Pioneers' Search for Title Against Generals Comes Up Short, GENERALS WIN 63-56!

Grant completes PIL sweep!

The top ranked Oregon City Pioneers (28-1), Champions of the Three Rivers League, take on the Grant Generals (21-6), Champions of the PIL, for the biggest of all the Championships.

The Pioneers lost the Championship of the Les Schwab Invitational to the Archbishop Mitty Monarchs, but otherwise generally cruised own the trail to the final 4. The Pioneers also handed Jefferson their only loss on their way to the 5A title game. A four point win over Metro League Champion Sunset sent the Pioneers to the end of the trail to the State title game.

The eighth ranked Generals also lost to Archbishop Mitty in the Les Schwab Invitational, as well as losing to Sunset, and Jefferson, and are the definite underdogs to claim a title for the PIL.

Red Team Blue Team! I've got the blue shirt & Don Francis the red, so OPS has the bases covered. Which color are you?

1st. qtr.

Tip OC. Sammy Schafer to the rim and a foul on Josh Hardin right away. OC 2-0. 5-0 run to answer, with a Paul McCoy 3, then OC for 2, the a ft. 5-5 after 2 min.

Block Michael Moser for Grant! But then a foul on him to, and Schafer sinks both.

Michael James for 3, 2 for OC; another 3, Ryan Hunting the other way. Turnover to OC, tied at 11!

Schaefer for 2. James misses a 3, Brad Tinsley answers for OC. Moser the other way! TV timeout @ 2:57, OC 15-13!

If we miss some basket credits, it is SO LOUD you can't hear the PA if the play is obscured!

Steal Grant! Not out off Grant? James ties it at 15. Take what ever you can get in a war.

Ryan Huntting misses a 3 for OC, and gets a foul the other way. McCoy sinks a pair.

Grant is too quick for long entry passes! Turnover!

Tie up to Grant, OC is still adjusting to Grant's speed.

Grant walks up, stands, holds for the last shot, Bloch Schaefer! But its a Goaltend!! Grant 19 OC 15 after 1!

2nd. qtr.

OC ball, foul McCoy! Miss OC, big save Grant, but 2 misses. Blocking foul on Daniel Collins, Tinsley makes 2 + 1; there's that block / charge question again.

Foul Huntting, but its only 20-18 for it.

Miss Schafer, Collins the other way for 2 + Schafer's foul, this ft falls, 23-18 blue!

Schafer banks in a left side jumper. Charge on Collins! After this, OC will be in the bonus. 5:25 to go, Tinsley's 18 footer off the front rim.

Block this time on Alex Seigal, and the PIL folks aren't even sure. 24-20, until James steals and gets a dunk. But then foul on Collins, his third with 4:48 to go! Tinsley trickles two in.

Grant spreads it out, James fires up an air ball. Shaefer puts back Tyler Kirchhoffer's errant 3. Swish Moser from the top of the key for 3!

Foul Kenneth Acker for Grant, and Tinsley at the line. Miss, make. TV time out with 3:28 left, Grant up 29-25.

Grant couldn't script this better except for the Collins foul problem.

Bombs away Michael Fendall for Grant! Tinsley down the lane to answer.

McCoy miss, Tinsley again!

Double turnover, foul on Andre Broasous. Double Bonus OC with 1:18 to go, Kamal Smith cuts it down to 32-31 with 2 fts.

Body block on Schafer; McCoy sinks 2 with 1:04 to go.

Tinsley and Schafer miss, but not Schafer on the third try.

Charging on McCoy on a moving target.

Foul on Acker on Tinsley on the 3 with 26.9 left. Tinsley misses, so it was a good foul. Better when he misses again. And again!

James misses a three with contact, no call, the OC bomb goes over the backstop! Grant 34-33 at the half.

Tinsley leads everyone with 16, but is only 4 of 8 from the line. Uncommon problem for him at the tournament. Boards dead even at 16! Schafer has 12. OC is 11 of 16 from the line, Grant 7-9. Getting to the line will probably decide this.

James leads Grant with 10, McCoy is close behind with 8. Grant is 5 of 9 from behind the arc, OC 0 of 5! We know who wants to hold the lead, and who can come from behind from those numbers.

Adjusting to the calls, and staying in the game has got to be the key for both.

One thing for sure, FSN's ratings, and out hits, are doing just fine tonight, with 2 great games!

3rd. qtr.

Grant ball, Josh Hardin with the third look. Schafer hits the side of the rim; Hardin misses the other way.

Tie up to OC. Ball bounces around; Schafer with a spinning third look to keepwithin 1.

James scores, Tinsley with a near air ball. McCoy short from the left corner with a 3; Tinsley on the other end, b ut James for 3 from the left side. 41-37 Grant.

Ball back to Grant, Moser for the 3 point lead! Block Moser, turnover to Grant at the midway mark.

Crashing foul on the RB on Hardin, his third. TV timeout @ 3:53, still 43-37 Blue team.

Miss both ways, then Tinsley scores and draws a foul on James. Another Tinsley miss, but not his follow up 3! 5-0 Tinsley run. Moser answers, and OC rims it out twice.

Moser back rims it, so he pulls the string, and sinks the second. Charge on Tinsley!

Grant to the 4 corner, up 6, OC slowly comes out. When they attack, they turn it over.

Travel Schafer on the jump stop! Grant strolls up, what should be a travel off the steal is called a tie up, and stays with Grant.

Under a minute left, time out OC @ 58.2.

