No. 5 Baker defeated No. 2 Marshfield 64-46 Saturday to repeat as 4A boys basketball state champion.

FOREST GROVE — For the second year in a row, the Baker Bulldogs cut down the nets at Forest Grove High School.

Baker’s Isaiah Jones finished with a game-high 25 points and 10 rebounds, leading the No. 5-seeded Bulldogs to a 64-46 victory over the Marshfield Pirates in Saturday’s championship final of the OSAA/OnPoint Community Credit Union 4A boys basketball state tournament.

Eli Long scored 11 points off the Baker bench, and Palmer Chandler and Rasean Jones had eight points each as the Bulldogs (19-8) became the third 4A boys team to win consecutive state championships and the first since Cascade won back-to-back titles in 2022 and 2023.

“It’s feels good,” said Isaiah Jones, the Bulldogs’ senior guard. “Obviously, it’s my last year of high school, so I wanted to go out personally on a good note, and for my teammates, as well. Just play as hard as I could.

“We all were a little tired. When you’re tired, you make dumb mistakes. I think the key was just to play smart and just play harder than the other team. And, obviously, that worked.”

For two teams playing their third game in as many nights, Baker and Marshfield weren’t afraid to push the pace to start the game. It almost looked as if both sides wanted to see if they could run the other into submission.

And that’s what happened

There were four lead changes and four ties in a first half that ended with Baker leading 29-25. At that point, Isaiah Jones already had 17 points on 6-for-12 shooting, the Bulldogs enjoyed a 21-11 advantage in rebounds, and Marshfield was doing just enough on offense to stay within striking distance.

The turning point in the game came right after Marshfield’s Luke Jackson knocked down a three-pointer from the left wing that cut Baker’s lead to 35-33 with 2:53 to play in the third quarter.

Baker answered Jackson's bucket with an 11-2 run that pushed the Bulldogs’ 46-35 and left the Pirates reeling.

The run started with Isaiah Jones rebounding his own miss and scoring. That was followed by Isaiah Jones scoring a layup off a Marshfield turnover, Long scoring a layup off another turnover, Chandler making one of two free throws, Isaiah Jones scoring off another offensive rebound, Steel Carpenter scoring off an offensive rebound for Marshfield, and, finally, Isaiah Jones scoring on another lay-up.

“They overwhelmed us,” Marshfield coach Jesse Ainsworth said. “That’s what happens when you have a team that’s been here before and you’ve got a bunch of seniors who are really good.

“We had to weather their pressure, No. 1. We knew if we could handle their pressure and physicality that we could compete with them. But I think it was a war of attrition. Eventually, their pressure wore us out.”

Isaiah Jones’ final basket was a three-pointer to open the fourth quarter and it sparked an 18-5 run for the Bulldogs, but the most serious damage had already been done — during the final 2:50 of the third quarter.

“We couldn’t survive after that,” Ainsworth said “We knew the game was going to be a game of runs, but that was the run we couldn’t recover from. That was the run that got us.”

Marshfield also didn’t have an answer for Isaiah Jones, who finished shooting 10-for 21 from the field, 2-for-10 from three-point range, and 3-for-3 at the free-throw line with 10 rebounds (five offensive and five defensive), two assists, one steal, and zero fouls in 29 minutes.

The scoring summary does not reflect how many deflections the Bulldogs’ 6-foot-1 senior had on Saturday or how many times he forced Marshfield players to change their shots or how many times he dove on the floor after loose balls, but he did a lot of those things, too.

He also was the only unanimous pick to the all-tournament first team.

“Beyond being a special player, he’s got a special motor,” Ainsworth said. “There’s not many kids that play that hard. I think that’s the most impressive thing about him. He’s the type of player that you strive for everybody to get to when it comes to that level of effort at both ends.”

But basketball is a team game and Isaiah Jones didn’t win Saturday’s game all by himself.

He had help.

Like when Jaxon Logsdon set up Rasean Jones for a lob dunk on the opening play of the game. Or when Chandler stole the ball and scored on a layup to break a 23-23 tie. Or when Hayden Churchill stole the ball and scored on a layup to make it 29-23. Or when Grant Gambleton set up Rasean Jones for another lob dunk that made it 54-39.

What about all that?

“We have a great team,” Baker coach (and proud father) Jebron Jones said. “We’re not a one-man show. We have a lot of depth. I trust all the guys that play, so I’m proud of the guys, for sure.

“It was a well-played ball game. Both teams played extremely hard. I just think we played harder, we stuck to our game plan, and, obviously, we scored more points than they did.”

