CORVALLIS — Tipping off the season on Crescent Valley’s court Thursday night, Philomath High’s boys basketball team had trouble keeping pace with a Class 5A school that showed flashes of dynamic ability around the hoop.
Truman Brasfield, 6-foot-2 senior with strong, elusive moves, finished with a game-high 14 points and senior teammate Lucas Ikjaer added 10 all in the first half as the Raiders pulled away for a 55-33 win over the 4A Warriors.
Gallery: PHS boys basketball at Crescent Valley (Dec. 5, 2024)
A collection of photos from Philomath High’s 55-33 boys basketball loss at Crescent Valley on Thursday.
“I can’t say that we didn’t play real hard,” PHS coach Blake Ecker said. “They’re a good ballclub and they’re going to be really good down the road. They were better than us and they handed it to us.”
Crescent Valley (1-0) had an advantage with guard play but the Warriors held their own underneath.
“I was pleased with our post,” Ecker said. “We were able to get it inside and get it inside deep to be able to try to score in there. There are things we need to clean up there, too, with ball fakes and they had a lot of blocked shots.”
Philomath (0-1) came out strong and held an 11-8 lead with 3:23 left in the first quarter. Senior Zack Powers got the Warriors on the board when he took a pass from senior Logan Matthews and finished while drawing a foul. A successful free throw completed the three-point play to tie the game at 3-3.
Junior Josiah Peters scored on a reverse layup and then the defense made a stop on the other end with senior Hudson Raab getting a board. Philomath took its first lead at the 4:47 mark on a Matthews jumper with an assist going to senior Caleb Russell.
The Warriors extended their lead to 9-6 with Powers scoring underneath with another assist to Russell. After CV broke the 6-0 scoring run with an Ikjaer jump shot, Philomath came back and scored for an 11-8 lead on another Powers hoop with an assist to Matthews.
But the game saw a momentum shift on Crescent Valley’s next possession. Following a teammate’s miss, CV’s Brasfield fought for an offensive rebound and then went up for a slam dunk. The play sparked a 10-0 run that continued into the first minute of the second quarter.
Philomath cut the deficit to five on a Russell jumper but the Raiders built a 14-point lead by halftime.
“The predicament of our offense is trying to get the ball going downhill towards the basket to score and give us a better opportunity,” Ecker said. “We really didn’t do that all that well today effectively.”
Philomath’s offense struggled in the third quarter and failed to score until the 1:55 mark when Powers worked hard inside for two points. Sophomore Jamin Peters had a nice defensive play in the final seconds with a blocked shot but the team trailed 43-21 going into the fourth.
A lot of fouls bogged down the final eight minutes as both teams scored a dozen points. Jamin Peters scored Philomath’s first two points on foul shots and Raab added a free throw a couple of minutes later but the Warriors finished on a fairly high note with some shots going in over the final 3:05. That’s when Jamin Peters fought for an offensive rebound, scored on a put-back, drew a foul and then hit the free throw for the traditional three-point play.
In the time that remained, sophomore Kaden Howard scored on a fast break, sophomore Hamish McConnell finished on a put-back and sophomore Esias Sapp scored with an assist to Howard.
Powers had a team-high nine points for the Warriors. Jamin Peters came off the bench to score eight.
Ecker’s message to his team following the game revolved around attitude — a piece of the puzzle that he sees as important to develop a team that plays in sync down the road.
“I thought we had a negative attitude today and we need to go to the positive side,” Ecker said, adding that he saw situations of teammates pointing blame at each other. “We have to take accountability for ourselves of what we do and we have to have a more positive attitude.”
The team will continue to work on all facets as a very tough December schedule awaits, beginning with a 7 p.m. Saturday home game against Junction City.
“We have to change the way we are in terms of how we are in practice with talking to each other,” Ecker said. “We’ve got to play together as a team. It’s going to be a rough road basically with our schedule coming and we can either take a positive outlook out of it or if we get negative, it’s going to spiral right down the drain.”
