MCMINNVILLE – Top-seeded Crater outscored South Albany, 9-3, in overtime to capture the first basketball state title in school history Saturday afternoon at the 2025 OSAA / OnPoint Community Credit Union Girls 5A State Basketball Championships conducted at Linfield University.
The Comets trailed, 50-42, with less than four minutes remaining in regulation time, before mounting a rally to tie the game at 55-55 on an Addi Dippel three-pointer, their first of the game.
Lydia Traore, a 6-4 senior center and four-year starter, scored the first six points of the overtime period. That supplied the margin necessary to ensure victory for Crater.
The win helped erase the sting of last year’s state final, where Crater “came from ahead” to lose to Silverton in overtime.
“Our goal all season was to get back to this game,” said Crater senior Sage Winslow. “I’ve been playing with these girls since fifth grade. To have this moment with my best friends means everything to me.”
“Last year was absolute heartbreak,” senior Addi Dippell added. “All of us wanted to come back and win this so badly. It’s finally here and it’s pure happiness.”
***
From start to finish, this game was a stomach-churning, edge-of-your-seat thriller, played in front of a massive, frenzied crowd, that could easily have gone the other way.
Crater’s largest lead was six. South Albany’s largest lead was nine. The teams were tied four times. The lead changed hands four times.
“That was my favorite game of basketball, regardless of what happened at the end,” said South Albany senior Taelyn Bentley, a Division I volleyball recruit. “That was the most fun I had playing basketball. These girls are my family. These coaches I will remember for the rest of my life. South Albany, the community, is amazing. And our competition tonight was like no other. Back and forth all game long. I couldn’t have asked for better competitors.”
***
After blowing out its first two state tournament opponents…indeed after beating every opponent in 2025, save one, by 16 or more points…Crater (28-1) was in a fight from the start against a South Albany team that defended, with physicality, from the three-point line in.
“South Albany is great team and they are very physical,” said Amber Lease, Crater’s first-year head coach. “Our girls are not used to that level of physicality. We felt like that physicality was an advantage for them. They took us out of our rhythm offensively. But our girls persevered and found a way to win.”
***
South Albany was cooking.
The RedHawks led most of the game but found themselves behind, 35-32, in the third quarter, before they surged to the lead once more on the strength of a 13-1 burst that carried into the fourth. Kaylee Cordle and Maddie Angel were catalysts in the run, as was Taylor Donaldson, whose first triple of the game put South Albany up by nine, 45-36, with 6:33 remaining to play.
Crater, the top-ranked team in the state all year, responded with a 6-0 run to get within three, but South Albany was resilient. An Angel dribble drive bucket and her dish to Donaldson for another triple put the RedHawks back up comfortably, 50-42, with 3:41 on the clock, hardly enough time for the foul-saddled and exhausted Comets to mount yet another comeback.
And, yet, rally they did.
“Going down eight points with 3:30 left, not one time was there even a sliver of doubt in their minds,” Lease said. “It was awesome to see that as a coach. They’ve been wanting to get back here all year. And they were not going to let that opportunity slide by them this year.”
“We were down, but I fully believed that we would not give up,” Winslow added. “We wanted this game more than anyone could ever want it.”
“It felt like it was going to be like last year but we turned it around when it really mattered,” Dippel remarked.
The Crater comeback started with a driving layup from Taylor Young. The superstar junior struggled mightily with her outside shot, so she had to attack the basket.
Following a South Albany turnover, Young attacked again, this time drawing a foul as part of a conventional three-point play.
The RedHawk lead was just three.
South Albany committed another turnover on the ensuing inbounds pass and Young made the RedHawks pay with a sweet reverse that sliced the margin to just one. After a steal – South Albany’s third turnover in less than 90 seconds -- Traore made one free throw to knot the score with 2:13 remaining.
South Albany, playing in the first title game in program history, could have folded in this highly-charged atmosphere and under the withering full court pressure Crater applied, but the RedHawks had tasted the idea of winning state themselves through the first 30 minutes of game time and they were not going to give that up just yet.
South Albany brought the ball up the floor and passed to reserve guard Phara Dickson in the corner. Her long-distance attempt from the corner was probably not the shot South Albany’s staff wanted in that moment, until it ripped the cords for a stunning triple with less than two minutes showing on the clock! Crater was forced to play catch up for the third time in the quarter!
Winslow made two free throws after a fifth foul was whistled on Bentley, disqualifying her after a 17-point, 10-rebound afternoon.
Crater then had a shot to go ahead, but Young’s layup attempt was too strong. Angel rebounded for South Albany and Cordle brought the ball up under intense pressure and delivered a perfect bounce pass to Neveah Ukaoma unchecked in the lane. She made the layup to expand South Albany’s lead to three with 42.7 seconds left to play.
Crater needed a three pointer to tie the score, but was 0-for-9 from long distance for the game, a shocking stat for a team that thrives from behind the line.
Somebody needed to step up.
That somebody was Dippel, the longtime starter and daughter of last year’s head coach (who resigned to become school principal).
