Catlin Gabel on opening night less than 24-hours earlier.
Rainier led 26-2 at the intermission and continued to plug away in the second half, even if the Portland Adventist offense was able to find a few cracks in the foundation once the Columbians emptied their bench.
Mia Patchin led the visitors with nine points. Portland Adventist scored 13 of its points in the fourth quarter.
The Columbians were buoyed by Taylor Johns who notched eight points, 10 rebounds, four steals and three assists. Presley Scott added nine points in the win, while Cordi Biddix chipped in four points, two rebounds and two assists.
Rainier (2-0) will play at Elmira on Tuesday night.