Philomath High’s No. 4 simply couldn’t miss — and the early barrage of points pushed visiting North Marion off the cliff in what ended up as a 78-61 Oregon West Conference victory on Friday night.
Dreyton Nuño wears that uniform number and as a sophomore getting accustomed to a starting role this season, he averages in the single digits. But against the Huskies, a team coming off an upset win over title contender Newport, Nuño put on a 3-point shooting clinic early in the first quarter. He hit treys at 6:40, 5:50, 5:20 and 3:02 to help the Warriors to a 16-2 lead.
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“I think I was just on tonight and so whenever I got the ball, I was just going to shoot it,” Nuño said. “When you’re on, you just go until you miss and so I kind of did that.”
Nuño finished the game with 18 points, sharing the team’s high-scoring honors with junior Jamin Peters.
“Oh my goodness, no,” Peters said when asked if he’d ever seen Nuño shoot with such accuracy. “Everything was going in the bank, everything. He couldn’t miss.”
Veteran coach Blake Ecker certainly enjoyed the early run.
“He’ll hit two or three sometimes like that but not four in a row, that’s pretty sweet,” he said.
Nuño had a similar performance in a Jan. 10 victory at Astoria when he buried three 3-pointers in the first quarter and finished the game with four.
“In front of the home crowd, it’s just so much more electric,” Nuño said. “I had a lot of fun, it was awesome.”
Nuño knew the importance of Philomath (12-7 overall, 6-1 Oregon West) getting off to a good start against the Huskies. He had seen North Marion do the same thing in that upset win earlier this week over Newport.
“After that first quarter, they’re already feeling like, ‘oh shoot, we’re down 15’ and it makes them mad at each other and it makes it easier for us to kind of relax.”
The scoring was infectious as the Warriors pulled away in the opening frame. Besides Nuño and Peters, junior Hamish McConnell drilled a 3-pointer and junior Esias Sapp’s fast-break basket put Philomath up 24-2.
North Marion (8-13, 1-6) started to find more of a rhythm on offense in the second quarter in an attempt to scale the cliff. By the break, Philomath’s lead was down to 14.
“They’re aggressive and they kind of came back on us a little bit but then we would come back. So it was a good job of our guys staying with it,” Ecker said. “But we kind of got after them at halftime because we allowed 25 points in that second quarter.”
Peters was responsible for the majority of Philomath’s points in the second quarter when he scored 10 of his 18. That carried over a bit into the second half as part of the home team never allowed North Marion to get any closer than 14.
“You’ve got to play defense, you’ve got to block out on 3s,” Peters said.
Sapp picked up a third foul in the opening seconds of the second half and went to the bench. But in the fourth, he finished strong with eight of his 15 points coming over a span of 4:54. Sapp was moving the ball well on the court, also, and had a team-high nine assists.
The defense created all kinds of issues for the visitors. Ecker mentioned McConnell’s improved play.
“He’s starting to really work and be more disciplined on that,” Ecker said. “He held his guy (senior Miles Gianella) to five points, which I think he had 21 in the last game up there.”
McConnell had a team-best seven rebounds in the victory. Sophomore Cole Barron came off the bench and grabbed five. Sapp also had five boards.
Overall, the Warriors made the visitors work to get anything done on offense. The Huskies were hampered by several turnovers.
“We got our hands on the ball quite a bit and got some tips and scored a little bit out of transition,” Ecker said.
Senior Lucas Fowler led North Marion with 14 points. Sophomore Ezra Workman added 11 and senior Riley Jones had 10.
Philomath is in the mix statewide as well with the most-recent OSAA rankings listing the Warriors at No. 7.
“There’s so much parity in the whole state,” Ecker said. “It’s almost like anybody can beat anyone.”
The Warriors have played three of the teams ranked ahead of them — falling to No. 2 Scappoose on the road by five points, losing in a bad way at home earlier this month to No. 4 Newport and beating No. 6 Marist Catholic by double digits back in December.
“It’s really random,” Peters said about 4A’s parity. “It depends on who has the better night.”
As far as the Oregon West, assistant coach Aaron Schermerhorn often reminds players that the title is there for the taking and Ecker has been saying all along that the Warriors would be contenders in what he sees as a balanced conference.
“This league is wide open for us,” Nuño said. “We’ve just got to execute, improve each practice and come into the game like, ‘hey, this is the game’ and not think about the next game.”
Philomath will play two of its last three on the road — this coming Tuesday at Cascade and in the regular-season finale at Newport on Feb. 24. Only one home game remains with a Feb. 20 matchup against Stayton.
“We’re in first place right now but we have to keep grinding,” Ecker said. “I mean, those are three tough games right there. I consider every game tough, it’s not easy.”
Philomath 78, North Marion 61
Friday, Feb. 13, at Philomath HS
NORTH MARION (61)
Lucas Fowler 4 4-5 14, Miles Gianella 1 3-4 5, Raef Hammack 3 0-0 6, Riley Jones 2 6-10 10, Matthew Patzer 0 0-0 0, Ezra Workman 3 3-5 11, Landon Ashpole 1 1-2 4, Luke Hopper 2 3-3 9, Elias Gonzalez-Trujillo 1 0-2 2. Totals 17 20-31 61.
PHILOMATH (78)
Dreyton Nuño 6 2-4 18, Kaden Howard 2 0-0 4, Hamish McConnell 2 1-2 6, Esias Sapp 6 3-4 15, Jamin Peters 9 0-0 18, Lucas Lewetag 0 0-0 0, Cole Barron 3 0-2 6, Josiah Peters 1 2-2 5, Ace Gerding 1 0-0 3, Nathan Seits 1 1-2 3, Isaiah Hood 0 0-0 0, Jones 0 0-0 0. Totals 31 9-16 78.
Team 1 2 3 4 F North Marion (8-13, 1-6) 5 25 13 18 61 Philomath (12-7, 6-1) 24 20 13 21 78
3-Point Goals—North Marion 7 (Fowler 2, Workman 2, Hopper 2, Ashpole), Philomath 7 (Nuño 4, McConnell, Gerding, Jo. Peters). Fouled Out—None. Total Fouls—North Marion 14, Philomath 17. Technicals—None.