Philomath High’s Preston Kramer was in the zone.
Taking advantage of a rare circumstance that saw the Warriors hosting a 6A opponent in the PHS gym, Kramer scored 40 points to boost the home team past Roseburg, 74-67.
“We all wanted to beat them because, you know, they’re a good 6A team,” Kramer said about the Indians, which make the trek back south with a 7-5 record. “We just came out with a bunch of energy and had a really good first half. We came out in the third quarter and kind of let them come back a little bit but you know, we got it back together. It was a really fun game to play.”
And it was a really fun performance to watch for Warriors fans. Kramer’s performance from a statistical standpoint has likely not been seen on the PHS boys basketball court since the Cal Stueve or Ben DeSaulnier days.
“Not too shabby,” PHS coach Blake Ecker said. “He did a great job attacking the basket and just really had some tough finishing shots, so I was impressed by that. He kept his composure … he ended up getting four fouls but still, he played through that and did a great job.”
The two teams played back and forth through the first five minutes, although numerous fouls disrupted the pace of the game. The contest even started with a technical foul on Roseburg for dunking during warm-ups.
Leading by one point, the Warriors went on a 12-2 run over a four-minute stretch late in the first and early in the second. Kramer fueled the separation by scoring the team’s last eight points of the opening period. The only basket for the Indians during the run came on a Michael Bosley buzzer beater.
After Philomath had led by as many as 15 points in the second quarter, Roseburg went on a 7-1 run to close the half and trailed by nine at the break. To open the third, the Warriors took a 41-30 lead on a Caleb Russell 3-pointer and Kramer basket. But the Indians answered with a 14-3 run to tie the score at 44, a slam by senior guard Mykah Mendoza being one of the highlights.
Later with 1:23 left in the third, Roseburg took a 50-48 lead on a Mendoza 3-pointer. But by the end of the quarter, the Warriors regained the lead on a Jacob Peters 3-pointer at the buzzer.
“Basketball, it’s just a game of runs, and they went on a nice little run and we settled pretty well,” Kramer said about Roseburg’s comeback. “I think we stayed calm and got it back together and played good after that.”
Junior Logan Matthews buried a 3-pointer to open the fourth for the Warriors and Roseburg never recovered to challenge down the stretch. The Indians were down by five with 5:23 left but Kramer and Peters were too much of them to handle the rest of the way.
“They were missing one of their players (Owen Bentea), a pretty good player, he broke his nose, so that kind of put them in a little bit of a disadvantage,” Ecker said. “But you know, we watched a lot of film on them and they’re not overly deep with guys so when they got in foul trouble, that really hurt them. But we got in foul trouble, too, so it was difficult.”
The officials wore out their whistles to the tune of 50 fouls combined in the game.
Ecker said his players just stepped up and performed to notch the win. Mendoza had 24 points and senior teammate Jullian Lopez finished with 23.
“They can shoot it but we did a great job getting up on them,” Ecker said, “Except for (No.) 4 in the third quarter when he (Lopez) had three 3s. We knew we should’ve gotten up on him.”
Philomath was able to take advantage of a situation that resulted out of all of those fouls.
“There were definitely some mismatches,” Ecker said. “Their best player (Mendoza) had some foul trouble and so we were kind of going at him because he didn’t want to go out of the ballgame. And so, he was playing pretty soft defensively.”
The Peters 3-pointer at the end of the third illustrates Ecker’s point. In those final seconds, Ecker had called out to Peters to get the ball because Mendoza wasn’t providing any pressure. Peters apparently didn’t hear the coach, Ecker later found out, but still executed on his own.
“He just went right around him because the guy didn’t want to get his fifth foul and Jacob was wide open for the 3,” Ecker said.
Peters finished with 20 points on six field goals, which includes the 3 at the end of the third, and 7 of 12 from the free-throw line.
“Everyone who came in tonight played really good, you know, just super solid and a bunch of energy,” Kramer said. “That’s exactly what we needed and they helped us win this game today.”
Ecker also credited the bench play.
“You’ve got to give a lot of credit to Mason Stearns and Logan Matthews,” Ecker said. “They came in and played really hard defensively and gave us some spark and energy. We’ve been working with them a lot this last week and it’s paid off.”
For Kramer, he’s been called for his share of offensive fouls this season, especially early on, but he worked out of those situations every time against the Indians.
“Against South Albany earlier in the year, I had four charges in the game and yeah, it sucks getting those,” he said. “So I’ve just been trying to focus on jump-stopping and slowing down, instead of just running right into him.”
Ecker definitely noticed.
“There were a couple of times that he would do a jump-stop and do a little floater,” Ecker said. “There was one time where the guy was right there and ready to take the charge and so, I was happy for him.”
Philomath (10-3) will now take a weeklong break from competition before getting into Oregon West Conference play on Jan. 19 against visiting Newport.
“I think it’s really good momentum,” Kramer said about the win over the 6A Indians. “Everyone’s confidence is really high right now and everybody’s playing really good. It’s fun to go into league like this.”
Said Ecker, “I was happy to beat those guys. It’s a good confidence builder.”
