The No. 5 West Albany girls basketball team continues to climb.
Last season, the Bulldogs fell in the state quarterfinals to Silverton 63-58. In 2023-2024 they finished 11-13 and missed the playoffs altogether.
This season though, West Albany, the outright Mid-Willamette Conference champions, are now on to the semifinals of the OSAA/OnPoint Community Credit Union 5A girls basketball state tournament after defeating defending champion No. 4 Crater 69-62 on Thursday at Linfield University.
The Bulldogs will meet No. 1 Redmond at 6:30 p.m. Friday in McMinnville for a spot in the final.
“It just means so much because we haven’t had this in 15-20 years,” Bulldogs junior Natalie Tidwell, who scored a team-high 22 points, said of the quarterfinals win, the program’s first since 2012. “Alongside my best friends, there’s so much love. We love practice, we love each other and doing it with the people I love most means so much to me.”
The Bulldogs needed every one of those points from Tidwell as the Crater plan was clear in trying to stop West Albany junior Payton Stalwart, who broke the single-season 3-pointers made record last round with her 127th triple of the season.
The Comets blitzed Stalwart from the moment she crossed the timeline each and every possession, led by Crater standout and Oregon State commit Taylor Young.
And it was working well for the Comets who got out to a 15-12 lead after the first quarter where Young had five points and two steals and Stalwart only hit one deuce.
The Bulldogs were able to hold their own in the second and made it a one-point deficit at the break, down 25-24.
The third quarter is where the game really heated up as Tidwell hit two important 3-pointers and junior Lola Chamberlain scored six points herself in the paint.
“We call (Chamberlain) a point-forward because she really helps us out with ball handling in the open court,” West Albany head coach Shawn Stinson said. “She’s a heady, smart player and she’s come a long way since last year.”
“I look up to her in every way, she is amazing and I hope to be half the player she is,” Tidwell said of Chamberlain. “She’s coming out of her shell later in the season and doing what we all knew she could do.”
On the other side was an unstoppable force in Young who scored 14 of Crater’s 20 points in the third quarter with a made 3-pointer and three more steals.
“It is almost impossible I would say,” Starwalt said of trying to slow down Young. “She is crazy and I know she’s going to do so good at Oregon State. … She is such a nice person and I think she deserves everything that comes her way. She works so hard on the court and I’m really happy for her.”
The lead changed hands three times in the final minute and a half of the third quarter and ended with a 45-44 Crater advantage.
Tidwell hit her fourth three of the game to open up the fourth quarter and give West Albany a 48-45 lead. Young also picked up her fourth foul 12 seconds into the fourth, opening these up a little more for Starwalt to operate.
That became immediately apparent as Starwalt was able to drive to the rim to either put up a shot or start creating for her teammates.
“We left at halftime and Payton had four points. I held the coaches back and just said, ‘We just need Payton to get 12, if Payton gets 12 we win,’” Stinson said.
Starwalt hit a layup to put her team up 56-51 with 4:40 to go as Young continued to find her spots on offense with the help of senior Jazmine Fernandez hitting some deep balls as well.
With the Bulldogs lead cut to 56-55, Tidwell came back to the rescue and hit a 3-pointer with 3:34 to go.
“I missed my first couple (threes) and then I had to take my breath,” Tidwell said. “I knew, they’re not going to give (Starwalt) open shots so I gotta take every opportunity I can. I just pinpointed my spot on the rim, that little peg underneath it and I just let it fly, full confidence because I knew they were counting on me.”
Young hit two free throws, Starwalt got another layup and Young made a shot at the rim to make it a 61-59 West Albany advantage.
Then, with a defender all over her, Tidwell launched from deep again and connected for her sixth triple of the afternoon with 2:07 to go.
“(Tidwell) is just a superstar, I cannot believe her,” Starwalt said. “She puts her heart and soul into every single game and to see her get rewarded like that is the coolest thing ever. She wants this so bad.”
“Natalie is clutch, she’s a gamer, the kid can absolutely shoot,” Stinson said. “She probably doesn’t get enough attention as far as how great of a shooter she is. I said at the beginning of the year, I have two of the best shooters in the state of Oregon on my team and I still believe it and tonight it showed.”
West Albany dug in on defense and didn’t allow Young to hurt them despite Stinson saying they had no defensive plan for her. Instead of running a box-and-one or any other kind of special attention, the Bulldogs just let it ride.
And it paid off as Crater went 1-for-2 from the line after a foul with 1:31 to go. Bulldogs sophomore Payton Warner was fouled and hit 1-of-2 to go up 65-60 with 1:11 to go.
Again, West Albany got a stop and this time it was Starwalt fouled with 49 seconds. She hit both free throws to essentially put the game away.
