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Tigers suffer losses to McMinnville,
Dallas to end season
B. Scott Anderson:
Looking back at the winter sports season
Newberg wins international waterpolo
tourney
Big things in store for GFU
Bucks
romp in the fourth,
head to state |
The boys
basketball team outscores Country Christian
24-9 in the fourth quarter for the win
By B. Scott Anderson, Newberg Graphic sports editor
E-mail Scott at banderson@eaglenewspapers.com
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A
nip-and-tuck game through three quarters was blown wide open by the St. Paul High School
boys basketball team Wednesday as it defeated Country Christian 61-43.
The win gave the Bucks the rights to the No. 3 seed from the Casco League at
the state tournament.
St. Paul, which outscored Country Christian 24-9 in the final quarter, led a
majority of the game but Country Christian took a short lead in the third quarter when
Cougar Marci Arias, who scored 29 of Country Christian’s 43 points, canned a
3-pointer with 2:42 remaining.
The bucket put the Cougars up 30-29, but the lead would not last long. St.
Paul senior Levi Shull, who scored 29 points, drilled a 3-pointer of his own with 2:06 to
go in the quarter.
Later in the quarter, Arias scored again to tie the game 34-34 before St.
Paul senior Anthony Barrera scooped up the ball in the Country Christian backcourt,
dribbled his way to the top of the 3-point line and canned a 3-pointer as time expired.
The Bucks took their slim 37-34 lead and began to build on it in the fourth.
With just eight seconds gone by in the quarter, Barrera drilled another 3-pointer. With
two more buckets by Shull and another by junior Jeff Wilson, the Bucks used an 11-0 run to
start the final stanza and ran away with the win.
St. Paul coach Buell Gonzales Jr. said when Country Christian went from a
man-to-man defense to a zone defense in the second half, he thought the Cougars thought
the Bucks wouldn’t be able to adjust to it.
“You want to zone and use something gimmicky, but you don’t want to
have to rely on it and I think they were relying on the fact that when they came out in
the second half and zoned us, we wouldn’t be able to adjust,” he said.
“Once we started hitting (shots), they had to come out of it and then it was done
because we started getting (Jeff Wilson) the ball.”
Wilson scored 18 points, including eight in the fourth quarter, and provided
a key play for the Bucks in the final quarter when the 6-5 post dove for the ball.
“When you do something like that, it picks you up and it gets you fired
up,” Gonzales said.
During the final four minutes of the game, the St. Paul scoring fell squarely
on the shoulders of Shull and Wilson, who added two blocks. Each took turns scoring as
Shull also added two assists in a span of just more than two minutes.
“I thought (Jeff Wilson) and (Shull) played great games tonight,
especially in the fourth quarter,” said Country Christian coach Russell Halverson.
“St. Paul has a lot more postseason experience than us and it showed. I think the
guys were a little nervous before the game.”
Gonzales said he thought defense was the key in the pivotal fourth quarter.
“I didn’t think (the Cougars) were playing as aggressive man-to-man
defense and we were able to get open looks ...,” he said “Our defense was tough
and it stepped up and did what it was supposed to do.”
St. Paul, which committed a season-low 11 fouls during the game, moves on to
play at Cove, the top team from the Old Oregon League, at 4 p.m. today (Saturday).
“They’re athletic and they’ve got a big kid,” Gonzales
said of the Leopards. “They match up with us really well and I think we might have an
advantage ... with (Shull) and his senior leadership, because I think they’re a
little young.” |
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From Feb. 28,
2004, Newberg Graphic
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