FOREST GROVE — A big part of Philomath’s game plan against Cascade on Friday afternoon was to play fast, play hard, and get the ball inside to Reagan Heiken and Anneka Steen.
That worked pretty well.
Heiken had 15 points and seven rebounds, and Steen had 15 points and six rebounds, pacing the Warriors to a 43-37 victory over the Cougars in the semifinals of the OSAA/OnPoint Community Credit Union 4A girls basketball tournament at Forest Grove High School.
Shaylee May had 11 points and Annaleis Brown grabbed 10 rebounds off the Philomath bench to help send the Warriors (23-5) into Saturday’s all-Oregon West Conference championship final against No. 2-seeded Stayton, a 59-35 winner over Baker in Friday’s other semifinal.
“I’m very excited. We’re ready,” Steen said. “We’ve been preparing for this all year. I’m excited. Whoever we get to play, it will be a great opportunity.”
This will be the seventh trip to final for the Warriors, who are seeking a fifth championship trophy to add to the others they won in 1986, 1987, 2000, and 2022.
“We put the work in to get to this point,” Philomath coach Ben Silva said. “This is just the payoff. We want to go out and enjoy it and have fun.
“Our whole mentality this weekend is just to go out and have some fun. What better place to do it than on the floor tomorrow night at 5:45 p.m.?”
Philomath used a 13-0 run at the end of the first quarter with Heiken and Steen — the two 5-foot-10 forwards — scoring the final 10 points of the period to give the Warriors a 16-4 lead.
The second quarter started with Steen completing a three-point play, followed by a Heiken lay-up off a Cascade turnover, extending the Warriors’s advantage to 21-4 with 6:45 to play in the second quarter.
Clearly, Philomath’s inside game was working.
“We have so many kids that can finish at the hoop in different ways, whether it be attacking from the outside or back to the basket,” Silva said. “On the offensive end, that’s who we are. That’s our identity, so it definitely was a concerted effort.
“Cascade has done things in the past to make it really hard (to get the ball inside). I thought we made some adjustments that worked really well in the first half that allowed us to still get those looks in the paint.”
Cascade’s problem? Some of it was the Cougars’ lack of size. On top of that, Olivia Bennett, Bella Dobrkovsky, and Rozalyn Schmunk picked up two fouls each in the first quarter, which took some of the aggressiveness out of a defense that enjoys getting after it.
Philomath had a 27-13 lead and at that point Heiken and Steen had already combined for 25 points on 11-for-17 shooting from the field. The Warriors also went to the break with a 20-6 edge in points in the paint.
“Philomath is a good team,” Cascade coach Nick Randall said. “Their length, we knew it was going to be a problem for us. The games that we’ve been successful against them, we’ve been able to keep it out of the paint.
“Every game, it’s like we have to limit paint touches, because they’re just so long and so big and so athletic. The second half, we did that. But the first half … “
Enough about the first half.
In the second half, the Cougars of Turner didn’t quit and started making shots that at least made things a little more interesting down the stretch
Bennett had the hottest hand, hitting four three-pointers — three in the third quarter and another in the fourth that cut Philomath’s lead to 37-31 with 4:48 remaining.
Dobrkovsky then made one of two free throws that pulled the Cougars within 40-35 with 2:52 left, but that’s where the comeback stalled.
“I have to give it to my girls — defensively the second half, we battled,” Randall said. “That’s a character thing. Some teams just crumble being down 17, but our girls just kept fighting and fighting and fighting.
“Cutting it to five shows a lot. It would have been nice to have a couple minutes on the clock to let us see if we can keep pushing through. it was just one of those games, you put everything into to get to there, do we have any gas left in the tank?”
Philomath used a free throw from Brown and two from Heiken to make it 43-35 and helped put the game out of reach.
For the game, Philomath 37.8 percent (14 for 32) from the field to Cascade’s 30.2 percent (13 for 43). The Warriors also finished with a 24-6 edge in points in the paint, a 19-13 advantage in points off turnovers, a 10-4 edge in second-chance points, and a 6-0 edge in fastbreak points.
“It was nice to get off to a good start,” Silva said. “We held them to four points in the first quarter and that’s our bread and butter — the defensive end. Always has been. That allowed us to weather a little bit of a storm there in the third quarter.”
Said Steen: “It was a great game, exciting. We were prepared to play them. I think we did a great job working together, having fun, and just playing our game.”
In Friday’s other action:
No. 2 Stayton 59, No. 11 Baker 35: The Stayton student section had the decency to hold off on the “I Believe That We Will Win” chant until there was 2:34 to play in Friday’s other semifinal.
The Eagles put this one away a long time before that.
Stayton’s Breeci Hampton knocked down five three-pointers and finished with a game-high 22 points, and Kathryn Samek had 14 points, six blocked shots, and four steals, leading the Eagles (26-1) into the finals for the fourth time overall and the first since 2007.
“It’s awesome,” Stayton coach Tal Wold said. “It’s a great group of girls and I’m really excited for them. It’s funny that we’ll see Philomath again.
“To be honest, we’re really honored to be there. I know we’ll show up tomorrow and do our best and get after it.”
Stayton led wire-to-wire against Baker, opening leads of 9-5 at the end of the first quarter, 30-16 at halftime, and 51-31 after three quarters.
Ashlyn Dalton led Baker with 10 points and Kathryn Jensen added seven for the Bulldogs (18-10).
Stayton and Philomath split their regualr-season series with each team holding serve on its home court — Philomath winning 27-26 on Jan. 31 and Stayton winning 40-39 on Feb. 21.
“We’ve played pretty welll all year,” Wold said. “We’re clicking and your focus goes up when you get here. So, they’re dialed in, but we know Philomath is a different beast and we’ll have to really be on tomorrow.
“But we’re playing great, the girls are confident, and probably most important — I’ve said this all year — they’re just so connected to each other. They are truly best friends and with that connection I know we’ll be giving everything that we have tomorrow.”
No. 4 La Grande 58, No. 8 Crook County 30: Peyton Daggett had 12 points and six rebounds, and Kayle Collman added five points and 11 rebounds, leading the Tigers over the Cowgirls in Friday morning’s consolation round.
Rowan Evans, Olivia Pennington, and Carlee Strand finished with nine points each for La Grande (20-5), which raced out to a 32-15 halftime lead and then coasted through the second half.
Harper Smith led Crook County with 10 points and Hayden Decker had four points and seven rebounds for the Cowgirls (16-11), who shot 18.8 percent (9 for 48) from the field, including 1 for 15 from three-point range.
No. 3 Henley 53, No. 7 Seaside 50: Makayla Schroeder made one of two free throws to break a 50-50 tie with 1:05 remaining as the Hornets of Klamath Falls held off the Seagulls in Friday’s second elimination game.
After Henley’s Prestyn Schade made two free throws with 13.7 seconds to play to make it 53-50, Seaside still was in position to force overtime, but Kylie Keranen’s three-pointer missed the mark at the buzzer.
Schroeder, Henley’s freshman post, finished with 24 points, 17 rebounds, and five steals for the Hornets (24-3).
Seaside’s Carly Corder had 19 points and seven rebounds before fouling out of the game with 2:41 to play. Mya Feeney finished with 11 points and was the only other player to score in double figures for the Seagulls (14-11).
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