FOREST GROVE — When the Marist Catholic Spartans needed someone to step up in crunch time, Bodey Drennan answered the bell.
Drennan scored nine of his 14 points in the fourth quarter as the No. 6 Spartans of Eugene defeated the No. 8 La Grande Tigers 57-55 in Saturday’s championship final of the OSAA/OnPoint Community Credit Union 4A boys basketball tournament at Forest Grove High School.
Marist Catholic’s Gianni Lombardi scored a team-high 15 points and Gabe Dietmeyer added 11 points and 10 rebounds to help send the Spartans (20-7) to their sixth state title and first since 2008.
“We had confidence in each other and we knew we'd get it done,” Lombardi said. “The keys were just staying strong, not putting our heads down when things didn’t go our way in the beginning, and then just coming back and just having faith.”
Marist Catholic trailed by as many as 12 points midway through the second quarter, but pulled even in the third quarter and then put the game away with an 8-0 run that gave the Spartans a 55-47 lead with less than 30 seconds to play.
“We just kind of persevered,” Marist Catholic coach Bart Pollard said. “Obviously, it wasn’t quite the start that we’ve had the last couple of days, but this team has been pretty resilient.
“This is everybody’s dream. I’m just so proud of these guys. I’m so happy for them. We just improved so much through the year and this is exactly what you hope for the teams that you coach — that they get an opportunity to do this, because this is amazing.”
La Grande’s Tyler Abbott hit a 3-pointer as time expired to cap a frantic 8-2 run over the final 22 seconds for the Tigers, who came up one possession shy of a possible state title.
“It’s a tough one to lose,” La Grande coach Shawn Brooks said. “We missed a lot of shots that we usually make around the rim, which was unfortunate, and we kind of got lost a couple of times on defense where Marist really punished us with 3s or went backdoor for easy buckets.
“The other thing that kinda hurt was giving up a lead that we’d built — something we kinda been doing all year, but we’d usually battle back and get another lead. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to do that tonight.”
The game was tied 39-39 when Drennan, Marist Catholic’s 6-foot junior guard, buried a 3-pointer from the right wing on the opening possession of the fourth quarter to give the Spartans the lead.
Three possessions later, Drennan struck again, driving along the right baseline and scoring on an acrobatic reverse layup. He also got fouled on the play and made the free throw, giving Marist Catholic a 45-41 with 6:02 remaining.
“I’ve been doing that move forever,” Drennan said. “I’ve practiced it ever since I was a little kid. My coach hates it, but that was the right time to go for it. I felt good and I was confident. And it went in.
“Once that went in, that gave us a bunch of momentum and I think our team was pretty confident that we could go on and win a state championship.”
La Grande fought back, using a pair of Abbott free throws to tie the score at 47-47 with 4:27 to play.
Marist Catholic responded with a play that appeared to be going nowhere, but ended with Dietmeyer knocking down a deep 3-pointer from the right side with an assist from — guess who? — Drennan, putting the Spartans ahead 50-47 with 3:55 left.
Over the next three minutes, it was almost all Spartans.
First, Drennan hit a pull-up jumper from the foul line that made it 52-47. Then Aarav King knocked down a free throw, 53-47. Dietmeyer hit a free throw, 54-47. Drennan made a free throw, 55-47. Landon Hood scored for La Grande, 55-49. And, finally, King hit two free throws that made it 57-49 with 20.3 seconds to play.
“That was the most fun I’ve ever had,” Drennan said. “This is an unbelievable feeling. The adversity that this team has gone through this year with injuries and everything … I just can’t believe that we made it all the way here.”
Drennan sat out Thursday’s 57-48 quarterfinal win over Molalla with a sprained right ankle, but was cleared to play in Friday’s semifinal game and had seven points in 17 minutes off the bench in a 63-47 win over Estacada.
He was on the bench to start Saturday’s final, but was on the floor for all eight minutes of the fourth quarter when he scored nine points on 3-for-5 shooting from the field with one 3-pointer, two free throws, one assist, and a steal.
“Bodey’s been like that all season when he’s been healthy,” Pollard said. “With him coming off that injury this week, he just stepped up, played through it, and found a way. He really led us in that fourth quarter, that’s for sure.”
Marist Catholic’s Colton Boresek also played a key role with his defense in the second half against La Grande’s Beckett Hutchins. The Tigers’ sharpshooter scored nine points on 3-for-6 shooting with three 3-pointers in the first half, but had only five points on 2-for-3 shooting with one trey in the second half when he had Boresek chasing him all over the floor.
“Hutchins is such a good shooter,” Pollard said. “It feels like if he’s got any space, he’s going to make the shot. So, it was great to see Colton step up, make an adjustment, and be real physical, which he’s capable of doing. He’s a good one. I’m glad he plays for us.”
Boresek’s efforts didn’t go unnoticed on the La Grande bench.