After a few traded free throws, the game ended 69-62 in favor of the Bulldogs.
“That’s a long time coming right there,” Stinson said. “I knew we had a great team good enough to win this game.”
Tidwell’s 22 led the Bulldogs and she also had five rebounds. Chamberlain had 16 points, five rebounds and four assists. And in the end, Stalwart did reach that predicted 12-point line from Stinson, finishing with 14 points and nine assists.
Young gave it her all, scoring 36 points along with seven rebounds, seven steals and three assists. Fernandez had 12 points and seven boards and Brynlee Young had 10 points and five steals.
Crater falls to the consolation where it will play No. 8 Silverton, who lost in the tournament’s opening game to No. 1 Redmond.
Those Panthers will be the semifinals opponent for West Albany as they try to make their first-ever finals appearance and the Bulldogs are looking for only their second ever, the other being a loss in the 2011 final.
“They’re the No. 1 seed, they are amazing,” Tidwell said of Redmond. “They’re good on defense, good on offense, love each other just as much as we do and they want it just as bad as we do. We gotta take it one play at a time, win on offense, win on defense, win the quarter and whatever it takes to push forward.”
No. 1 Redmond 67, No. 8 Silverton 51: Silverton hung in for the first half, but top-seeded Redmond pulled away in the third quarter to advance to the semifinals for the third consecutive year.
Sophomore Bergen Porter went 4-for-4 on 3-pointers in the first half, scoring 14 points in the first 16 minutes to lead the Panthers. She finished with a team-high 16 points.
The second half belonged to the guard duo of senior Mylaena Norton, the back-to-back IMC Player of the Year, and freshman phenom Kodee Kimball. The two combined for 12 points in the second half and junior Freya Snow had six. Kimball finished with 15 points for the game, Snow had 10 and nine rebounds, and Norton had nine points and four assists.
“I think that it showed everyone was like, ‘OK, good teams are going to make shots too and we’re gonna come back and hit another one or we’ll get a defensive stop,’” Norton said.
Marley Wertz led the Silverton effort with 16 points and four assists.
Redmond will take on No. 5 West Albany in the first semifinal of the night with tipoff set for 6:30 p.m. Friday at Linfield University.
“We kept hearing all this stuff, Silverton is getting better, but we practice everyday too,” Norton said. “We definitely had a chip on our shoulder to win this game.”
Silverton will play No. 4 Crater in the consolation at 9 a.m. Friday.
No. 3 South Albany 47, No. 6 Wilsonville 43: South Albany trailed 34-33 going into the fourth quarter, but the RedHawks got enough stops on defense and enough buckets from Wyoming-bound senior Taylor Donaldson to escape with the quarterfinals win.
After being tied at 11 after the first, South Albany won the second quarter by nine and went into halftime up 27-18.
Wilsonville fought back in the third though, winning the frame 16-6 to take the one-point lead as Gabi Moultrie scored seven of team-high 21 points in the quarter.
Moultrie scored another seven in the fourth, but Fareeda ElManhawy was the only other Wildcat to score in the final eight minutes.
Donaldson finished with 13 points, six coming in the fourth, and five rebounds while Kaylee Cordle stepped up and scored 13 points as well and had six steals. Maddie Angel chipped in 11 points.
Addi Smith had 12 points and eight rebounds for Wilsonville to complement Moultrie.
South Albany will get No. 2 Springfield in the semifinals at 8:15 p.m. Friday at Linfield University, Wilsonville will get No. 7 Crook County at 10:45 a.m. Friday in the consolation bracket.
No. 2 Springfield 67, No. 7 Crook County 47: Springfield slowly but surely wore down Crook County and put the game to bed in the fourth quarter to advance to the semifinals.
The Millers won all four quarters and had a halftime lead of 24-17. The scoring picked up in the second half where freshman Nuari Filipe had 12 of her team-high 16 points and also grabbed six of her 10 rebounds.
As it usually goes for all teams in the state tournament, shooting was a little flat for Springfield as it went 1-for-17 from deep. But a 42-26 advantage in rebounds helped the Millers get plenty of extra chances as they outscored the Cowgirls in second chance points 21-11.
Harper Smith had 15 points to lead Crook County while McKinley Sloper had 11 points and eight rebounds. Hayden Decker had 10 points and four steals.
Lia Jones contributed 11 points, five rebounds and three steals for the Millers. Darissa Romero-Ah Sam had 11 points, seven assists and three steals.
Springfield draws No. 3 South Albany in the semifinals with tipoff set for 8:15 p.m. Friday at Linfield University. Crook County moves to the consolation bracket to play No. 6 Wilsonville at 10:45 a.m. Friday.
austinw@osaa.org
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