Thomasian and Finn earn all-league honors

Those numbers gave Thomasian a first-team all-league award and Finn received a second-team nod.

Sophomore post Bailey LeBreton had some votes but was edged out from second-team consideration.

“At our all-league coaches meeting, there was one thing that was for sure – the other coaches felt Jodi was a first teamer and Paulina had the best skill set of any player in our league,” TD coach Brian Stevens said.

In her junior year, where she was a second-team CRC winner, Thomasian kicked in 6.7 points, 4.6 rebounds, 1.2 steals and 1.3 assists in nine league contests, but with the departure of standouts Iliana Telles, Kailin Hoylman and Brooke McCall, she shouldered much of the scoring load from all around the court.

Thomasian scored 18 points on Jan. 19 against Hermiston and had a pair of 14-point totals and two 13-point outputs, the last one coming in a season-ending loss at Hood River Valley.

All told, the senior was TD’s leading scorer at 13.0 points per game and she was second with 131 rebounds (5.7) and 41 steals (1.95).

“This year, we opened up the floor for Jodi,” Stevens said. “My plan was for her to play all positions. I wanted the ball in her hands. I wanted her to have an opportunity to play basketball at the next level and the best way to do that was to get her out of the post and let her create and drive, while defending multiple positions. She did an incredible job readjusting to who she was in middle school and her freshman year.”

Coming off a banner 2016-2017 season, where she was the Big Sky Conference Player of the Year, Thomasian moved from the 1A classification to the 5A ranks and flourished.

On the season, Finn was second on the team in scoring at 12.85 points per game and she led with 133 rebounds (6.3), 75 steals (3.6), 53 assists (2.5) and 35 blocks (1.6) to garner second-team votes.

Finn wrapped up her high school basketball career with 99 varsity games played, 1,583 points, 707 rebounds, 490 steals, 261 assists, 239 blocks, chalking up a pair of second-team all-league awards, one first-team all-league bid, Most Valuable Player of the Big Sky Conference, seven triple doubles and the only quadruple double in the history of Oregon high school, college and professional basketball.

“Paulina had the biggest learning curve,” Stevens said. “Leaving her 1A district as the Most Valuable Player, she made the jump to 5A, which wasn’t easy, but she showed that she is definitely a 5A athlete. The first half of the season was a bit of a struggle on offense. Her defense and rebounding were solid. Once she became comfortable with the speed and strength of the game, her offense and our team’s offense began to flow.”

The Dalles went 7-16 on the season, 1-8 in league, and averaged 41.3 points a contest, a shade less than the 44.6 put up in 2016-2017.

The defense improved, however, as the Riverhawks allowed 45.8 points a clip, an improvement from 46.9.

“When I took over this team, I was told that not only would we not win, but that it would be difficult for us to even compete,” Stevens said. “We came within two points of moving on to a playoff game. We were one game short of what last year’s team accomplished and one game short of our team’s goal. I could not be prouder of this group. They never gave up. In the last two games versus Hermiston, we had opportunities to beat them in the final seconds and had a shot in the final minute to beat the league champions, Pendleton.”

LeBreton was third on the team in scoring and rebounding at 5.6 points per game and 122 total rebounds.

Molly Taylor was the team’s best on-ball defender all season, and she finished with 58 rebounds, 28 steals and 16 assists.

Jenna Miller finished fourth in rebounding with 83 and had 33 steals.

Lauryn Belanger came on strong in the second half of the season and pulled down 63 rebounds and was second on the team in blocks with 15.

Mercy I’aulualo was TD’s emotional leader all season, joining Grace Schatz and Monica DeLeon in pushing the team in every practice and game.

Kilee Hoylman averaged 4.3 points per game and was third on the team with 40 steals and second with 43 assists.

During the last five games of the season, she averaged eight points, 4.5 assists, 4.2 rebounds and three steals, while leading the team like a captain would.

“Kilee made the biggest jump of any player,” Stevens said. “Being a starting guard on a 5A varsity team as a sophomore is not easy. Her defense was aggressive from the first game. Her offensive skill set had not been developed, but she spent many extra hours in the gym every week working on her offensive skill set. She was a coach’s dream. All of the athletes worked incredibly hard in practice and some put in extra work and I appreciate all of the athletes for doing this, but Kilee simply took it to another level and it paid off.”

During the first half of the season, the Riverhawk players were dribbling off their feet, throwing the ball away without being pressured, and shooting 23 percent from the free throw line.

In the second half of the season, however, they displayed marked improvements in every area of the game, swelling to 68 percent on free throws, they passed the ball well under pressure, crossover dribbled by defenders, made post moves and every player took good-formed shots.

Stevens said he learned a lot about the 5A game, as he also moved up to the competition ladder like Finn, adding that instead of one or two good players, there were loaded rosters with six or seven athletes who can contribute.

Now, the biggest challenge will be to develop the elementary and middle school players.

This year, Stevens said he spent most of every practice teaching basic box-out fundamentals, along with defensive footwork and proper shooting form.

Any successful high school program in the United States has a middle school program that doesn’t focus on winning or losing, but building the fundamentals of the sport.

“I am going to make a concerted effort to get in at the middle school and have a large influence over the development of our athletes,” Stevens added. “Coach (Brad) Timmons has done a good job with continuing his education of the game and reaching out. I look forward to further building on that relationship.”