Confident, relaxed and motivated. And along with those qualities, a whole lot of talent on the basketball court.
Any and all of those descriptions could be applied to Philomath High’s Preston Kramer. The team’s top scorer this season, the Warriors senior unleashed a vicious scoring assault on visiting Amity Wednesday night with 29 points in a 59-35 victory.
Gallery: PHS boys basketball vs. Amity (Jan. 3, 2024)
A collection of photos from Philomath High’s 59-35 boys basketball victory over Amity on Wednesday
Among those qualities, you could probably add modesty.
“I just want our team to win,” Kramer said afterward. “I mean, a bunch of people stepped up tonight — Caleb (Russell) came in and hit a bunch of 3s, Connor (Harms) played great, Kaden (Muir) played great. I think everyone played really good tonight and did their job.”
Kramer pretty much took over the game in the third quarter. He scored all 13 of Philomath’s points to give the home team a 25-point advantage heading into the fourth. Amity (5-7), a 3A school that was trying to even its season record, played toe-to-toe with Philomath through the first eight minutes.
“We talked about getting some points in transition — having our defense create more offense for us in this game and we did,” PHS coach Blake Ecker said. “They got after it and flew around, got loose balls … the 50/50 balls were mainly ours — they didn’t get many.”
Philomath (8-3) trailed 10-7 with less than two minutes left in the first but led 14-12 by the end of the quarter. The game remained close through the first 2-1/2 minutes of the second quarter with the Warriors hanging on to a 19-17 lead.
Kramer then buried a 3-pointer at the 5-minute mark to spark the Warriors to a 15-1 run.
“I was wondering, who are we going to be tonight?” Ecker said about the close score early on. “I thought, OK, is this going to be a barnburner, are we going to have to figure this out? But they started defending really well. … In the second and third quarter, we really shut them down and really put the nail in the coffin.”
Russell started for the second straight game in place of the injured Jacob Peters. The PHS junior hit three 3-pointers — including the first points of the evening from beyond the top of the key. Senior Mason Stearns came off the bench and buried a couple of 3s of his own and junior Hudson Raab put in quality minutes.
“I know Huddy didn’t score but he came in and played really well defensively; keeps a lot of energy and spark, so I was really happy with him,” Ecker said when asked about players off the bench. “Mason had a couple of buckets as well, so you know, a much better performance.”
It’s those types of performances that the Warriors need to complement Kramer’s scoring contributions.
“It’s just getting people to have the confidence to step up because I mean, we’re going to need them in the big games,” Kramer said. “As their confidence keeps growing, I think they’re just going to keep playing great.”
After leading 34-18 at halftime, Philomath pulled away for good in the third quarter behind Kramer’s scoring outburst. It didn’t matter where he shot from the floor, Kramer was hitting nothing but net.
In fact, he was one of only three PHS players to score a field goal in the second half — the others being 3-pointers from Stearns and junior Elijah Bush. Meanwhile, the Warriors defense kept Amity’s top shooters in check.
Philomath will next play on Tuesday with a home game against Estacada. The tip-off in that one is scheduled for 7 p.m.
