Just enough offense and a stellar performance on defense helped Philomath High’s boys to a 42-38 basketball victory Friday night over North Marion, a team at No. 7 in the OSAAtoday coaches poll and No. 8 in the OSAA rankings.
A blocked shot under the basket by sophomore Esias Sapp with 20 seconds remaining helped clinch the victory for the Warriors. Senior teammate Caleb Russell ended up with the ball, drew a foul and sank a free throw on the other end for a two-possession advantage.
Gallery: Philomath boys basketball vs. North Marion (Jan. 24, 2025)
A collection of photos from Philomath High’s 42-38 boys basketball victory over North Marion on Friday.
“That’s what we have to do every game — battle and fight, scrap, claw and do whatever we can to keep in ballgames,” PHS coach Blake Ecker said.
Philomath (8-7 overall, 2-0 Oregon West) has now won four straight and six of its last seven.
“It’s a big confidence boost,” sophomore post Jamin Peters said about the win. “They were ranked eighth and we beat them.”
Peters had a key presence underneath for the Warriors with a team-high 14 points. He was happy to see the team come through in the final minutes.
“It was definitely defense and finishing,” Peters said. “We haven’t been finishing that well but in this game, we started to and on defense, not as many 3-pointers (allowed).”
The contest had a slow start as far as scoring goes with North Marion leading 18-17 at the intermission. It was tight throughout those first two quarters with neither team leading by more than three points.
Philomath’s Peters tied the game 33 seconds into the third quarter with a free throw and then the Warriors took the lead when Russell scored on a fast break, drew a foul and sank another free throw for a 21-18 advantage. Although the game was very tight at times, Philomath never trailed the rest of the way.
Peters said a key area for the team to master is finishing inside.
“In this game it was rough but we’ve been over it in practice and we’ve worked at it and it showed a little bit,” he said.
The defense caused problems for North Marion all night.
“We flew around and caused a little bit of havoc and we rebounded pretty well,” Ecker said. “Even on the backside with Caleb (Russell), they were pushing him like crazy and he was battling and fighting.”
Philomath took a 32-23 lead into the fourth quarter but the advantage soon evaporated. North Marion went on an 8-0 run to cut its deficit to 32-31 and set up a chaotic finish.
“You figure a good team is going to come back and make a run and they did,” Ecker said. “Then we made our own little run out of it, too.”
At the midway point of the fourth, senior Logan Matthews turned a Husky turnover at midcourt into two points for a 36-31 lead.
After North Marion got back to within 36-35, Philomath again produced when junior Josiah Peters found his brother, Jamin, with a pinpoint pass through traffic that led to an open layup.
“He snuck it in there real good — that was a great pass right there,” Ecker said. “It made up for a play we ran earlier to start the fourth.”
Ecker was referring to an attempted back-door pass that wasn’t open and led to a turnover.
The brothers teamed up again less than a minute later with Jamin Peters getting another hoop for a 40-35 lead with 1:11 remaining. North Marion countered with a 3-pointer by senior Reece Hartenstein to cut its deficit to two.
A pair of missed free throws followed with 43 seconds left but Philomath was able to get the rebound and maintain possession. Jamin Peters ended up on the foul line and he sank one of two for a 41-38 lead. Sapp’s block on the other end and the Russell free throw closed it out.
Sapp blocked two shots during crunch time in the fourth. Josiah Peters also had a key block.
Overall, Philomath had another subpar performance at the free-throw line by hitting just 10 of 26 (38.5%).
“Sometimes we hit just enough to keep it at a four-point lead or whatever,” Ecker said.
Junior Cade Hartenstein scored 18 to lead North Marion (11-5, 0-2).
The victory over North Marion may have been Ecker’s 400th — it’s unclear if he was sitting at 398 or 399 official wins going into the game. Causing the confusion are 2021-22 and 2022-23 games against “Philomath” that appear on the team’s season records. Those scores — a 58-57 win in 2022 and a 71-67 loss in 2023 — were from state playoff tuneup contests that had been arranged against alumni teams.
The OSAA Handbook states that alumni games count toward a team’s allowable number of games and certified officials are used but also says the result does not count in the rankings — the same way that jamborees and cancellations are handled. Jamborees and cancellations do not go on the team’s record but it’s not specifically explained if alumni games fall into the same category.
Either way, Ecker has joined or will soon join an exclusive coaching club that is a notable accomplishment in Oregon basketball history.
The Warriors will hit the road Tuesday to face No. 2 Cascade. The game is scheduled for a 7 p.m. tip-off.