As the clock ticked under 30 seconds left in regulation, Winslow drove the lane and kicked the ball back out to Dippel on the wing.
“I knew that the other weren’t hitting their three-point shots and I hadn’t taken any,” Dippel said. “I knew that I needed to step up.”
She let fly.
Nothing but net.
“I knew it was going to go in,” Dippel said. “It was really exciting.”
“That’s the great thing about this team,” Lease said. “Anybody on this team can hit a shot. It happened to be Addi’s time to shine.”
The score now tied, South Albany had a shot to go ahead in the waning seconds of regulation, but the field goal attempt was off, with Crater collecting the ball with 19 seconds on the clock, enough time for Crater to come all the way back to win in regulation time.
The Comets, however, did not get a shot off, as South Albany’s interior defense stiffened and produced an Angel steal as the buzzer signaled the end of regulation.
***
Despite South Albany’s stellar record and impressive wins over Springfield and defending champion Silverton in this state tournament, most doubted that the RedHawks would be able to hang for 32 minutes with Crater. The teams met early in the season, with Crater winning by 22 points. Moreover, the Comets were routing the best 5A teams in the state in the quarterfinals and semis.
“There was a lot of doubt on us before this game and we had something to prove,” Angel said. “We gave it our all.”
Bentley, who gave up basketball after her freshman year at Crescent Valley, said that she believed her South Albany team could win after beating Silverton in the semifinals.
“‘Why not go for that gold medal?’” she asked herself. “We were so close!”
The game began and Crater started doing what Crater does: pressuring the ball on defense, turnover its opponent and attacking the cup. The Comets blasted to a fast 6-0 lead.
A hoop by Hannah Patten settled South Albany and the game became a battle royale. Cordle’s long three for South Albany knotted the contest at 10-10 after one.
The Redhawks took their first lead of the game in the second on Bentley’s baseline jumper. Cordle followed with a steal and score to increase the lead to four. The teams played pretty even the rest of the way, with South Albany taking a 20-17 lead to the intermission.
Crater, which had averaged more than 80 points a game over its first two wins, despite fourth-quarter running clocks, was not the same team in the first half against South Albany. The RedHawks’ extended man defense produced no good looks from the three-point line and everything in the key was contested.
South Albany also was effective at valuing the ball, which led to more fouls on Crater than trademark steals. After two periods, Winslow and both starting bigs, Traore and Alexa Gugliotta, were in foul trouble.
The good news for Crater starting the second half was that Young, who endured a difficult 3-for-11 from the field over the first 16 minutes, had an early layup to cut the lead to one.
The bad news is that both Winslow and Gugliotta picked up their third fouls within the first minute and had to sit.
“You can’t reach like that,” Winslow said. “It’s my fault. Sitting is so hard. In those big moments, you want to be in there; you want to be helping your team.”
South Albany not only kept its lead, it increased it to five on a hoop from Bentley. In the meantime, Traore joined her teammates on the bench, with four fouls, just three minutes into the third.
Down 30-25, Crater mounted a third-quarter rally not only to tie, on a Dippel hoop; but to ultimately go ahead on a Young steal and score. Traore was on the bench, but Madison Kitchen was having a massive impact rebounding as her replacement.
In the face of this adversity, South Albany showed the resilience seen time and again from this RedHawk group. Down three, Cordle made two free throws and then Angel came away with a steal that led to a Bentley pass to Cordle for a conventional three-point play that put South Albany on top once more, 37-35, after three.
The fourth quarter began and Angel sent South Albany faithful into a lather with a wing triple. Cordle scored on an inbounds play and then Donaldson, who’d been quiet most of the game, came up with that huge three pointer to make it 45-36 RedHawks with six minutes and change remaining.
***
As overtime began, it was hard to conceive that South Albany would be able to continue to hold off Crater, especially with Bentley having fouled out.
South Albany controlled the tip but Gugliotta got a steal. Traore used her height to score over the defense to give Crater its first lead since the third quarter.
South Albany (24-5) did not get a good look on its next possession, forcing a shot as the 35-second clock was set to expire. Traore rebounded the miss, was fouled and hit both free throws.
Crater scored again when Winslow got a steal and Traore scored on a put back. The Comets led by six with just 2:11 left to play.
Before Crater could get too, too comfortable, Dickson hit another three for South Albany, bringing the RedHawks within one possession of a tie. South Albany would not score again. Winslow hit a scoop shot for Crater with less than a minute to play. Soon thereafter the Comets began celebrating their first state championship.
Cordle complemented Bentley’s big game with a dozen points. Donaldson added 10, 12 under her average. Angel scored five, had five rebounds and seven assists.
“I think we’re pretty frustrated,” Angel said, noting the significant foul discrepancy in Crater’s favor in the fourth quarter. “I think we worked our butts off. It obviously didn’t go our way. We’re already looking for next year.”
“It's going to sting for a while, but then I’ll be proud,” Bentley said. “Last high school basketball game ever. First final in South Albany history. Those are the positives I’ll take away.”
