The Philomath High boys basketball team opened its home tournament Wednesday with a 42-point victory over an outmanned Sutherlin squad. And although you might be inclined to describe the 57-15 performance as dominant, that’s not something you would hear from the head coach.
“We didn’t play well at all — I was disappointed in how we played,” PHS coach Blake Ecker said. “We could have done a lot of different things where the score could have been a lot higher but we don’t want to do that to a team. To me, what comes around goes around. I’ve had it happen to me and it’s no fun losing big like that so I never try to run up the score.”
Philomath (6-2) will next face Scappoose on Thursday with the tip-off scheduled for 5 p.m. The Warriors will wrap up the round-robin tournament at 7 p.m. Friday with a matchup against Marist Catholic.
As far as the rout over Sutherlin (2-6), a 3A program that has struggled this season, Ecker said he’d prefer to not see such a lopsided score.
“I’d rather have a closer game where our players are more into the game and the crowd’s more into the game,” Ecker said. “I would rather have a game where we’re working on some different things but still competing and getting better.”
Philomath scored the game’s first 22 points over a stretch that lasted to nearly the halfway point of the second quarter. Senior Preston Kramer opened the scoring with a 3-pointer and then scored two fast-break baskets over a 40-second span to make it 7-0.
Senior Connor Harms came up with a steal and headed for the hoop only to be fouled on a layup attempt. He made a free throw to give the Warriors an 8-0 lead. Kramer then scored another fast-break basket and soon after sank a couple of free throws for a 12-0 lead.
Ecker started to substitute late in the first quarter. With 1:19 left, junior Hudson Raab scored on a fast break with an assist by sophomore CD Nuno. Then with 46 seconds remaining, junior Caleb Russell scored two with an assist to senior Mason Stearns. That made it 16-0 at the end of the opening quarter.
The scoring run continued over the first three minutes of the second. PHS went up 18-0 when Kramer threw an in-bounds pass to Harms, who quickly found senior Owen Heiken inside for two points. Kramer scored another two points with an assist to senior Kaden Muir. And then Muir hit a long jumper just inside the 3-point line to make it 22-0.
Sutherlin finally got on the scoreboard with 4:15 left in the first half when sophomore Hunter Van Buren came up with a steal and converted the fast-break layup on the other end.
Kramer scored 18 points on seven field goals — one of those a 3-pointer — and 3 of 5 on free throws. Russell came off the bench to score nine points, which included a trey. Raab also had a 3-pointer, his coming in the fourth quarter.
Nobody in Sutherlin’s lineup had more than three points with the team’s 15 spread out among six players.
In the late game, Scappoose (5-3) shot out to a 10-0 lead and never gave up the lead in a 55-50 victory over Marist Catholic (5-4).