Blue crowd nervous as Grant works it, works it, and gets Schafer's thrd foul with 4.6 left. In at 4.5 sec. block by Kirchhofer on the last shot. Grant 48-42 after 3!

4th. qtr.

OC ball, strip McCoy! Moser for the 8 point lead!

Schafer rattles in the run stopper. And the board on the miss. Tinsley with the 3 miss put back; Grant turnover. OC down 50-46 to the attac, 6 to go.

Lob picked off by Moser! Time Out Grant @ 5:41. The air in here is the consistency of soup. Clam chowder to be specific.

Block Kamal Smith, but the Moser still scores, time out OC with 4:52 left.

Schafer miss, Grant works, misses a 3. Schafer another RB, but Kinney kits the side of the backboard with a 3. McCoy drives hard, scores, foul on Tinsley! Ft makes it 55-46 with 3:31 to go! TV timeout!

Blue student body, with a lot of Jeff supporters in their blue in their, is smelling blood in the water now, this end is shaking, OC end is pretty quiet.

Tinsley's 3 wakes up OC, Moser above the rim, and the tipin is waved off!

Schafer makes it a 5-0 run, 6 with Moser's foul at 2:49. Back to a 3 point game.

Grant criss crossing, pulls it out, 2 misses, but McCoy saves it, makes the move of the game. 1:30 left, Grant 57-52, and OC loses it out of bounds!

Kick not called on OC, travel is though the pass was made. OC ball, time out with 1:11 left! 57-52 blue!

Foul in Collins, Schafer at the kine in 3 seconds. Back to a 3 point game.

Schafer steals, Tinsley scores 57-56 with 59.5 to go, foul Tinsley.

Huntting even cleans up the crowd's mess. These teams do everything!

Grant time out .5 sec. later!

McCoy drives, dishes to Moser, foul Hunting, OC has another to use. 45.7 left. Schafer's fourth @ 43.4, bonus on the next one.

Foul Huntting, Collins hits both with 42.3 to go.59-56 Grant.

Foul underneath on McCoy, Grant still has another to use with 30 sec. left.

Schafer's 3 is short, Moser with the board! Tinsley is gone with 15.8 to go! Moser sinks one! Time out OC, with 15.8 left. OC has 1 more time out, Grant 3.

Moser sinks another 61-56! Last OC shot misses, James breaks away and dunks it! Grant wins 63-56!

Post Game 

Michael James' signature dunk gave him 17 points on the game, and James described the wiinning feeling as "The greatest thing ever!" The move made James an instant celebrity, as the fad of the post game was the kids collecting sneakers from their heros. As James handed out his second sneaker, he exclaimed "And now, I don't have any shoe! I should be charging for them!" After all, they did carry him, and his team, to Grant's first PIL title since the 80's.

Once Michael Moser, who led the Generals with a 20 point, 13 rebound double double, and was named to the all tournament first team, climbed down off the top of the heap at midcourt, he declared the win to be due to "Such a deep team. We just kept working. No individual matters, the team does."

Paul McCoy, who was the third General in double figures with 13, described the feeling at the end. "I knew we had it only when we got that steal. The steal did it. The whole team was running down the court, we knew how much that meant."

Coach Broadous discussed what the win, and the double PIL win, meant. "This is just huge for the community! We have been working so hard, football has been close, track was close, to finally do it is incredible! We set a goal to win the PIL, the first for us in 20 years, and then to bring home a bracket board. It wasn't easy, there were ups and downs."

Those ups and downs included being the underdog to the Pioneers, who got a game high 30 points from Brad Tinsley, who together with Sunset's Garrett Sim were unanimous choices to the all tournament team, and 21 more from Sammy Schafer, also name to the all tournament first team. Both 4 year varsity players for Oregon City. Coach Broadous paid tribute to the Pioneers, noting "Oregon City fought hard. We had an up and down year, but we peaked at the right time."

McCoy and James were named to the all tournament second team.

South Medford's E.J. Singler rounded out the all-tournament first team.

Coach Broadous credited the Generals' strong finish to defense, and great efforts by his players. "At the end of the year, we went back to basics on defense. Defense wins championships. After taking that 1 point half time lead, we wanted to come out and be aggressive. And use our defense. We wanted to wear them down, and make Tinsley earn his points. We knew he would get his, but because of that, I felt Kamal Smith would be the key to the game. Smith had scored 13 against South Medford, and 13 more against Sunset. Our goal was to hold him to 6 points." They succeeded; Smith had 2 points.

Coach Broadous said "Michael (Moser) was fabulous! Paul (McCoy) took charge at the end of the game. And(Daniel) Collins off the bench! With a wrist problem, he made those free throws!" Collins had 8 points, including 4 of 5 from the line.

Grant got a boost from the Jefferson crowd as well. Coach Broadous noted "They inspired us. We were rooting for them, and though we didn't get to see the end of their game, when they came down stairs, they were pumped up. Jeff gave us an extra boost." And the Jefferson crowd stayed to join the Grant crowd, who had come early, as they jointly cheered what turned into a "PIL night".

Assistant Coach Marvin Patten declared the win "Unbelievable! I have no words for this!" After a few minutes of soaking in the celebration, Patten did find a few words, though. I'm a '77 grad from Grant. We were in the title game that year, but didn't get it done. To bring the title back to Northeast Portland is huge. It's been a long time."

And as one last celebration, of sorts, after the fans cleared Mac Court, and only a couple writers were finishing up the last stories, the Generals came out, and ran a line drill! Might say something about the work ethic that went into a State Championship!