FOREST GROVE — The Madras White Buffaloes followed a very basic stretegy on offense Thursday — they took what the St. Helens Lions’ defense gave them.
Madras’ Matthew Suppah-Scott scored a game-high 27 points and 13 rebounds and the No. 4 White Buffaloes survived a spirited St. Helens’ comeback in the second half, pulling out a 49-43 victory over the No. 5 Lions in the OSAA/OnPoint Community Credit Union 4A boys basketball quarterfinals at Forest Grove High School.
John Buffalo-Ball and Angelo Perez-Perez added seven points to help send Madras (20-5) in Friday’s semifinal against No. 8 La Grande, a 61-50 winner over top-ranked Scappoose in Thursday’s first quarterfinal.
“It’s good to start the tournament off on a good note,” Suppah-Scott said. “With a tough crowd in here and against a tough opponent, it was good to get a win.
“It feels good going into the second day on the right side of the bracket.”
Madras led 36-21 with less than four minutes to play in the third quarter when St. Helens mounted a furious rally. The Lions closed the third quarter on a 7-0 run and then opened the fourth with a 13-5 burst, tying the score at 41-41 on an Andrew Waite layup with 2:44 remaining.
Buffalo-Ball, Madras’ 6-foot junior wing, then scored the go-ahead basket with 2:28 left, touching off a 6-0 run that helped put the game out of reach.
“I thought we did a great job,” Madras coach Nick Brown said. “We executed well throughout the game and St. Helens did a great job of being resilient and battling back into that one.
“Those last couple of minutes, I thought we executed really well and we got enough defensive stops when we needed them. We just kind of held on for dear life, but got it done when it mattered.”
Waite led St. Helens with 18 points and a game-high 14 rebounds, while Noah Bigham and Tykiem Kearse scored 11 points each for the Lions (18-6).
“We went down double digits, fought back, and got it tied late in the fourth,” St. Helens coach Trenton Minich said. “When you play in the tournament, the margin for error is very small, and Madras just executed at a higher level at times.
“It doesn’t come down to those last two and half minutes. The first half, we didn’t execute our game plan as sharp as we should have. That’s on me. In the tournament, you can’t come back too late. You’ve got to make sure you’re ready to play from the start.”
One of the key turning points in the game came when Madras knocked down its first six shots of the second quarter and went on a 13-5 run to take a 24-14 lead.
Madras then used a 10-3 run at the start of the third quarter to extend the lead to 36-21, but just when it looked as if the game might turn into a blowout, St. Helens stormed back.
Waite’s layup cut the Madras lead to 36-28 with 1:05 to play in the third quarter.
Bigham’s pull-up jumper in the lane trimmed the deficit to 40-39 with 3:23 left in the fourth.
And, finally, Waite’s reverse layup off an offensive rebound tied the score at 41-41 with 2:44 left.
After Buffalo-Ball scored to put Madras back in front, the Lions’ comeback bid was dealt a serious blow when Waite was called for an offensive charge, wiping out a successful layup attempt with just under two minutes remaining.
“That was crucial,” Minich said. “That was big, because that was a potential and-one situation and ended up being a charge. The basket doesn’t count and Madras ends up making one of two free throws right after that, so it’s a big four-point swing.
“After that, we got a couple looks at the end, but Madras did a good job of closing out on our shooters and making sure the lanes shrunk.”
Said Suppah-Scott: “St. Helens hit a bunch of tough shots and eventually tied it. We just had to stay composed, make them take tough shots, and then rebound.”
Madras shot 55.6 percent (20 for 36) from the field to St. Helens’ 40 percent (18 for 45), but the statistic that jumped off the final boxscore was the White Buffaloe’s 43-26 advantage in points in the paint.
"We knew St. Helens wanted to get up and pressure, so we wanted to counteract that as much as we could,” Brown said. “I thought we did a good job of that at times, and I think there was still some room for improvement in that area as well.
“Again, I thought we executed when it mattered most in that last couple of minutes and really got some good buckets and some good stops.”
No. 8 La Grande 61, No. 1 Scappoose 50: Beckett Hutchins had 16 points, nine rebounds, and eight assists for the Tigers, who pulled away in the second half to stun the top-ranked Indians.
