There is much more on the line Saturday, than just a chance at earning a Baker City berth.
The South Wasco County Redsides are playing for a community, for each other and four seniors who have helped pave the way for this program to vie for an opportunity to vault into Elite 8 status for the first time since 2009.
From summer ball to long practices, SWC head coach Jim Hull said all of that work, the running and constant repetition was for hoops play in late February and March.
“I reminded them today about all the times during the season when I made them run extra when they were tired, I told them we weren’t running to prepare for our next game, we were running for today. We are running for this Saturday. That is what we are running for,” Hull said. “They realize now that there is a big plan for everything they do. They have earned every bit of accolades, so hopefully we can keep it going.”
SWC (22-5 overall) is ranked eighth in the state and they head out to the coast to take on Angel De Anda, Clayton Goodell, Daniel Lindstrom and No. 10 Siletz Valley (18-5).
The Warriors are riding a seven-game winning streak entering Saturday’s 6 p.m. matchup, and have done so with offense leading the way.
During their streak, the Warriors have averaged 63.5 points a game, nearly five points above their total for the season (59.0).
Siletz Valley has scored 65 or more points six times on the year, so it will be up to the Redsides, the 1A classification’s No. 1-ranked scoring defense (39.1 points a game) to try and slow down a potent Warrior offense.
“From what I know so far, they seem very quick,” Hull said. “It seems like they really want to get up and down the floor. They don’t have anywhere near the size that we have, but they like to move at a quicker pace, and they can also shoot the three-ball pretty well.”
As good as the Redside defense is, Siletz Valley is ranked near the top of the 1A ranks at 42.2 points a game.
But contending with the likes of veteran seniors Travis Hayes, Ellis Rager, Devan Dammann and Brody Myers is another challenge altogether.
Wednesday in SWC’s 59-49 state-sub round win over Powder Valley, the team shot 15 of 30 from the field in the first half, and nailed 5 of 10 from beyond the arc.
At times, however, the Redsides had difficulties breaking down the pressure defense Powder Valley threw at them, committing 21 turnovers.
“Siletz likes to bring full-court pressure and, so again, it will be something we will have to deal with like we have a multitude of times this year,” Hull said. “For us, it gets back to basics. We have to look up, find the open man and pass the ball, especially against the teams that like to pressure us. We also need to keep our bigs involved. If we can control the boards, get some putbacks, those high-percentage shots or get some fouls called on them, it will make a difference for us.”
At the beginning of the season, junior post player Haven Stephenson discussed everyone on the roster doing everything they could to get the four seniors back to Baker to end their careers right.
The determined Redsides are 32 minutes from realizing that preseason goal.
“We definitely have to come out with a lot of energy, play hard and stick to our game plan,” Stephenson said. “We have to play patient ball and not be doing everything within five seconds. We got to keep playing our game, play smart, we got have balanced scoring and we got to rebound hard if we are going to go a step further.”
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