Prep boys basketball: Toledo repeats as District 4 champs, topples Napavine in OT

CHEHALIS — For 36 breathless minutes the Class 2B District 4 title game felt like a heavyweight bout, and when the final bell sounded it was Toledo left standing, 60-55 in overtime, to capture a second consecutive championship Saturday night at W.F. West High School.

The Riverhawks (19-3) needed every scrap of resilience they could muster against a Napavine squad that refused to fold. Four ties and five lead changes kept the outcome in flux until the waning seconds of the extra period, when senior quarterback-turned-guard Eli Weeks hit classmate Adam Kruger on a football-style, over-the-shoulder inbounds pass and Kruger calmly sank two free throws to ice the game.

“Defense won it,” Kruger said after finishing with 11 points and 11 rebounds, one of three Toledo players to post a double-double. Weeks tallied a game-high 21 points and 12 boards, while C2BL Co-MVP Cooper Fallon shook off early foul trouble to grab 13 rebounds and score the go-ahead putback in overtime. Conner Hill, the sharp-shooting sophomore, provided the dagger with a corner three that stretched the lead to five in the extra frame.

Napavine (19-5) appeared poised to spoil the repeat bid when Eric Bullock—scoreless from deep until that point—nailed a corner triple with under a minute in regulation to push the Tigers ahead 51-46. Toledo answered on Trevin Gale’s triple, forced a turnover, and watched Cooper Fallon convert a chaotic, last-second layup to knot the score at 51 and send the game to overtime.

“So fun to coach and be a part of,” Riverhawks head coach Grady Fallon said, eyes still wet after cutting down the net. “They did a good job switching man to zone, so we drew up plays for both. I can’t wait to watch it back—it is such a blur.”

Layton Griffith paced Napavine with 17 points and eight rebounds, while Tyce Vigre added 15 and Cal Bullock 12. Yet a 21-rebound disparity ultimately undercut the Tigers’ efforts.

“We thought if we cleaned up the offensive rebounds and second-chance opportunities, it would have gone better,” first-year Napavine coach Kayden Kelly admitted.

Toledo becomes the first District 4 program to repeat since Kalama in 2021-22 and the first in the current league alignment to go back-to-back since Morton-White Pass in 2014-15. Both teams now await state seeding, confident their body of work merits top-eight consideration.

“We are in the conversation,” Coach Fallon said. “Play well at the right time, hopefully they are not star-struck. They are focused on getting it done.”

Toledo 60, Napavine 55 (OT)

Napavine (55) — Layton Griffith 17, Tyce Vigre 15, Cal Bullock 12, Hudson Chambers 6, Eric Bullock 5 Toledo (60) — Eli Weeks 21, Adam Kruger 11, Trevin Gale 9, Conner Hill 9, Cooper Fallon 8, Joaquin Acosta 2