Wilsonville Wildcats

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Wilsonville—The Wildcats will head to Corvallis next week after slugging it out with the Independence based Panthers. After 32 minutes of play, Wilsonville walked away with the win 56-31 on Saturday, Mar. 3 at Wilsonville High School.

 

The Wildcats improve their record to 19-6 overall, and the win adds onto an incredible 15 game win streak. The team will travel to Gill Coliseum on Wednesday, Mar. 7 and play the number five seeded Springfield Millers (19-6).

"We were in a position where we were being challenged, and I thought we responded," Wilsonville head coach Chris Roche said. "We responded the way we want to respond: through defense, rebounding, and ball movement. When we move the ball like that, we become a whole other level of team. It's not guaranteed that we'll do that all the time, but when we start moving the basketball I feel like we play anybody."

Right away, it became clear that a big factor in the game would be the defensive pressure that Wilsonville applied to the Panther's offense. Tips and takeaways led to several baskets for the home team, and held Central to just 10 points.

In the opening quarter, it was a low-scoring back and forth affair. The Panthers got on the board first with two points off of a takeaway from junior Brendan Lesmeister. The two teams would trade takeaways for nearly five minutes before Wilsonville senior Caleb Larsen got his team on the board with a basket of his own.

A pair of baskets from Wilsonville junior Jack Roche put the Wildcats up 7-4 at the end of the first quarter.

"We know it's going to be a battle for 32 minutes," Roche said. "Everybody is laying everything they have on the line. They're always tough games, always quality opponents. Central has several good players that are very good athletes."

 

 

Roche had a double-double, with 11 points and 11 assists, and chipped in 4 steals and 6 deflections.

In the second quarter, Central briefly tied up Wilsonville when senior Javier Cantu hit a 3-pointer, but the home team returned fire with strong defensive pressure. Sophomore Keegan Shivers tipped the ball away from Central into the waiting hands of Jack Roche. Less than a minute later, Shivers would get his first basket of the night.

Over the course of the second stanza, Wilsonville would put up 10 more points to Central's 1, and four of those points came from Wilsonville takeaways. As a way to emphasize that momentum in the home team's possession, Larsen hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer that danced around the rim before finally falling through. Wilsonville was up 19-10 at halftime.

Moving into the second half, Wilsonville continued to put a stamp on the game. Right off the bat, sophomore Dakota Reber hit a massive alley-oop to the delight of the home crowd.

Central would go a small run, going 8-2 against the Wildcats to pull within seven points, but that was the closest they would get after that.

 

 

Defensively, Wilsonville's Shivers had his brightest spot at the halfway point of the third quarter. Shivers converted two takeaways into two baskets right away, putting the Wildcats up 29-18. Heading out of the third stanza, it was Wilsonville up 31-21.

"Every game we're working to get up the line on defense, pressure the team, and it worked out again in this game," Shivers said. The sophomore led the team in scoring with 14 points on the night.

The fourth quarter was more of the same. Wilsonville scored 13 straight points, six of which came from Shivers. Central tried to answer with 3-pointers from the outside, but was unable to sink any of the long baskets. Wilsonville continued to put the pressure, and by the end of the game, it was 56-31 in the Wildcats favor.

"It's a great achievement," Roche said. "You're never guaranteed to make it to Corvallis. The teams you play in this game are always hard because you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Everybody can see Corvallis, that's the dream. So you're going to get a dogfight in every one of these games you ever play. We got to know we did a good job, feel good about that, flip the page, and get ready to go."