COOS BAY -- It took top-seeded Westside Christian only 4:38 to turn an Oregon Episcopal School rout into an edge-of-your-seat thriller Friday afternoon in a boys semifinal game at the OSAA / OnPoint Community Credit Union 3A Basketball State Championships.
It took another 11 minutes, capped by free throws from Kaylen Crites and Roahn Reid and a bucket by Jack Leland; to complete the improbable comeback in a 59-54 win that sent the Eagles to the state championship game for the third straight season.
“We had a little adversity the first half, to say the least, but the boys battled through,” said Westside head coach David Henry. “We believed.”
Westside will meet Pleasant Hill tomorrow night for the title, after the Billies also rallied from a double-digit deficit to defeat Valley Catholic.
This game, between Lewis & Clark League rivals that had split two regular-season meetings this year, was absolutely a tale of two halves.
The first belonged to OES, the tournament’s No. 5 seed. The Aardvarks (19-9) could do no wrong. They shot over 60 percent from the field, 60 percent from beyond the arc and had 10 assisted baskets in building a 40-25 lead..
Senior swingman Joe Schwalbach scored 12 first-quarter points, which trailed 7-4, before finishing the first eight minutes on an 18-4 run, including four consecutive three pointers to close the quarter, the last of which was a bomb from midcourt by Schwalbach that swished through at the buzzer.
A wing three from Max Holzman midway through the second quarter extended OES’ advantage to 18, 30-12. The Varks’ aggressive play, however, resulted in foul accumulation and put Westside in the bonus for most of the last five minutes before halftime. That helped Westside Christian stay alive. Though the Eagles (24-3) shot just 39 percent in the first half with only five assisted field goals, they scored 10 of their 14 second-quarter points from the charity stripe to stay within reach heading to the locker room.
Henry looked into his kids’ eyes at halftime and asked them to “trust.” Trust the preparation. Trust the training.
“Do what we know how to do,” he said. “Remember our assignments and execute and just trust.”
The comeback began when Reid assisted Jona Lee’s corner three to get OES’ lead below the halftime deficit. Lee scored again on another Reid assist and then Leland dished to Reid for a lefty finish. The lead was down to 10, 42-32, and more than five minutes remained on the third quarter clock.
While there was a lid on Oregon Episcopal’s basket, Westside Christian could do no wrong. Point guard Cole Chiong, the quickest player on the court, was a huge catalyst for the Eagles, as was Kyler Crites, who played only three minutes in the first half due to foul trouble. Crites’ wing three cut OES’ lead to single digits. Chiong’s layup reduced the lead further, to just three at 42-39.
The player of the game for Westside Christian, undoubtedly, was Reid. After a quiet day in Thursday’s quarterfinal win over Banks, the senior scored nine points and dished out three assists in the third quarter. His corner three tied the game at 42-all, capping a scintillating 17-0 run. And his free throws with 1:12 remaining in the third gave the Eagles their first lead since 7-6 in the first quarter.
It can be challenging for a team that rallies from such a large deficit to maintain the intensity once it has come all the way back. That was not a problem for Westside.
The complication, however, was that OES also had fight left in it. After trailing by two to start the fourth, the Aardvarks drew even on a bucket by Kais Elabdeia and thrice regained the lead, first on a Schwalbach free throw, second on a Holzman three pointer and the third on Schwalbach’s knifing lay in that made the score 54-52 Varks with 3:15 remaining.
Thirty seconds later, Crites made the play of the game for Westside Christian. An OES player got the ball in transition and had a clear lane to score an uncontested basket, which would have doubled the Aardvarks’ lead, but he hesitated long enough for Crites to recover and make a spectacular block.
OES would not score again.
Westside pulled within one on a Crites free throw, then went ahead on two charity tosses from Reid with 1:22 remaining. OES missed two shots and turned the ball over once in the last 82 seconds, while Reid was feeding Leland for the bunny that extended the Eagles’ lead to three. He also sank the final two free throws with six seconds remaining to make the lead insurmountable and send Westside back to the title tilt.
The statistics bore witness to the incredible half that Westside played. The Eagles shot 52 percent over the second 16 minutes, to just 26 percent for OES. And Westside assisted on 10 field goals. OES had just five field goals in the second half, none of them assisted.
Reid’s final line showed him with a game-high 23 points and five assists. He was 10-of-12 from the free throw line. Chiong added 14 points, 10 rebounds and four assists and was magical. Lee had nine, Crites seven and Leland six to complete the scoring.
Schwalbach scored 22 to lead Oregon Episcopal School. Holzman added 13 points, five assists and five steals. Elabdeia chipped in with nine.
In the other boys’ semifinal
No. 2 Pleasant Hill 46, No. 3 Valley Catholic 42
Pleasant Hill rallied from a 23-10 deficit early in the second quarter to edge Valley Catholic for a spot in the championship game for the first time since last winning in 1999.
