Philomath High’s girls basketball team will enter the Class 4A playoffs this week as a No. 3 seed following an exceptional regular-season run. And the Warriors will be focused on performing well in front of the home fans to punch their ticket to next week’s state tournament at Forest Grove.
Despite seedings and game sites, nothing is a given when it comes to postseason basketball. Take two years ago in the girls bracket. No. 12 Marist and No. 13 Hidden Valley both pulled off first-round upsets and perhaps more impressive was No. 11 Corbett’s run all the way to the championship game — where the Cardinals lost to Philomath by 11 points.
This year, Astoria appears to be the favorite in the girls tournament as the No. 1 seed — a team that actually got off to a 1-4 start before reeling off 19 straight wins. But the third-seeded Warriors are definitely in the mix with a 19-5 overall record.
Philomath will face Baker at 5:30 p.m. Saturday in the PHS gym — an opponent that must travel nearly 400 miles for a basketball game. The Bulldogs enter the matchup at 12-13 (the team’s loss to an alumni team shows up on its season record) after defeating Phoenix, 53-44, in a play-in game on Feb. 24. Baker finished third in the Greater Oregon League behind No. 7 La Grande and No. 12 Pendleton.
Baker enters the playoffs as the defending state champion but with a completely new lineup. The Bulldogs lost the five players that started in the championship game to graduation, so no more Jozie Ramos or Macey Moore. The only two players back this year that saw any action in the win over Gladstone a year ago are junior Ashlyn Dalton and senior Emma Llaurado.
Philomath comes into the game with a young team that thrives on defense but has seen periodic challenges on offense. Junior Anneka Steen, freshman Reagan Heiken, junior Zoee Howard and sophomore Emily Taunisila have been the most consistent scoring threats and junior Aspen Russell has a reputation for getting on the nerves of opposing offenses.
The two teams have played four common opponents this season — Cascade, Crook County, Estacada and Stayton. Against those schools, Baker has gone 4-1 (the loss was by 21 points to Cascade) and Philomath 4-2 (losses to Stayton and Cascade, teams the Warriors also beat).
Boys play Friday vs. Marshfield
Philomath High’s boys, seeded No. 5 for the playoffs, will go up against Marshfield at 7 p.m. Friday in the home gym. The Warriors and Pirates played earlier this season at the South Coast Tournament where Philomath beat Marshfield on its home floor, 51-38.
But that was 11 weeks ago and a lot can change over the course of a regular season. The Warriors (18-6) have developed beyond the 1-2 scoring punch of Preston Kramer and Jacob Peters. It’s true that those two athletes consistently score most of the team’s points but Kaden Muir has shown offensive flashes in recent games and Connor Harms and Owen Heiken can bang inside.
Marshfield (14-10) finished No. 9 in the OSAA rankings but as the third-place team in the Sky Em League had to advance into the playoffs through a play-in game. The Pirates did just that by defeating Pendleton, 53-50.
In their game back in December, the Warriors trailed Marshfield at halftime, 29-24. But Philomath’s defense stood out by allowing a mere nine points during the entire second half. Peters was especially effective against the Pirates with 20 points and 13 rebounds. Kramer scored 14 and Harms came down with 13 boards.
Marshfield didn’t have any one player vs. the Warriors that stood out as an offensive threat with a balanced scoring attack. Top contributors on this team appear to be Joe Herbert, Steel Carpenter, Luke Jackson and Gannon Frost.
Other than playing each other, Marshfield and Philomath had six common opponents on their schedules — Newport, Pendleton, Roseburg, Hidden Valley, Marist Catholic and Junction City. The Pirates went 3-6 vs. those teams while the Warriors were 4-3.
Philomath’s unbeaten wrestlers
Raising his hands in the air toward the heavens after defeating Sweet Home’s Jacob Landtroop last week in Portland in the 150-pound championship match, sophomore Riley Barrett went down in Philomath High wrestling history by completing a perfect season at 48-0.
It was the first undefeated wrestler for PHS since Connar Kohn’s 25-0 record in 2021 during that crazy COVID season that featured wrestling from mid-May into late June. Class 4A schools competed together in what was called a “culminating event” — a state tournament that was not sponsored by the OSAA but nonetheless just as important to the wrestlers on the mat. Kohn was seeded No. 1 at 220 pounds and he defeated opponents from Marshfield, Banks and McLoughlin all on first-period pins to ease into the finale. There, he pulled off another first-period pin by defeating Siuslaw senior Christian Newlan, a No. 6 seed who had pulled off a major upset in the semifinals.
Before Kohn, you have to go back to Orly Johnson in 1992 to find a perfect record. Johnson, a senior, competed at 148 pounds in the 3A state tournament at Coos Bay that season, entering as the No. 4 seed (at the time, seedings were based on state results from the previous season).
Johnson beat opponents from Tillamook, Dallas and McLoughlin to reach the championship match against Sutherlin’s Jeremy Herrera, the No. 3 seed. For the title, Johnson won on a 4-3 decision. His season record ended up at 35-0.
In 1986, Philomath senior Brian Yechout completed a perfect 34-0 season when he won the 168-pound title at the Class AA state tournament in Springfield. Yechout defeated opponents from Gladstone, Junction City and St. Helens to advance into the championship match. There, he defeated Jim Jones of Scappoose on an 8-2 decision.
Senior Rob Skinner won the state title in the 141-pound division at the AA tournament in 1977 at Willamette High in Eugene. Skinner finished the season with a 34-0 record.
In the championship match, Skinner beat Pleasant Hill’s Rick Sprague, 19-0, one week after he had beaten him in the district finals on a 12-5 decision. Skinner had a close call in the semifinals with a 4-3 win over Siuslaw’s Mark Massey. Earlier wins were over wrestlers from Clatskanie and Myrtle Point.
Going back to 1965, the late Ed Young appears to have the honor of being the first Philomath High wrestler to finish a season unbeaten and win the state title. Young, who will be inducted into the PHS Hall of Fame this year, had an unbeaten record of 28-0 according to newspaper accounts, 30-0 according to his recent obituary. Young passed away in mid-November in Blodgett.
Young, a senior who wrestled at 115, defeated Ulan Moore of Gervais in the finals on a 3-1 decision. He reached the championship match with wins over opponents from Siuslaw, Brookings and Henley. The A2 and B tournament that season was held at Gill Coliseum in Corvallis.
Philomath’s other state champions have included Scott Cooley (1971), Ray Spradling (1980), Alan Chambers (1981), Kevin Sterba (1982 and 1983), Kevin Barkdoll (1984), Diego Hernandez (1994), Will Williams (1995), Matt Hill (2007), Ben Hernandez (2021) and Blaise Pindell (2021).
(Brad Fuqua is publisher/editor of the Philomath News. He can be reached at News@PhilomathNews.com).