A spectacular season continues to get better and better for the No. 7-ranked South Wasco County High Redsides boys basketball team. The Redsides won three more Class 1A Big Sky League games last week to remain undefeated at 13-0.
The Redsides, guided by Coach Jim Hull, won 88-25 over Trout Lake on Jan. 11, followed by a 77-68 win over Spray on Jan. 14 and a 76-43 win over Condon on Saturday.
“I expect our upcoming games to be pretty tough and I expected that Condon would be a tougher match-up,” said Hull. “We came out really strong and I think that they (Condon) were focusing on stopping Oscar Thomas and Brock LaFaver. Ian Ongers scored our first seven points and so when that happened, it just changed what they were trying to do defensively. They got frustrated and they got into foul trouble and then things snowballed for them.”
The Redsides’ start ties the best start in school history, matching the 1986 team that also had a 13-0 record. The Redsides (3-0 Big Sky League) played Dufur on Monday for the new record (result was after the printed edition deadline).
The Redsides face their most formidable opponent this year when they host No. 11-ranked and undefeated Ione/Arlington (5-0 league, 14-0) on Friday. The game is a showdown between the Big Sky West Division leading Redsides and the East Division leading Cardinals.
“That game (versus Ione) has kind of been circled on the calendar since the beginning of the year,” said Hull. “I felt even before the season started that we could be undefeated at that point and so that’s going to be a big game. It doesn’t mean much in terms of league play because East Division games are considered non-league games. Those are teams that we’ll play at districts and so we’ll want to know if we can be successful against them.
“There’s a good chance that it could be a like a preview of the district championship game. Luckily, we get to play them at home, and we play well at home and it’s going to be hot in our gym, I guarantee that. It’s a home-court advantage of ours and it’s something that always has other teams worried about coming here.”
The Redsides had everything going their way against Condon (4-1 league, 10-3 overall), leading from start-to-finish
“We’ve had a lot of good teams over the last 30 years including teams that played for the state title in 1996 and 2006,” said Hull. “All those teams lost some games, and they never did what we’ve done. It’s kind of cool to think that maybe we’re setting ourselves up for something great.”
South Wasco junior forward Ian Ongers led four Redsides in double-figure scoring with 29 points; senior post Brock LaFaver scored 22.
In the one-sided home match-up against Trout Lake (0-2 league, 1-5 overall), South Wasco’s No. 1-ranked offense (72 points per game average) opened the first quarter with a 34-5 lead. The Redsides recorded their highest point total since Jan. 4, 2020 (a 91-23 win over Echo). It marked the third time this season South Wasco has scored 80 or more points. LaFaver shot 10-for-10 from the field, and he was 2-for-3 from the three-point arc and had a season-high 26 points along with a team-high eight rebounds.
The Redsides had their smallest margin of victory (nine points) in the close game versus Spray/Mitchell/Wheeler (1-3 league, 3-6 overall) Friday at home. Thomas scored a career-high 36 points; sophomore guard Joey Holloway had a team-high seven assists.
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