Gavin Inglish had a monster game for the Billies. The senior scored a game-high 23 points – half of his team’s total – but how and when he scored them were just as important. Inglish scored five points early, and added an assist, as Pleasant Hill assumed a 10-9 first quarter lead. He had a conventional three-point play in the second quarter that snapped Valley Catholic’s impressive 14-0 run. He drained a three pointer from the top of the key to start the fourth quarter, which gave the Billies their first lead since 10-9. His rebound and stick back, plus the ensuing free throw, tied the game at 40-40 after Pleasant Hill had ceded the lead back to Valley Catholic. And his driving lefty layup put the Billies up for good with 3:09 remaining.
Not that Inglish, who also had a team-high eight rebounds, was the only hero for Pleasant Hill. Landen Melvin made two circus threes. And Jacob Neely had eight rebounds himself.
Then there was Riley Smith. Smith, the senior big man, had already posted six points and seven boards when he was deliberately fouled with 22 seconds remaining and Pleasant Hill up by one.
He made both free throws, although he might have had too much adrenaline on the second , because it banked in off the glass.
Smith admitted that he did not call “bank” on that last charity toss.
“I didn’t mean to but it worked out,” he said. “I did it for my community and my team.”
Jackson Farris scored eight first-quarter points for Valley Catholic. His 10-footer with 2:20 remaining in the first quarter started the Valiants’ 14-0 run that lasted the better part of seven minutes. Point guard Zach Pippin was amazing during that stretch, both scoring and dishing, and did the bulk of the ball handling under extreme pressure most of the game with zero turnovers.
Once Pleasant Hill (26-3) started to believe that a comeback was possible, Valley Catholic found itself unable to meet the challenge head on. The Valiants scored just 16 points in the second half, just six in the fourth quarter, when they shot just 23 percent from the field.
Farris finished with 12 points for Valley Catholic (20-8) in the loss. Pippin added 10 points and six assists. Luke Jarussi, one of the Valiants’ best players, logged 25 minutes of game time, but managed to get off just three shots, making two. Justin Han also shot just three times.
Inglish said that this wasn’t the first time this season that Pleasant Hill, led by first-year head coach Luke Jackson, an Oregon schoolboy legend; has come from behind to win a game.
“All year we’ve been in that situation down several points in the third quarter,” he explained. “Something Coach Luke instills in us is work hard and to never give up. Especially this year. We’re such a tight group on and off the court. We trusted each other we believed in each other. We knew we could come back from any deficit.”
In the girls semifinals:
No. 1 Amity 52, No. 5 Jefferson 43:
The top-ranked and unbeaten Warriors advanced to the championship game for the second straight year, holding off a comeback by their league rivals in the fourth quarter.
Amity will face Banks in the final after the Braves edged Vale in the second semifinal.
“This has been our goal,” Amity senior Mya Haarsma said. “We’ve been taking it one game, one possession at a time.”
Senior teammate Saralynn Grove added that getting another shot at the school’s first girls basketball title is exciting.
“We’ve been shooting for that all year,” she said.
Amity scored the first seven points and led 17-3 through one quarter and by as many as 19 in the second half.
“The beginning of the game, our energy was huge,” Haarsma said. “We were ready to play.”
But Jefferson kept battling, even after missing every shot from the floor in the first quarter, and pulled within seven points on a free throw by Gretchen Orton with 1:38 to go in the game.
That turned out to be the final point for the Lions. Amity ran the clock down and Adie Nisly grabbed an offensive rebound on a missed shot with just over a minute to go. Both Eliza Nisly and Adie Nisly added a free throw for the final margin.
The Amity players were not surprised Jefferson made a run, having already beaten the Lions three times.
“You know them; you know what they’re capable of,” Haarsma said. “You can’t relax.”
Amity had balanced scoring in the win, with Grove, Alyssa McMullen and Haley Miersma scoring 10 points each and Eliza Nisly adding nine.
Orton had 26 points and 12 rebounds for Jefferson.
No. 2 Banks 33, No. 3 Vale 30
The Braves won a defensive battle to reach the championship game.
Vale erased a seven-point Banks lead in the final 3:30. Claire Johnson hit a jumper to tie the game and added a free throw on the next possession to put Vale in front with just under a minute to go. But Nylah Vanthom of Banks rebounded her own miss and was fouled with 39.5 seconds to go. She added two more free throws after a Vale miss and the Braves celebrated when a final 3-point attempt by the Vikings rimmed out.
“I’m just so happy to be in this moment,” Vanthom said. “Our team worked so hard to be here.”
Banks shot just 24 percent for the game, but that was better than Vale, which at one point went a quarter and a half without making a field goal and finished at just 22 percent.
