For the past four years, Summit boys basketball ended the season playing for a state title.
The Storm made the 6A state final in 2022 and went to the final game the past three years in 5A.
And after a 13-2 start to their OSAA/OnPoint Community Credit Union 5A state semifinal matchup with Intermountain Conference foe No. 1 Crook County, it looked like another storm was brewing.
Instead, the Cowboys, playing in the program’s first ever state semifinal at any level, went to their big-man senior Bryce Lowenbach and got some decisive 3-pointers from junior Uriah Yustat in the fourth quarter to come away with the 68-55 win.
Crook County will play for the program’s first state title against No. 3 Parkrose at 2:15 p.m. Saturday, March 14 at Linfield University.
“We couldn’t get down on our teammates, shots weren’t falling in the first quarter overall,” Yustat said. “You just have to keep looking forward, keep your eyes ahead. We know one quarter doesn’t dictate the whole entire basketball game.”
Junior Andy Bledsoe got the Storm started by draining two triples in the first few minutes of the game. Summit lost the first meeting between these two in Prineville 59-49, but returned favor at home with an 85-60 win.
The Cowboys struggled to even get a look on offense as Summit forced turnovers and bad shot decisions in the opening minutes.
“We just needed one thing,” Lowenbach said of trying to get out of the early 13-2 hole. “One thing to go, one thing to fall, one play to go our way and I think we are going to be able to right the ship. And I think that’s what kind of happened.”
That one big thing was Lowenbach as the Cowboys started to feed the big man and he went to work. The senior scored the first seven points for Crook County before senior Gabriel Lopez hit a 3-pointer toward the end of the first to bring it to a 13-10 deficit.
“When you have this many seniors, there’s no real magic words that you say to these guys, they kind of have the magic words for themselves,” Crook County head coach Jason Mumm said of the turnaround. “I’m pretty lucky as a coach to get to coach a group like this because they’ve been there. They kind of know, they’ve been in tough situations and have played together for so long.”
Feeding Lowenbach wasn’t broken, so Crook County didn’t try to fix it in the second quarter as the man wearing No. 15 displayed his fancy footwork to get easy buckets at the rim.
Defensively, the Cowboys dug in as well and only gave up eight in the second quarter as Summit star Foster Kettering was also dealing with three fouls.
“Bryce is special, there’s no other way to put it,” Yustat said. “It’s great to have him on the team. He’s the heart and soul and we feed off of his energy every game, night in and night out. He always comes out and does his thing.”
Ultimately it was a 26-21 halftime lead for the Cowboys, but there’s a reason Summit has been to six state semifinals post 2007.
The Storm battled back to win the third quarter as their plethora of options each found some success. Kettering scored six, senior Caleb Branch hit a 3-pointer and scored five, and senior Matthew Tompkins scored four.
Summit retook the lead in the final minute of the third, but that’s when Yustat started to heat up, hitting a corner three right before the horn to put Crook County up 41-40 going into the fourth.
“Those were huge, he’s been doing it all season,” Lowenbach said of Yustat’s shooting. “Had an off day (Wednesday), so we knew today he was going to be knock-down from anywhere. As soon as we got into that high post, I knew I could swing it to him.”
The lead changed twice in the first four minutes of the fourth when Bledsoe hit another 3-pointer for Summit to go up 47-46, but was immediately responded to by the Cowboys with a three from Yustat to make it 49-47 Cowboys.
Crook County got a stop, then Lowenbach hit a cutting Ke’nan Twigg for a layup to go up 51-47 with 4:05 to go.
Both sides traded possessions before it was Twigg again getting an offensive putback to make it 53-47 Crook County with 3:30 to go.
“We knew it was going to come down to the little things,” Mumm said. “(Twigg) taking a couple charges, big offensive rebounds and putbacks. … It was a full team win.”
Summit scored again, but Yustat hit another 3-pointer. Lowenbach took over for the next few possessions and then senior Jace Jonas hit a running jumper as the Cowboys simply had an answer for each Storm bucket.
With 1:22 to go, Yustat hit the dagger with his fifth 3-pointer of the night to make it a 63-53 lead with only 1:13 to go.
