The Philomath High School boys basketball team advanced to the championship game of the South Coast Les Schwab Tournament Friday night with a 51-38 victory over host and previously unbeaten Marshfield.
The Warriors (4-2) rallied from a 29-24 halftime deficit to beat the Pirates. Philomath’s defense shut down the home team’s offensive efforts by allowing only nine points in the second half — just two in the fourth quarter.
Philomath will face Crook County (5-1) in the tournament finale at 5:45 p.m. Saturday at Marshfield High. The Cowboys advanced to the championship game with wins of 63-40 over North Bend and 52-48 over Redmond.
Philomath and Crook County were tied at No. 8 in the most-recent OSAAtoday coaches poll.
Against the Pirates (5-1), senior Jacob Peters scored 20 points and grabbed 13 rebounds and senior Preston Kramer threw in 14 points and dished out six assists. Senior Connor Harms grabbed 13 boards.
Philomath opened the second half with a 6-0 run and took a 30-29 with 3:24 left in the third quarter on a Kramer 3-pointer. The Pirates countered and hit a 3-pointer on the ensuing possession and later hit a couple of foul shots for a 34-30 lead. Peters scored when Kramer found him wide open underneath the hoop on an in-bounds pass to cut the deficit to two at the 2:32 mark.
A short time later, trailing 36-32, junior Caleb Russell buried a 3-pointer from the right side to pull the Warriors back to within one. Russell was later fouled and hit two free throws for a 37-36 lead.
Philomath never trailed again and outscored the Pirates 14-2 the rest of the way. Marshfield was unable to score from the field in the fourth quarter with its only points coming on two foul shots with just over 2 minutes left.
