LACEY — Chad Arko told the River Ridge Hawks before their game against North Thurston Wednesday night that his team had nothing to lose against the powerhouse Rams.
The league title already belonged to North Thurston, and seeding within the league was irrelevant for River Ridge, sitting in the No. 2 spot in the Puget Sound League-Nisqually.
Turned out, the Hawks had everything to gain.
North Thurston entered this week on a 47-game league winning streak dating back over three years, and River Ridge stormed into its gym and handed the Rams their second straight league loss in a 57-51 clash of PSL heavyweights. The Rams lost to Lakes 67-61 Monday night in a game that snapped the extensive win streak.
River Ridge hadn’t beaten North Thurston since May 7, 2021, in the COVID-19 spring season. Since then, the Rams had won 10 straight over the Hawks until Wednesday night.
“I feel like our girls are fearless going into the playoffs,” Arko said.
On a night where both student sections were packed into the bleachers and photographers lined the baseline on both ends of the court for North Thurston’s senior night, the Hawks earned as significant of a regular-season victory as they’ve earned in Arko’s tenure, which is now in its third year.
You could even call it a statement win, as senior guard Brandi Stanford described it.
“Everybody’s always looking at River Ridge as the underdogs,” she said after dropping 21 points against North Thurston. “Coming out with this win, it says that we’re still here, we’re still in it, and we’re looking to make a statement.”
The Hawks were confident in the locker room that the tides might turn, Stanford said, and they came out of the gates hot by scoring the first seven points of the night, including a 3-pointer from Mya Armstrong.
North Thurston woke up from its offensive slumber to start the game and pulled in front with a 10-2 run, with Shayla Cordis securing an and-one layup to tie the game and Londyn Henderson hitting a 3-pointer to take the lead.
Down 14-11 at the end of the first, the Hawks turned to Stanford and Armstrong to take over. Stanford pulled down a rebound, evaded a defender by dribbling behind her back, and soared to the cup for a go-ahead layup midway through the second quarter.
Armstrong then cashed back-to-back triples, but Shayla Cordis closed out the first half with a layup in the final 10 seconds to give North Thurston a 30-27 halftime lead. Stanford and Armstrong combined to score 14 of River Ridge’s 16 points in the second quarter, while Cordis had 13 points at the half.
Sierra Cordis provided a jolt of energy for the Rams early in the third, draining an NBA-range 3-pointer to beat the shot-clock buzzer on their first possession of the half.
But North Thurston’s six-point lead, its biggest of the night up to that point, didn’t last as Keke Bol and Tianna Jordan-Moody began to impose their will down low, scoring in the paint and pulling down defensive rebounds.
“We really struggle at getting rebounds a lot of times. But we limited [North Thurston] to one shot, which we take a lot of pride in,” Arko said. “Keke and Tianna, they were just strong down there.”
River Ridge landed several haymakers early in the fourth against the juggernaut Rams. Bol scored the first points of the frame with a layup, and Stanford knocked down a pair at the charity stripe before drawing a charge call on Shayla Cordis to amp up the Hawks crowd.
Paige Arko drilled a 3-pointer that lifted the Hawks to their biggest lead of the night at 45-37 and forced a Rams timeout with 5:45 remaining. The margin then grew to as large as 12, but the Rams clawed back with a 9-1 run in less than two minutes to draw within four points with a minute left.
A pair of missed free throws by Jordan-Moody gave North Thurston life, but Shayla Cordis missed a layup and had a 3-pointer blocked by Armstrong. River Ridge stole the ball away in the final seconds, and as the buzzer rang, the Hawks student section rushed the North Thurston court in celebration.
In the locker room, the Hawks celebrated so loudly that their cheers could be heard from outside the closed doors of the hallway leading toward the locker rooms.
“I told the girls [before the game] to play like it’s your last game. Everybody had energy. We just played hard,” Chad Arko said.
Stanford led the Hawks with 21 points, and Armstrong provided a quality performance with 14. Bol added 10, and Jordan-Moody scored six.
River Ridge won 20 games a season ago and qualified for state for the first time in nine years. Entering the season, Arko admitted that the pressure of being one of the anticipated top teams got to them, but the Hawks have been playing free of pressure as of late.
“That’s the way we played last year,” Arko said of Wednesday’s game. “We lost a little bit of that edge this year, but I think we’re getting it back. It’s a heck of a time to get it back.”
North Thurston, meanwhile, is hoping to regain its edge in the postseason, finishing the regular season on a two-game skid with both losses coming at home. But coach Cesar Delira-Ruiz is confident that the right people are in the building to turn the season back around. After all, the Rams, albeit with some different pieces, were a third-place state finisher last winter at the Tacoma Dome.
“We’ve got to find our energy again,” he said. “Skill-wise, we’ve got it. Everything is there. We’ve just got to come together as a team again and find that confidence again. It’s good to have this because it humbles us and brings us back together again. It’s a new season. We’ve got to get back in the lab.”
North Thurston was led by Shayla Cordis, who scored 28 points in her final home regular season game as a Ram. Sierra Cordis tallied 14.
Delira-Ruiz described Shayla Cordis, a Northern Arizona University basketball signee, as a role model who has given her teammates opportunities to shine while shining in her own right as one of the best players in the state.
“It’s always great to have a player that’s at that skill level to take a team and push it forward,” he said.
The Rams also celebrated senior Rayonna Eskeets, who moved into the starting lineup for her final home game.
“Ray’s been with us for four years, and she’s a true Lady Ram. She’s been loyal and dedicated, and it was good to see her get that spot,” Delira-Ruiz said of Eskeets.
North Thurston (16-5, 14-2 PSL) will now face the top-seeded Gig Harbor from the Narrows division in the PSL Tournament Saturday, Feb. 7 at the University of Puget Sound.
River Ridge (13-8, 12-4 PSL) will wait to find out its seeding for the District 3 3A Tournament, which is set to begin Feb. 13.