The Bulldogs had a tough road to the finals — they downed No. 4 Crook County 54-48 in Thursday’s quarterfinals and then thrashed top-seeded Cascade 66-47 in Friday’s semifinals— yet still had enough gas in the tank to finish the job on Saturday.

It also helps to have six seniors on the roster who are determined to end their high school playing careers on a high note.

“We were all pretty tired, but I think a lot of us reminded ourselves that this is our last game for a lot of us,” Isaiah Jones said. “There’s not a practice tomorrow. There’s not a game tomorrow. And I think we gave it all we had.”

“I wanted to do the best I could and contribute all I could. My legs were gone by the fourth quarter, but I’m glad we came out with the win.”

For Marshfield, Carpenter finished with a team-high 18 points, Jackson had 12 points and seven rebounds, Jackson Ainsworth had 11 points, and the Pirates of Coos Bay finished the season with a 23-3 record.

“I’m super-proud of my boys,” Jesse Ainsworth said. “You’re talking about a team that was ranked No. 13 in the state in the coaches’ poll. So, not a lot of respect, if that makes sense. There’s a lot of teams that didn’t make it to this point that were ranked way ahead of us.

“Baker was preseason No. 1. They were expected to be here. We were preseason No. 13, so … that says a lot about our boys. It was an unbelievable year and we’re ahead of schedule. We have a whole bunch of players coming, so we’ll be here for awhile.”

Isaiah Jones was joined on the all-tournament first team by his teammate Logsdon, Carpenter of Marshfield, Landon Knox of Cascade, and Bryce Lowenbach of Crook County.

In Saturday’s other games:

No. 1 Cascade 67, No. 14 Mazama 57: Senior guard Kaiden Ford scored a tournament-high 39 points, including the go-ahead basket with 2:45 remaining as the Cougars downed the Vikings to secure the third-place trophy for the second year in a row.

Landon Knox finished with 19 points, five rebounds, and four assists, helping the Cougars (23-4) bounce back from Friday’s 66-47 semifinal loss to Baker.

“We always have to the goal of winning state,” Ford said. “But I’m just proud of the guys. It’s tough losing a big game like we did Friday and then turning around early and playing in the third-place game.

“It’s less meaningful, but in my heart, it’s super-meaningful, because only three teams get to end the season on a winning note. So, this third-place trophy means a lot to me. That’s was a hard-fought game and Mazama played really well.”

The game was tied 57-57 when Cascade called a timeout 2:55 remaining to set up an inbound play along the baseline to the left of the basket.

Ford inbounded the ball to Knox, who fed it back to Ford, who shook his defender and drove the baseline for a lay-up that not only made it 59-57, but also triggered a 10-0 run.

“We knew that we had to get a basket and we had to get stops,” Ford said. “It wasn’t about who was scoring. We just had to get a couple stops. We were letting up too many points in that first half and really this whole tournament.

“So it was really all about hunkerin’ down those last two minutes and giving everything we had left in our tank to get a couple stops and win the game.”

Mazama’s Jordan Beals scored a team-high 16 points to lead four players in double figures for the Vikings, who jumped out to an early 17-6 lead against the team with the best offense in the tournament.

“These guys are pretty special,” Mazama coach Ryan Milsap said. “We had a rough start to our year, for sure, but these guys stuck together through up and downs, injuries and all the other things that plagued our season. It’s tough to know that this the last game of a lot of these guys and I’m going to miss ‘em a lot.”

The Vikings graduate seven seniors, including all five starters — Ryan Hayden, Kai Hunt, Dominic Melgoza, Gabe Nanni, and Beals — who helped turnaround a program that went from winning four games last season to finishing with 15 wins and a fifth-place trophy this season.

“It’s been a good year,” Milsap said. “We came a long way and grew a lot, as a team and as individuals. It’s been fun.

“I’m not going to say I thought this, but I don’t think a lot of people in the state of Oregon thought that we’d come from from this tournament with a trophy. And to do it the way that we did and to see these guys battle every day … it’s just been a wild ride, but I would change it for anything.”

No. 4 Crook County 64, No. 7 Phoenix 25: Jace Jones scored a game-high 16 points and Gabriel Lopez added 13 as the Cowboys of Prineville overwhelmed the Pirates and ran away with the tournament’s fourth-place trophy.

Bryce Lowenbach, Crook County’s 6-foot-8 junior forward, added nine points, 10 rebounds, and two blocked shots for the Cowboys, who took a 20-8 lead in the first quarter and pulled away from there.

Phoenix’s Tobias Akpan had 11 points and was the only player to score in double figures for the Pirates, who shot 22.2 percent (8 for 36) from the field and had 21 turnovers to Crook County’s 11.