“I think Beckett was 4-for-6 from 3-point range when Marist really locked him down in the second half, just making his life not easy,” Brooks said. “Some of our plays that we were running weren’t getting him open. They were just trailing him real hard and being physical. So, congrats to Marist on doing a great job of stopping one of our best scorers.”
Lombardi, one of five Marist Catholic seniors and an all-tournament, first-team selection, finished with 15 points, eight rebounds, five assists and two steals. Boresek added 10 points, and King had seven pints, four rebounds, and three blocked shots for the Spartans.
Abbott led all scorers with 17 points for the Tigers, who shot 37.9 percent (22 for 58) from the field to Marist Catholic’s 41.2 percent (21 for 51). Darek Mcilmoil finished with nine points and 10 rebounds, and Hood added seven points, four rebounds, five assists, one blocked shot, and a steal.
“Our season is bittersweet now that it’s come to an end,” said Brooks, whose team graduates three seniors — Blake Hildebrandt, Mathias Fields, and Hood. “We’ve got a group of great kids, elite kids that are great for the community. I’m sad that it’s over, but I think we shocked the world, especially our community.
“We’ve got some juniors coming back and some sophomores that got this experience as well. They maybe didn’t get a lot of minutes, but they got to soak up the atmosphere and got to see what it takes to win up here. So, yeah, the future is still bright for us and we’re going to get to work when we can this spring to get ready for next year.”
No. 4 Madras 67, No. 10 Estacada 53: Madras’ Matthew Suppah-Scott scored 17 of his game-high 23 points in the second half, leading the White Buffaloes to the win over their Tri-Valley Conference rival in Saturday’s third-place game.
Kiellan Allen finished with 15 points and six rebounds, and John Buffalo-Ball added 15 points, six rebounds, and seven steals for the White Buffaloes, who closed the third quarter on a 15-6 run that turned a one-point deficit into a 55-47 lead.
Madras (21-6), coming off Friday’s 62-56 semifinal loss to La Grande, maintained at least an eight-point cushion the rest of the way.
“It was a hard loss to the good team Friday, but the way we bounced back today was good,” Suppah-Scott said. “To end our season on a win, that’s something most teams don’t get to do. We had a lot to play for.
“It would have obviously been better to be playing at 6:30 p.m. and playing for either first or second. But it’s good to be going home with the third-place trophy.”
Said Madras coach Nick Brown: “I’m just super-proud of our effort and energy and our ability to stick together. It’s just a special group of young men and I’m happy that we were able to bounce back and finish on a strong note today.”
The White Buffaloes are set to graduate three seniors — Troy Adams, Angelo Perez-Perez, and Suppah-Scott — but will return a solid nucleus that includes starters Allen and Buffalo-Ball.
“Two years ago, we finished fourth,” Brown said. “Now, finishing third, we’ll continue to build off of that. We graduate three seniors this year, but we’ve got a lot of these guys who are going to be a part of our team next year. We also want to appreciate the moment and all the hard work it took to get here.”
Estacada grabbed the lead briefly twice in the third quarter, the last time after a Dane Carpenter layup gave the Rangers a 41-40 edge with just under four minutes to play in the period.
Suppah-Scott then made one of two free throws and Allen followed with a layup, igniting the 15-6 run that helped put the White Buffaloes in front to stay.
“You’ve got to push past some tiredness and stick together when times get tough,” Brown said. “ I thought we did a great job of that today.
“Estacada did a great job of continuing to battle back and making it a close game where we had to push it and push it and push it. We were finally able to extend it there at the end, but credit to both teams for just playing hard over these past three days.”
Duke Durand led Estacada with 11 points, but was the only player to score in double figures of the Rangers. Estacada’s three senior starters — Connor Crawford, Gavin Gates, and Ables — scored a combined 19 points on 7-for-16 shooting from the field in their final appearance for the Rangers (16-11).
No. 1 Scappoose 67, No. 3 Molalla 56: Scappoose’s William Kessi led all scorers with 19 points on 7-for-12 shooting from the field with five 3-pointers, leading the Cowapa League-champion Indians over the Indians of the Tri-Valley Conference in Saturday’s fourth-place game.
Brayden Miller added 17 points, seven rebounds, and seven assists for Scappoose, which bounced back from a 61-50 loss to La Grande in Thursday’s quarterfinals to finish the season at 22-6.
Tied at 41-41 late in the third quarter, Miller converted a pair of free throws and Kessi followed with a 3-pointer that gave Scappoose a 46-41 lead.
Scappoose opened the fourth quarter on a 9-2 run, using another Kessi trey to extend the lead to 55-43.
Molalla’s Kurt Pederson scored on a layup to cut the deficit to 57-50 with just under three minutes remaining, but that was as close as the Indians came down the stretch.
Pederson led Molalla with 18 points, while Grant Brusseau had 16 points, and nine rebounds. The Indians (21-7) got another 11 points from Camdyn Morey.
jimbeseda@gmail.com
Subscribe
