Oregon 4A Boys Hoops

Final Score: Cascade 50 Philomath 49

Ty May is a phenomenal player, but if almost all of his attempts are coming from behind the three point arc–even if they’re wide open–that’s an issue.

Philomath simply couldn’t get the ball into the paint in the first half, and it’s not reasonable to say it cost them the game. Yes, Cascade hitting as many 3-point shots in the first half as they did didn’t help. Yes, the pace being thoroughly in Cascade’s favor was an issue. Yes, Cascade being able to manipulate the Philomath zone was a hurdle. None of that, however, would have had nearly as much of an impact if Philomath had been able to get the ball in the painted area consistently before the latter second half. Trading buckets, trading defensive breakdowns, trading runs of any kind would have made the deficit more manageable for when the Warriors…

Final Score: Junction City 83 Marist 70

Few teams can put on a ball movement clinic quite like Junction City.

Gunner Rothenberger, Cooper Rothenberger, Court Knabe, Jaxson Kister, etc… what an incredibly unselfish group.

Kister’s outside shooting put the game away in the first half for all intents and purposes, but the ball movement and easy opportunities the Tigers continued to create–despite a solid Marist defensive effort–put it out of reach for the Spartans. It was going to be nearly impossible for Marist to keep Junction City from scoring in three, nonetheless four or five, consecutive possessions in order to mount a comeback. As soon as the early lead was established, the game was over. Junction City defensively gave up little space to Marist. Despite the final mark of having given up 70 points, a large chunk of that occurred in the 4th quarter simply to cut down the final…

Final Score: Cascade 79 Stayton 52

God bless Garrett Callsen. Without him cleaning up the boards, this would’ve been over before halftime.

Cascade, when allowed to isolate one-on-one in the half court offensively, is almost unstoppable. It didn’t matter if it was Landon Knox, either of the Horne twins, or Rogue Newton, if a Stayton defender was left on an island it was over. The only respite, the only saving grace for Stayton on the defensive end was shots that rimmed out and found their way into Garret Callsen’s hands, that was it. Offensively the Eagles couldn’t maintain possession of the ball, couldn’t produce quality looks, and couldn’t create enough second chance opportunities to make up for either of those shortcomings. Cascade played phenomenally defensively–with those components, essentially being able to press with five guards, or four guards and athletic freak Anthony Best it’s really hard to NOT play well…

Final: Cascade 88 Marist 35

Familiar theme, unfamiliar result.

This was entirely uncompetitive. There was no moment in the game, no stretch in time where Marist had ground to stand on, nonetheless the upper hand. No defensive rotation, no offensive set could’ve kept Marist in it. They were at an athletic disadvantage from the outset both on the inside and on the perimeter. Marist is a good team, Cascade is a great team. But even that doesn’t fully account for the 53 point margin.

Cascade kept their foot on the pedal throughout the game, from start to finish. The press was pulled off after Cascade built an 18-3 lead in less than five minutes in the first quarter, but passivity or even a tap on the brakes didn’t happen until there was a running clock. Cascade didn’t empty the bench until the 6:50 mark of the 4th, up 80-30.

Landon…