Scappoose’s Landon Hood added 16 points, eight rebounds, and two blocked shots as the Tigers (17-10) advanced to the semifinals for the first time since 2010 to face Madras.
Trailing 25-23 at halftime, La Grande outscored Scappoose 19-11 in the third quarter to take a 42-36 lead. The Tigers then went on a 9-5 run at the start of the fourth quarter, taking their largest lead at 53-41 on a Darek Mcilmoil layup with 3:37 to play.
Scappoose got no closer than six the rest of the way.
“I knew all along that we could beat Scappoose,” La Grande coach Shawn Brooks said. “Not many people have believed in us all year, but we believe in ourselves, just trusting the process. Our guys really showed up in the second half after not playing their game in the first half.
“We’re sometimes a second-half team, and we just came alive and started knockin’ down shots. When we went on that first little run on the second half, we started to regain our composure a little bit and slowed down.”
The Tigers shot 54.3 percent (25 for 46) from the field, including a blistering 68.2 percent (15 for 22) with four 3-pointers in the second half.
“Scappoose is an up-and-down team,” Brooks said. “We like to play that way, as well. But we were getting a little out of control and we weren’t playing within our system, so we had a lot of turnovers that we usually don’t make. The turning point game when we started to value the ball a lot better.
“It feels good, but we’re never satisfied. We’re here to win a championship.”
No. 6 Marist Catholic 57, No. 3. Molalla 48: Aarav King scored a game-high 19 points and Colton Boresek had 11 points, leading the Spartans of Eugene over the Indians and into the semifinals for the second time in three seasons.
Marist Catholic’s Gabe Dietmeyer finished with nine points and a game-high 11 rebounds, while Gianni Lombardi added seven points and nine assists for the Spartans (18-7).
King, the 6-foot-2 junior, scored nine of his game-high 19 points in the first quarter, pacing the Spartans to a 16-9 lead.
Marist Catholic led 25-16 at halftime and then opened the third quarter on a 16-4 run that helped break the game open.
Kurt Pederson led Molalla with 14 points, while Grant Brusseau added 13 points and six steals for the Indians (20-6).
No. 10 Estacada 61, No. 15 Hidden Valley 56 (OT): Gavin Gates knocked down a 3-pointer from the left corner that broke a 52-52 tie in overtime and sparked a 9-2 run in overtime that lifted the Rangers over the Mustangs and into Friday’s semifinals.
Gates led all scorers with 25 points and Paul Ables added 15 points for the Rangers, who overcame three technical fouls and then forced a Hidden Valley turnover on the Mustangs’ final possession of the fourth quarter to force overtime.
“I thought we kind of lost of composure a little bit, which is not what we’re trying to build here,” Estacada coach Travis McFarland said. “The technical fouls, I’m very disappointed in that. But the way we rebounded and kept that ‘next-play mentality’ and fought our way back to the lead and everything, that is what we’re building here. That is who the boys are. That’s their character.”
After Hidden Valley’s Evan Neufeld hit two free throws to give the Mustangs a 43-40 lead late in the third quarter, Estacada’s Lincoln Bunyard drilled a 3-pointer that sent the teams into the fourth quarter tied at 43-43.
The teams then traded baskets in the fourth quarter, Estacada scoring first and Hidden Valley answering each time.
In overtime, Gates delivered the first major blow with his 3-pointer from the corner. Ables then broke Hidden Valley’s spirit when he made one of two free throws, then stole the ensuing inbounds pass, scored, got fouled, and made the free throw to give the Rangers a 59-52 lead with 1:52 left.
“Maybe I’m too hard on the boys, but I wasn’t real happy with our shot selection at times,” McFarland said. “I do think we did a better job tonight executing the easy plays. Something we preach all the time is, ‘Just make the simple play. Don’t try to be the star player.’
“I think we did that when it really mattered. So, in those final crunch moments, we stopped with the fancy stuff and we made the easy play and it paid off.”
Cooper Gagnon led Hidden Valley with 16 points, while Mauricio Mendez had 15 points and eight rebounds, and Neufeld added 10 points for the Mustangs (17-9).
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