TOLEDO — The Toledo boys basketball team hung around the defending district champions, and even cut the deficit to three in the third quarter, but Kalama proved to be too much in a 73-58 defeat Wednesday night.
The Riverhawks (9-3, 0-2 C2BL) got 23 points, 12 rebounds, and eight assists from junior guard Jake Cournyer, but after a barrage of Riverhawk threes cut the lead to just three, the Chinooks pulled away thanks to Jack Doerty’s 26 points and Jackson Esary’s 19. Doerty made six threes for the Chinooks.
“He came up clutch every time,” Riverhawks coach Grady Fallon said of Doerty. “Every time we made a run, he came up big.”
The Chinooks also boasted a big free throw advantage, getting to the line over 40 times while the Riverhawks couldn’t crack 20 free throw attempts.
A strong third quarter, that saw four threes go down for Toledo, wasn’t enough to put the Riverhawks over the top in their second consecutive league loss after dropping a three-point heartbreaker to Toutle Lake earlier this week.
“You have to scrap and fight and battle,” Fallon said. “It just slipped through our fingers tonight.”
The Riverhawks will look to pick up their first league victory of the season on Friday against Onalaska, which is also looking for its first league win. After that, Toledo will play a make-up contest against Winlock on Saturday, also at home.
