Hood River Valley’s boys basketball team was slated to continue its gauntlet through the upper echelon of the Class 5A ranks this week with Parkrose coming to town on Tuesday.
The 7-4 Broncos, ranked No. 7 in the OSAA’s 5A poll, have won five straight, including three in a row in Northwest Oregon Conference play.
HRV is coming off back-to-back NWOC losses against Wilsonville (63-43 on Jan. 12) and La Salle Prep (50-46 on Jan. 9). Wilsonville (12-2 overall, 5-0 league) is ranked No. 2 in 5A while La Salle (8-5, 4-0) was at No. 8 at week’s end.
Eagle Coach Christopher Dirks and his staff have focused on instilling confidence in the young HRV team and the game against La Salle was evidence of that effort. La Salle, a team with eight seniors, needed a late run to turn back Hood River on its home court last week.
Hood River led 39-33 in the low-scoring game after Sawyer Clemett scored on a dribble-drive layup with 5:49 remaining. But La Salle responded with back-to-back baskets by senior Cade Jensen. The second basket came in secondary transition after he poked the ball away on defense. The score pulled the Falcons within 39-37.
HRV’s Sam Fauth calmly sank a 3-pointer to push the margin to 42-37 before Jensen responded again on an elbow jumper, making the score, 42-39, with 3:25 showing on the clock. An illegal screen, the second in the period called on HRV, gave La Salle the ball back at 2:41. Nick Robertson tied the game 16 seconds later on an NBA-range 3-pointer from straight on.
Robertson, the NWOC player of the year as a junior, added six free throws in the final minute to help La Salle seal the win.
Hood River and La Salle traded leads in the game. The Eagles took a 10-4 lead less than three minutes into the contest, forcing La Salle Coach Sean Kelly to call a 30-second timeout. Robertson scored five straight points to give the Falcons their first lead at 13-12. HRV’s Zak Poole responded with two seconds to play in the opening period, scoring on a close-in leaner off a nifty behind-the-back pass from Fauth. He had grabbed an offensive rebound and dished to Poole cutting down the middle of the lane.
Neither team scored over a three-minute span late in the second quarter with HRV holding a 22-18 lead. Poole made one of two free throws with 15 seconds remaining in the first half for a 23-18 Eagle lead, but Vance Sheffield responded for La Salle by hitting a corner 3-pointer at the buzzer to pull the Falcons within a basket at the break. HRV twice pushed its second-half margin to six points, but could never put La Salle away.
Three days later, Wilsonville proved worthy of its lofty ranking in a 20-point win over HRV. The Wildcats have won four state championships since 2016 (2022, 2019, 2017, 2016) and finished second the other year the OSAA playoffs were held (2018). Wilsonville held Hood River to 11 points under its season scoring average. Hood River plays a non-league contest on Friday at Class 4A St. Helens before a four-game NWOC home stand starting Jan. 24 against winless Hillsboro.
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