The Philomath High boys basketball team opened Oregon West Conference play Tuesday night on its home floor by erasing an eight-point fourth-quarter deficit for a dramatic 52-49 comeback victory over Sweet Home.
Junior Esias Sapp led Philomath with 18 points and helped spark a crucial 10-0 run in the final four minutes. The victory didn’t come easily for the Warriors, who found themselves trailing 14-2 just five minutes into the game after a sluggish start.
“We didn’t come out as intense as we should have, like we have in other games — we were lackadaisical,” Sapp said. “I think once halftime came around and we figured out how to come at it, we started figuring out how to play like we should.”
Sweet Home scored 10 seconds into the contest on a jumpshot by junior Daniel McCubbins, and Philomath turned the ball over on a shot-clock violation on its first possession. Those two early sequences set the tone.
The Huskies led 8-0 before PHS could get on the scoreboard on a Hamish McConnell putback at the 4:10 mark. Over the next few minutes, sophomore Mason Tyler buried two of his five 3-pointers on the evening and McConnell missed a dunk attempt. With 2:52 left in the first quarter, Sweet Home had built a 14-2 lead.
Philomath coach Blake Ecker acknowledged his team’s poor start.
“We just didn’t come out ready to go,” Ecker said. “We tell guys, ‘you’ve got to be ready, they’re scrappy, they’re going to come out and play hard.'”
The Warriors (7-6 overall, 1-0 Oregon West) gradually chipped away at the deficit, cutting Sweet Home’s lead to just two points at halftime, 27-25.
“It’s all mental mostly — we didn’t come into the game with the right mentality,” Sapp said. “We all talked to each other (at halftime) and as a team, we all brought each other up and that’s what made us to start playing better.”
Philomath took its first lead of the game early in the third quarter on a pair of Jamin Peters free throws. Peters, a junior, provided an inside presence when he was on the floor, finishing with seven points and nine rebounds, but foul trouble limited his impact. He picked up his third and fourth fouls just 2:08 into the second half and fouled out with 4:40 remaining with his team trailing 48-40.
“He’s tough to lose in there,” Ecker said. “I don’t know, it was just a frustrating game.”
Sweet Home (5-9, 0-1) reclaimed the lead in the fourth quarter with an 11-0 run, pushing its advantage to 49-42 with four minutes remaining. That’s when Philomath’s defense took over.
The Warriors held the Huskies scoreless over the final four minutes while mounting their comeback. Sapp sparked the rally with two free throws, then scored on an offensive rebound and added a steal and layup to cut the deficit to 49-46 with 3:11 left.
Sweet Home contributed to its own demise with untimely turnovers, twice stepping out of bounds against Philomath’s intensified defensive pressure.
One of the game’s pivotal plays came with 2:15 remaining when Sapp found sophomore Nathan Seits cutting to the basket on an in-bounds pass. Seits finished with an uncontested layup to make it 49-48.
Sapp put Philomath ahead for good with a pair of free throws at the 1:23 mark. Sophomore Cole Barron secured an offensive rebound and putback with 32 seconds left to give the Warriors a three-point cushion. Philomath missed two free throws with 1.8 seconds remaining, but Sweet Home couldn’t get off a final shot.
“I had a lot of points but a lot of it was from assists by our guards so I give all of the credit to them,” Sapp said. “We pretty much passed the ball well and everyone fought. I missed a lot of shots and Cole (Barron) got all of my rebounds pretty much and put them back in.”
Sapp’s 18 points came on five field goals and 8 of 10 from the foul line. He also had 10 rebounds to finish with a double-double. Barron had nine points and provided crucial interior work with nine boards.
The game was physical — the type of game Sapp enjoys.
“I love it,” he said of the game’s physicality. “Sometimes I get angry but I’ve got to stay composed.”
Sweet Home’s Tyler proved difficult to contain all night with a game-high 24 points. Junior Bradyn McClure added 14.
Philomath split its 12 nonconference games but showed improvement after a 1-4 start to the season.
“Coming into conference, we want it, we’re all hyped up I guess you could say,” Sapp said. “We all want to do great and because this is conference, it’s going to make us play better.”
Ecker wasn’t entirely pleased with his team’s performance despite the comeback victory.
“I almost feel like we didn’t deserve to win with the way we played but we came back in the fourth,” he said. “We were down eight points in the fourth and came back, so I commended them for doing that.”
The coach emphasized the need for better preparation heading into Friday’s league game at North Marion.
“We have a chance to compete for the league title but we’ve got to buckle down and do what it takes right from the start of the game and not get down 14-2,” Ecker said.
North Marion (7-8, 0-1) will host Philomath on Friday after opening league play Tuesday with a 77-62 loss at Newport.
Philomath 52, Sweet Home 49
Tuesday, Jan. 20 at Philomath HS
SWEET HOME (49)
Daniel McCubbins 4 0-0 8, Trent Harvey 0 0-0 0, Bradyn McClure 5 4-7 14, Mason Tyler 9 1-1 24, Kellen Hartsook 0 0-0 0, Damon Lawrence 0 1-2 1, Kaeson Walker 0 0-0 0, Alex Bachand 0 0-0 0, Trenton Templin 0 0-0 0, Gavin Tyler 1 0-0 2, Sam Barringer 0 0-2 0. Totals 19 6-12 49.
PHILOMATH (52)
Dreyton Nuño 0 1-2 1, Ace Gerding 0 0-0 0, Kaden Howard 2 2-7 6, Cole Barron 4 1-6 9, Jamin Peters 2 3-5 7, Hamish McConnell 2 1-4 5, Esias Sapp 5 8-10 18, Nathan Seits 3 0-0 6. Totals 18 16-28 52.
Team 1 2 3 4 F Sweet Home (5-9, 0-1) 17 10 10 12 49 Philomath (7-6, 1-0) 10 15 14 13 52
3-Point Goals—Sweet Home 5 (Tyler 5), Philomath 0. Fouled Out—Peters, Tyler, McCubbins, McClure. Total Fouls—Sweet Home 27, Philomath 20. Technicals—None.