Playing with a share of the Oregon West Conference title on the line, the Philomath High School boys basketball team led by double digits at halftime in Tuesday night’s showdown at Cascade. But the Cougars tied the game by the end of the third quarter and then pulled away in the fourth to take a 49-44 victory.
Although the Warriors took one on the chin from the defending state champions for the fifth time over the past two seasons, Blake Ecker’s contingent secured second place in the final league standings to earn an automatic berth into the Class 4A playoffs. The Warriors are seeded fifth and will host a first-round game on March 1 against the No. 12 seed.
Philomath (17-6) has scheduled an extra game to be played at 7 p.m. Friday against Astoria (18-5) on the court at Banks High School. The Fishermen also qualified for state as the Cowapa League’s runner-up.
The Warriors got off to a good start against Cascade with an 8-2 run over the game’s first 3 minutes, 21 seconds. Senior Preston Kramer was in form with two free throws, a drive to the hoop and a jump shot. Senior Kaden Muir was also in on the early scoring on a strong move to the basket.
But Philomath failed to score over the final four minutes and Cascade cut the deficit to two points. The Warriors regrouped in the second quarter with 19 points over the eight-minute stretch. Muir, senior Jacob Peters and junior Logan Matthews each had two hoops and Kramer added to his total with another basket.
Philomath took its first double-digit lead with 5:29 left in the first half when Kramer came up with a steal and got the ball to Matthews for a fast-break bucket. About a minute later after the Cougars scored, Matthews hit a 3-pointer for a 19-8 advantage.
The two teams traded baskets and the Philomath lead hovered in the nine- to 11-point range for a few possessions before the Warriors went up by 13 at the 2:16 mark when Muir cut through the lane to the hoop.
Cascade got back to within eight with under a minute in the half only to see Philomath go back up by 10 at the buzzer. On the play, Muir grabbed an offensive rebound and quickly scored to give his team a 27-17 lead.
Philomath hit a wall offensively in the third quarter but still led by 10 three minutes in with Harms scoring a couple of hoops. Cascade went on a 12-2 run over the final five minutes and the game was tied 33-33 going into the fourth quarter.
The Cougars appeared energized from their third-quarter success and carried the momentum over to the fourth. Philomath’s Matthews hit a foul shot for a 34-33 lead in the opening seconds of the quarter but Cascade soon had the lead on a Kaiden Ford basket. The home crowd went crazy with 6:20 left in the game on an Anthony Best slam dunk that put Cascade up 39-34. The five-point advantage held up for the Cougars through the final buzzer.
Best scored 17 points and Landon Knox threw in 16 for Cascade (19-4).
For Philomath, Kramer finished with 16 on five field goals and 6 of 7 on free throws. Muir and Matthews each had eight.
