WEIRTON — The roller coaster ride came to a stop with Toronto on top.

The Toronto girls’ basketball team built a double-digit advantage against Madonna in the first half and led by 14 at halftime, only to see the Blue Dons storm back in the second half and take a five-point lead with 3:56 left to play. The Red Knights, however, responded in a big way as the girls from the Jefferson County tallied the next 14 points en route to a 65-58 victory Tuesday night on Joanna Bernabei-McNamee Court inside the Bill Barrett Gymnasium.

“We played a really good first half,” Toronto (6-11) head coach Rusty Hodgkiss said. “We know it is in there. We know we are capable of doing it. I don’t know if we get ground down or what, but we played really well for a little while.”

After falling behind by five in the fourth, the girls in red closed the gap to two on a pair of free throws with 3:48 remaining before retaking the lead for good on a 3-pointer by Haley Bodnar with 2:55 left on the clock. Bodnar previously hit a pair of foul shots with 3:34 to play to pull her team to within one.

A basket saw the visitors go up by four before a game-clinching 3-poiner by Lily Sapp gave the girls from Jefferson County a 63-56 advantage with 50.6 seconds still showing on the scoreboard clock.

“Hayley is probably our best 3-pointer shooter percentage-wise,” Hodgkiss said. “She did a fantastic job of shooting the ball tonight. She made 3s. She went 7-of-10 from the foul line. That was big for a freshman – she’s not a freshman anymore, she has played 17 varsity games. Lily Sapp, that was not a 3 I wanted to see go up, but she stepped up with confidence and drilled it. It was a huge shot. Both shots were huge shots when they happened.”

Toronto then went 1-of-2 from the line on back-to-back trips to go up nine before the hosts capped the scoring in the game with the last basket of the night.

“We switched defenses, and we were able to get back out in transition,” Hodgkiss said about what led to his team’s game-changing run in the fourth. “I hope 24 (Josey Dickinson) had an aha moment. She is hard to guard. She can be really hard to guard. I thought she took control of the game late.”

Jayna Reeves recorded a game-high 23 points to lead the way offensively for Toronto, Dickinson collected 16 and Bodnar delivered 15.

Adaleynne Welsh scored a team-high 16 points to lead Madonna (3-10), Taylor Birkhimer tallied 12 and Sophia Brady and Sophia Quattrochi both contributed eight with a pair of 3-pointers.

The Red Knights led 39-24 at halftime before the Blue Dons battled back and scored 23 of the first 27 points of the third as the the girls from Hancock County closed to within 43-41 in the third on a 3-pointer by Brady.

“We kind of lost our minds,” Hodgkiss said about what led to Madonna’s big comeback. “I told the girls at halftime I know a lot about Weirton Madonna, and they are not going to quit. I told them they were going to give us a big shot, and how we handled it was going to be the story of the game. We did not handle it well. We took terrible shots. We threw the ball away. We were playing too fast. We rushed shots. Give Madonna credit, they knocked down some shots, and we did not.”

Hodgkiss was an assistant under head coach Don Ogden when Madonna made it to the state tournament during the 2015-16 season.

After Brady’s 3, Toronto scored the final four points of the quarter to take a 47-41 advantage entering the fourth.

“Our third quarter is usually our best quarter and the fourth quarter is usually our worst,” Hodgkiss said. “That’s probably from fatigue. We usually have a strong third quarter coming out of halftime, but we did not today. It was the complete opposite. We lost our minds. We had a set called, and we had not run it before I called timeout. I had a set called coming out of halftime, and we did not run it. I don’t think we ran it after I called a timeout we were so agitated.”

The victors like to play fast, but sometimes they can play too fast and that was the case at times during the second half.

“It usually is playing out of control, rushing shots and instead of trying to make the smart pass and the easy pass, we try to make it onto SportsCenter’s Top 10 and we throw it up on the stage,” Hodgkiss said about line between playing fast and too fast. “It is hard to describe, but you know it when you see it.”

Another 3-pointer by the girls in the white pulled them to within 49-48 before they took the lead on a basket with six minutes remaining in the game. Reeves countered with a basket for Toronto before Madonna tied the score with a foul shot before hitting a 3 and making two more shots from the charity stripe to go up by five only to see the Red Knights fought back and win the game.

“They made a bunch of shots,” Hodgkiss said. “They played fantastic defense. They rebounded. They did everything right. What they did in the third quarter was what we did in the first half, and that is a credit to Nick and his staff. They could have packed it in. It’s late in the season and they could have packed it in, but instead they came out and gave us a big swing.”

Toronto got off to a good start as it led 21-11 at the end of the first. Olivia Owings hit a 3 in the second to help the Red Knights stay in control.

The win enabled Toronto to sweep the seasons series from Madonna. The Red Knights rallied to defeat the Blue Dons, 52-51.

“They were two good games,” Hodgkiss said. “I don’t know what it is, but Madonna has a great shooting percentage against us.”

The Red Knights won the game on a 3-pointer by Jayna Reeves with under 10 seconds left to play Dec. 8 inside the George J. Kunzler Memorial Gymnasium.

“Jayna hit the shot, but Josey made the play,” Hodgkiss said. “She drove the lane, and kicked the ball out to her.”

Toronto is scheduled to play Wellsville tonight at home on Senior Night.

“It’s another back-to-back situation,” Hodgkiss said. “We will see how it goes. It did not go well last week.”

Madonna is slated to play Thursday against Clay-Battelle.

Toronto 65, Madonna 58

Toronto 21 18 8 18 – 65

Madonna 11 13 23 17 – 58

TORONTO (6-11): Sapp 1 1-6 4, Piatt 0 0-0 0, Reeves 9 4-7 23, Bodnar 3 7-10 15, Owings 3 0-0 7, Dickinson 6 4-4 16. TOTALS: 22 16-27 65.

MADONNA (3-10): Brady 3 0-0 8, G. Birkhimer 1 0-0 2, B. Birkhimer 1 0-0 2, Littleton 3 0-0 6, Quattrochi 3 0-0 8, Welsh 6 4-4 16, T. Birkhimer 3 5-9 12, Ryan 1 0-2 2, Cody 1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 22 9-15 58.

3-POINTERS: Toronto 5 (Bodnar 2, Sapp, Reeves, Owings); Madonna 5 (Brady 2, Quattrochi 2, T. Birkhimer)