“I don’t think a whole lot of people in the state thought we were going to win that game,” Banks coach Nick Rizzo said. “These kids have a lot of fight in them. We knew it was going to be an absolute dogfight.”
Rizzo wasn’t surprised by the low scoring, given how well both teams defend, and said his team just had to find a way to make a few plays. Vanthom came up big at the right time with the late free throws.
“It’s scary,” she said of shooting when the game is on the line. “You can’t overthink it. You just have to be confident it’s going in.”
Vanthom scored a game-high 19 points, including hitting 11 of 13 free throws. As a team, Banks went 19-for-21 from the line.
Brynlee Hartley led Vale with 10 points and Kesley Stepleton added 12 rebounds. The Vikings lost for the first time this season to a 3A school and were denied a spot in the championship game in dramatic fashion for the second straight year. They lost in the semifinals last year by one point to eventual champion Corbett.
Boys consolation semis
De La Salle North Catholic 59, Banks 48
Josh Hickox drained four first-quarter three-point shots for De La Salle North Catholic, which bolted to a 16-7 lead after one and was never threatened thereafter.
Hickox finished with a game-high 28 points, including 6-for-10 from beyond the arc, for the Knights, who extended their advantage to 33-16 at the break. Jaylen Hill also played big for the Knights for the second game in a row. The 6-4 senior forward finished with 16 points and 20 rebounds.
Noel Mayo, Jarrett Martin and Brayden Exline teamed for 37 points in the loss for Banks, which won the second half, 32-26, but never cut the Knight lead to single digits.
Cascade Christian 74, Creswell 60
Cascade Christian outscored Creswell, 20-8, in the third quarter to break open a close game. The three-time defending champion Challengers, who lost yesterday in the quarterfinals to Valley Catholic, will not play for the title on Saturday, but they will play for a trophy.
Jaren Fronckowiak hit two triples in the pivotal quarter and added two assists as Cascade Christian turned a 41-38 halftime lead into an imposing 61-46 bulge with one quarter to play. Six Challengers scored in the frame, including Hudson Gotzman and Andy Alvarez, who combined for eight off the bench.
Tyler Whitson scored the first points of the fourth quarter on a fast break lay-in for Creswell to get the Raiders within 13, but that’s as close as they would get. Cascade Christian extended its lead to 18, 70-52, on a Fronckowiak layup with 2:50 remaining and coasted the rest of the way.
Fronckowiak led Cascade Christian with 21 points, including five three-pointers; plus six assists. The Challengers, who shot 52 percent for the game, also put Cade Goldade (14 points) and Brady Kleker (10) in double figures, while Deryk Farmer chipped in with nine points, eight rebounds and five assists.
Whitson had a huge game in the loss for Creswell. The senior finished with 21 points, six rebounds, five assists and two steals. Ace Arnold added 10 points and eight rebounds.
Girls consolation semis
Cascade Christian 63, Coquille 41
Cascade Christian scored the game’s first seven points and led all the way to advance to the consolation final, as Isabel McCauley set a 3A girls tournament scoring record.
The senior guard made 13 of her 21 field goals and 14 of 15 free throws for 42 points, breaking the record of 39 set by Ally Schimel in the championship game last winter.
McCauley said she was trying to go as hard as she could after the Challengers lost to Jefferson in the quarterfinals Thursday, knowing it could be the last game for her and her four senior teammates.
“I was thinking, ‘I need to come out and play as hard as I can,’” said McCauley, who also had 10 rebounds and eight steals. Her previous career high for points was 26.
The Challengers shot 50 percent from the field and made 23 of 29 free throws as they frequently attacked the basket.
Coquille’s shooting woes continued from its quarterfinal loss to Amity. The Red Devils shot just 15 percent in the first half and 28 percent for the game. Every time they made a run, Cascade Christian answered.
Jordynn Jones added 12 points for the Challengers.
Holli Vigue led Coquille with 13 points and Lexi Lucatero added eight.
Burns 57, Taft 55
Akylah Kaino stole the ball and drove the length of the court for the winning bucket in the final seconds as the Hilanders overcame a 13-point second-half deficit to advance to face Cascade Christian.
Moments earlier, Kaino had missed a pair of free throws with the game tied that would have given Burns the lead.
“It was time for me to make up for it,” said the senior, who stepped in front of a Taft player for the steal as the Tigers were trying to set up a winning shot.
There was just over a second to go when the ball went through the hoop.
“I was just attacking the basket,” Kaino said. “I didn’t have time to look (at the clock).”
Kaino finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds. Teammate Bailey Temple sparked the comeback from a 35-22 deficit with outside shooting and finished with 20 points, including six 3-pointers.
Olivia Davis had 17 points and 12 rebounds and Sienna Lillebo and Kennedy Parker added 16 points each for Taft, which was in the state tournament for the first time.
John Gunther contributed to this report.
johnt@osaa.org
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