“I knew going in that they were going to fall,” Yustat said. “First game (against Crater), I was like 1-for-8, I didn’t really have a good shooting game. But if they’re going to leave me open I’m going to shoot it every single time.”
“It’s been someone different all season, it just happened to be Uriah today,” Mumm said. “He had those big threes, he’s capable of that. He stepped up and knocked them down.”
Yustat finished with 17 points while Lowenbach had 26 points, 19 rebounds, four assists and four blocks. Jonas had 13 points and four rebounds, while senior Hoyt Kudlac was the unsung hero with no points scored, but 10 rebounds, five assists and two steals.
Bledsoe led the Storm with 19 points on three made triples while Kettering had 12 points and Tompkins added in 10.
For Crook County, whose fans and students packed the Ted Wilson Gymnasium, the win couldn’t have been sweeter.
“You could ask everybody in Prineville, they know about us and they’ve been to a game,” Lowenbach said. “It would mean the world to them if we could bring back a trophy for them because they give so much to us. It’s a true community out there, everybody knows each other. It’s a great place to be, I wouldn’t have it any other way, I wouldn’t want to represent a different town.”
Summit will take on No. 15 Centennial in the third/fifth place game at 12:30 p.m. Saturday after the Eagles fell to No. 3 Parkrose 77-54 in the second semifinal.
The Cowboys get Parkrose who, like them, only have one loss to a 5A team this year that came during league play. The Broncos haven’t won a state boys basketball title since 1982.
Both sides will be hungry as the Broncos speed matches the Cowboys senior leadership. But only one will come out on top.
“Try to play good basketball,” Lowenbach said of the title game. “They play a different brand of basketball than we do. I think that if we play our game and we play how we want to play I think we’ll have a good shot.”
No. 3 Parkrose 77, No. 15 Centennial 54: The semifinal was another third-time matchup as the two NWOC foes in Parkrose and Centennial met up. The Broncos won both games 77-67 at Centennial and 79-68 at home.
Boasting a distinct size and depth advantage, the Eagles were looking to score early and often in the paint behind 6-foot-11 sophomore Dakari Mitchell, and even 6-foot-10 junior Sebastian Larsen who played sparingly throughout the year.
It kept the first quarter close, but eventually the tenacious Parkrose defense started to break through in the second by causing turnovers and turning it into easy points on the other end.
Parkrose led 35-25 at halftime, but was met with some foul trouble in the third frame. Sophomore Jayden Hall and senior Keion James both picked up their fourth foul in the third and junior Keone Gates and senior Varryk Hardges both had three.
Centennial used all the free throws to pull within 48-40 after the third, but the Eagles wouldn’t get any closer.
Gates hit a 3-pointer to start the fourth and the Broncos started to roll from there as the Eagles offense wasn’t getting to the line and couldn’t buy a bucket.
Hall made a 3-pointer with 4:47 to put Parkrose up 60-45, then later had back-to-back buckets inside to balloon the lead to 66-47 with 3:07 to go.
"We started off in the third quarter, we into a little foul trouble," Hall said. "(Head coach Kendrick Williams) talked us through it and we just had to overcome adversity. We dialed in when it mattered and what mattered was getting the W."
Hall finished with 20 points and four rebounds while senior Adrian “Fuzzy” Montague led the team with 22 points and four assists. Gates had 15 points.
"Great fourth quarter, (Hall) was in foul trouble as well but he was finishing around the bucket," Williams said. "Centennial has some big guys and they're really good. We couldn't take them for granted, take them lightly. We knew we just had to play basketball."
Sincere Powe led the Eagles with 16 points, Drake Walsh had 14 points and six rebounds, and Quentin Neal had 10 points.
Centennial will take on Summit in the third/fifth place game at 12:30 p.m. Saturday.
Parkrose advances to its first state final since 1982, which is also the last year the Broncos won the title. They are 3-0 all-time in championship games.
It’ll be Broncos versus Cowboys in the final after Crook County took out Summit. The title game is set for 2:15 p.m. Saturday, March 14 at Linfield University.
austinw@osaa.org
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