Young had 25 points and six steals. She broke the 5A tournament scoring record, with 85 over three games. Winslow had 16; Traore had 15 and 10 boards. Dippel finished with six, including that huge three. Kitchen, who played eight enormous minutes when Traore was on the bench with four fouls, had five rebounds and made both of her free throws in the fourth quarter when Crater was on life support.
Winslow hugged everyone after the game.
“For us to be the first is so special,” she said. “To get that ‘W’ is making memories we will never forget. When we’re 40 we’re not going to remember who made a turnover or who missed a shot; we’re just going to remember winning a state championship with our best friends.”
In the girls’ 3rd/5th game:
Silverton 38, Redmond 33
Silverton scored the first nine points of the fourth quarter to turn around a third-quarter deficit and never trailed again to capture third place one year after winning the 5A title.
Marley Wertz made the go-ahead basket for the Foxes, on a pass from Hadley Craig; and made the ensuing free throw. Allie Mansur followed with consecutive buckets to complete the run, which took the first five minutes of the period and put Silverton on top, 36-30.
Redmond reserve Naveah Villa, a bright spot for the Panthers, hit her second three pointer of the game to stop the Silverton run and give Redmond hope, trailing by just three, but the Panthers did not score again, due to five empty possessions over the final 2:53 of the game.
Redmond (21-7) led, 22-20, at halftime and played with more energy than Silverton (25-4), which turned the ball over 17 times.
After Silverton, which led by five after one, scored five of the first six points of the second quarter to increase its lead to 18-9, the Panthers scored the next 11, sparked by Azlynn Ure, to go in front. Allie Mansur snapped the run with a pull up jumper for the 2024 champions, but two free throws from Rylee Morris restored Redmond’s lead just before halftime. Ure’s running three-point attempt to increase the lead to five rimmed out at the buzzer.
Both teams played sluggishly coming out for the second half, with no points by either team over the first three minutes. Aspen Morris got Redmond on the board with a steal and drive for two and the Panthers eventually went on top by five on a rainbow three from Maisen Porter. Silverton scored the final two points on the period on Wertz free throws, then got a Craig jumper to start the dispositive 9-0 run that made the difference in the outcome.
Villa played just eight minutes but was Redmond’s leading scorer with eight points. Ure finished with seven and four assists and was a spark all game long. Freya Snow also had seven and a team-high eight rebounds.
Wertz led three Silverton players in double figures with 12 points. The athletic sophomore also had three steals. Mansur contributed 11 points and Craig scored 10, with seven rebounds. Grace Hayashida scored only three points in her final game for the Foxes, but she had a key block and important rebound in the closing moments when Redmond was trying to mount a rally.
In the girls 4th/6th game:
Wilsonville 62, Springfield 56 (O.T.)
Wilsonville outscored Springfield, 9-3, in overtime to capture fourth place, the highest finish for the Wildcats since taking third in 2019.
In a game that was tight throughout, with neither team every leading by double digits, Wilsonville guard Gabi Moultrie drained a three pointer with 17 seconds left in regulation to put the Cats up 53-52. Springfield had the chance to win when Sailor Hall was fouled with five ticks remaining. She missed the first but made the second to force overtime.
Wilsonville scored the first five points of overtime, on a free throw by Kaia Hix and buckets from Fareed ElManhawy and Audrey Counts, and Springfield, whose overtime start included missed free throws, a missed layup and two turnovers, never recovered.
Hall led the way for Springfield (19-9) with 23 points and six rebounds. She made six triples, one shy of the 5A record she tied in her previous game. Iyahna Woodard scored 12 and Mylah Wilson added nine.
Moultrie finished with 20 points and six assists for Wilsonville (19-10). She was a perfect 8-for-8 from the free throw line. Counts added 18 and eight rebounds.
All-Tournament First Team
Taylor Young, Crater
Sage Winslow, Crater
Gabi Moultrie, Wilsonville
Taylor Donaldson, South Albany
Hadley Craig, Silverton
All-Tournament Second Team
Mylaena Norton, Redmond
Payton Starwalt, West Albany
Sailor Hall, Springfield
Taelyn Bentley, South Albany
Lydia Traore, Crater
Sportsmanship trophy
South Albany
In the Unified Sports State Championship:
Parkrose 56, Putnam 48
Defending champion Parkrose broke open a close game at the half with a dominant third quarter, sparked by the inside play of Tom Tom. Izaiah Oldoni matched Tom Tom with 16 points. Tre’ Oliver (10 points) also had a strong game for the Broncos, who led by only one after 16 minutes.
Joey Gutierrez played well in the loss for Putnam, scoring 16 points, including four, three-point buckets. Dominic Lawson added 11 points, including three from long distance. Ethan Brumieve finished with six points, making two-of-three shots from beyond the arc.
Unified Sports is an inclusive sports program that unites Special Olympics athletes with intellectual disabilities with partner athletes as teammates for training and competition. [It is inspiring!]
johnt@osaa.org
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