South Wasco senior guard James Best (5) sprints around Condon sophomore Jackson Helms (5) during Saturday’s game in Maupin.
Mark B. Gibson photo/file
The South Wasco County High Redsides advanced to the Class 1A boys basketball Big Sky League district championship game following a 63-61 win over the Ione/Arlington High Cardinals (11-12) in a district semifinal Thursday at South Wasco High in Maupin.
The Redsides (23-2) will play the Spray/Mitchell/Wheeler High Eagles (16-4) in the 6 p.m. district title contest Saturday at The Dalles High School. If the Redsides win, they’ll earn the Big Sky’s No. 1 seed in the OSAA state playoffs beginning Feb. 22. South Wasco won a matchup against the Eagles earlier this season, 66-59, on Jan. 13 at Mitchell High School.
The Eagles advanced to the championship game following a 59-51 district semifinal win over the Sherman County High Huskies (14-11) Thursday at Spray High School. Sherman will play Ione/Arlington in a noon contest in The Dalles for the Big Sky’s No. 3 and 4 seeds in the state playoffs.
The No. 6-ranked Redsides, guided by Coach Jim Hull, overcame a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit to get the thrilling come-from-behind win and reach the Big Sky title game a third straight year. Senior guard James Best (15 points, four assists, four steals) scored the game-winning basket on a driving layup in the lane with 5.1 seconds left.
“You couldn’t ask for more kids to just step up and play hard when we were down by 10,” said Hull. “We knew that we would have a good run and we just needed to make the game chaos towards the end, because that’s the only way we would be able to come back. We haven’t been down very often this year, but they never gave up and they played their hearts out.”
The 10-point deficit was the largest of every game except for a matchup against the North Douglas High Warriors (a 66-50 loss Jan. 16). Ian Ongers led the Redsides in scoring with 19 points, Storm McCoy had 14 and Joey Holloway had 10.
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