Toronto’s JJ Rebich passes to a teammate while being guarded by Madonna’s Rylee Birkhimer. - Andrew Grimm

WEIRTON — Madonna wouldn’t go away, but Toronto wouldn’t be denied.

In a battle that came down to the closing seconds Monday night, the Red Knights made key foul shots down the stretch and did just enough to fend off the host Blue Dons for a 56-52 victory inside the Bill Barrett Gymnasium.

Both teams made the same number of shots from two and three-point land, both had the same number of rebounds. The difference for Toronto, though, was it made four more shots from the line — two key ones in the final six seconds from Olivia Owings putting the margin to four and put things away.

“It was a battle,” Toronto head coach Rusty Hodgkiss said. “Olivia came through big. Ironically the play we drew up wasn’t supposed to go to her, but she did a nice job posting up, we got it to her and she got fouled. She’s probably our best shooter … she stepped up in a big spot.”

While Owings made the key shots late, Tatum Derrington (20 points, four assists, four rebounds) and Jayna Reeves (17 points, five assists, nine rebounds) led the way for Hodgkiss’ now 3-2 ball club.

For Madonna (2-2), 52 points for its offense was a strong showing, but it was a few key sequences on the defensive end of the floor that Dons coach Corey Wingett pointed to as where things went wrong.

“It all boils down to our defensive side,” Wingett said. “There are things we can control, we can control everything we do defensively, defense is about effort and focus. We had some moments where we lost that effort and focus on the defensive side. Offensively, anyone who’s followed us the last couple years knows 52 points is a pretty good night for us, but defensively there were some points where we struggled a little bit.

“We will get after it in practice and figure out what we need to do. The good news is these games that weren’t close (last year) are close, we’re fighting. We’re going to continue to get better and learn to win these close games.

“We didn’t give up, we gave everything we had at the end of the game … we need that effort we saw the last three minutes for the whole game. We’ll get there.”

Madonna got off to a flying start, opening a 9-1 lead from the get go, but Toronto rallied to tie the game at 12-12 after one. The second quarter was back-and-forth the whole way with neither side leading by more than three, Toronto edging out to the slimmest of leads at 28-27.

The Knights started the third quarter on an 8-1 run to lead by eight, but Madonna had an answer as Rylle Birkhimer knocked down one of her four triples sparking seven-straight by the Dons to get right back in it.

Reeves hit one of her three treys to help Toronto pull back ahead, but Birkhimer hit another one before the buzzer to make it a three-point game, 44-41, after three.

“I thought there in the third quarter we had a chance to push (the lead) to 10, 12, 14, but they weren’t having any of it,” Hodgkiss said. “I don’t know how many 3s they had, but it felt like a lot. They’re a very improved team from a year ago, give them a lot of credit. Coach Corey is doing a great job.”

Toronto held a five-point lead multiple times in the fourth, Birkhimer though pulled Madonna within two with a 3 with 10.8 seconds to go, but those were the last Madonna points as Owings made the key foul shots with 5.9 seconds to go.

The Dons were led by a double-double from Rosa Cody, who had 13 points, all in the first half, and 10 rebounds.

UP NEXT:

Toronto: Travels to Heartland Christian on Thursday.

Madonna: Takes a trip to Edison on Thursday.

Toronto 56, Madonna 52

T 12-16-16-12 – 56

M 12-15-14-11 – 52

TORONTO (3-2): Derrington 9 2-2 20; Reeves 6 2-4 17; Rebich 1 2-4 5; Owings 1 2-4 4; Dickinson 2 2-8 6; Yost 1 1-2 3; Sapp 0 1-2 1. TOTALS: 20, 4-12; 56.

MADONNA (2-2): Owens 2 5-8 9; Welsh 2 0-0 4; Cody 6 1-2 13; R. Birkhimer 7 1-2 19; Bartley 1 1-4 3; Ryan 1 0-0 2; Littleton 0 0-0 0; G. Birkhimer 0 0-0 0; Miller 0 0-0 0; Brady 1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 20, 8-16; 52.

3-POINT GOALS: Toronto 4 (Reeves 3, Rebich 1); Madonna 4 (R. Birkhimer 4). ASSISTS: Toronto 15 (Reeves 5); Madonna 16 (Bartley 6). REBOUNDS: Toronto 36 (Reeves 9); Madonna 36 (Cody 10).