The South Wasco County High Redsides will be one of the top contenders in the high school version of “March Madness.”
The Redside boys advanced to the OSAA Class 1A boys basketball state tournament following a 62-39 win over the Mohawk High Mustangs in a second-round playoff game Friday at South Wasco High in Maupin.
The No. 3-ranked and undefeated Big Sky League Champion Redsides (23-0) will play the No. 9-ranked Rogue Valley Adventist Academy Red Tail Hawks (23-2) in the 6:30 p.m. quarterfinals Wednesday at Baker High School. Winner of that game advances to Friday’s 3:15 p.m. semifinals where it will play the winner of the first-round game between No. 2-ranked Powder Valley and No. 11-ranked Nixyaawii. The South Wasco-Rogue Valley loser plays March 3 at 10:45 a.m. in a consolation round game.
The Redsides, guided by Coach Jim Hull, are competing in the state tournament for a second straight year. Last year’s tournament at Baker City in June wasn’t sanctioned by the OSAA because of COVID-19 restrictions. The last time the Redsides advanced an OSAA state tournament was in 2009.
South Wasco dominated Mohawk in the play-in game to state.
“You know you’re playing a good team that’s a league champ (Mountain West League Champions) and they’re a proud team, but so are we,” said Hull. “We did a great job of finding our big guys Ian Ongers and Brock LaFaver down the stretch and then Oscar Thomas was doing his thing and he does a great job. We’re here because those three guys show up every night and there’s a reason all three of them are Big Sky League first team all-League players. They came through again and everybody else plugged the holes. We’re just looking forward to our next challenge on Wednesday.”
The Redsides came out and played with a high intensity level and jumped in front early as Ongers (15 points) fired in a 15-foot baseline jumper. Ongers followed with a 10-foot jumper in the paint.
“It feels great to be going to Baker and even though we went last year, it was unofficial, so this feels a lot better,” said Ongers.
Thomas (19 points, seven rebounds, six assists), the Big Sky West Division player of the year, sank a three-point field goal putting the Redsides up 7-2. He later sank a 12-foot baseline jumper to spark an 8-0 offensive spurt to lift the Redsides in front 15-5 with 3:03 left in the first quarter.
“We came out after they (Mustangs) made a run in the third quarter and we responded very well and we played like we did in the first quarter to put them away,” said Thomas. “I’m just happy that we stepped up when they were making their run. Last year when we went to Baker, it was unofficial, but this year it’s official and I can’t wait to go over there and take care of business. We’re just going to go there and take it day-by-day hopefully win the championship, because that’s our goal. There’s going to be some tough teams there, but I think we’re going there well prepared with the right mindset and we’ll just do our thing.”
A driving baseline layup by Thomas helped the Redsides build a 19-7 lead at the end of the first quarter. A 9-1 run, capped by a buzzer beater jumper in the lane by LaFaver (17 points, 10 rebounds), put South Wasco up 31-16 at halftime.
The Mustangs, one of the younger teams to reach the final 16 with two seniors, outscored the Redsides 14-5 to narrow margin to 36-30 with 2:31 left in the third period. The scoring burst forced a South Wasco timeout.
“Sometimes as a coach, you just kind of have to give them a little jolt and they responded well because they’re competitors and it’s very evident that they’re winners,” said Hull. “The players responded, and we started playing more aggressively in our 1-3-1 zone defense. We were getting more opportunities offensively and we were just playing much more efficiently.”
A Thomas three-pointer helped South Wasco build a 41-32 lead after three quarters.
“After the timeout, we started getting more rebounds, we were passing the ball on offense and moving it around better and we found our groove and just kept things going,” said LaFaver. “We all came back out and worked hard; we did what we had to do and that’s what good teams do. I’m so excited about going to be Baker and we’re hoping to continue winning and stay undefeated the rest of the season … it would be awesome to win the championship.”
The Redsides, who have the Class 1A No. 1-ranked offense at 68 points a game, reached their average by outscoring Mohawk, 21-7, in the fourth quarter.
“Even though were went to Baker last year, I always put an asterisk next to it, because it was unofficial and it was in the spring,” said Hull. “Being there in the winter is a different feeling. It’s really good to be going there; the kids worked hard to accomplish this, and we still have further goals to meet. We’ll come up with a game plan for Wednesday and if we do our thing, I think we’ll have a good chance to win.”
Remington Anderson-Sheer, one of four seniors playing their final home game, scored on a fast break layup to ignite a 12-0 run. Another one of those seniors, Alex Stebbins, said the team is looking forward to the eight-team state tourney.
“It feels amazing to going to Baker and we missed out on it couple of years and then last year it was messed up due to COVID, so it’s almost like a relief and now we get one more shot at it (championship) in my last basketball season,” he said.
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