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Toutle hangs tough

St. John-Endicott's Phillip Luft, center, works against Toutle Lake's Dustin Hoppe, left, and Dustin Elam. (Kathryn Stevens / The Spokesman-Review)
J.D. Larson Staff writer
St. John-Endicott's Phillip Luft, center, works against Toutle Lake's Dustin Hoppe, left, and Dustin Elam. (Kathryn Stevens / The Spokesman-Review)

There’s a theory that fifth place might be the second-toughest trophy to get besides first, because it takes winning three straight loser-out games while dealing with the disappointment of that first-round loss.

Toutle Lake’s boys persevered through that, and a late St. John-Endicott run, for a fifth-place finish, beating the Eagles 58-54 at the Arena.

They might have been the team most disappointed with their draw, as winning the Southwest District title only earned them a 9 a.m. game with State B finalist Republic, which defeated the Ducks 66-56.

“We beat Willapa Valley (in districts), and obviously they’re really tough, so we had hopes,” said Ducks senior guard, Ryan Hoff, who had 18 points and 14 rebounds against SJE, giving him 75 points (18.8 per game) in the tournament and 113 in all-time tourneys.

“Then we get the 9 o’clock game and we lose that, so we’ve just got to sit around all day and then (the loss) just sits there, but this team’s just great.”

TL (24-4) got a huge first quarter against the Eagles (23-5), breaking out to a 19-4 lead behind two 3-pointers and eight points from sophomore guard Brandon Bartlett.

SJE played catch-up the rest of the game, but Phillip Luft’s 3-pointer pulled the Eagles within two with 1:08 left, capping a 24-12 SJE run.

That was the Eagles’ last basket, as two huge offensive rebounds by Dustin Hoppe kept the ball in the Ducks’ possession, rescuing a missed breakaway layin and a pair of missed free throws.

Hoff finally hit 1 of 2 free throws. After the Eagles missed a 3-pointer, Dustin Elam hit 1 of 2 free throws to finish it.

“It’s nice, you know, we had some pretty lofty expectations,” Ducks head coach Eric Swanson said after TL’s best finish since back-to-back second-place finishes in 1999 and 2000 at the State 1A tournament.

“We wanted to come here and play four days, and we accomplished that, so it’s a good season.”

SJE had to fight through foul trouble, as the Eagles were whistled for 29 fouls and had one starter foul out in the third quarter and another early in the fourth. Toutle Lake shot 39 free throws, converting 24.

Justin Taylor, playing all week with the flu, had 15 points and 12 rebounds for the eighth-place Eagles. Luft led SJE with 17 points.