Never A Dull Moment In The Shaff Road Showdown

Turner – The season hasn’t gone quite as well as expected for defending Oregon West and 4A State girls’ basketball champion Cascade, as the Cougars accumulated 4 non-conference losses. But there weren’t many who expected eleventh ranked Cascade to struggle with struggling Stayton. The Eagles entered Cougar country for the first of the season’s “Shaff Road Showdowns” with only 5 wins to their credit, including wins over Sweet Home and Taft, both of whom are 1 win teams 2/3s of the way through the season.

First year Stayton coach Melissa Hollenbeck, herself a Stayton alum, understands that records mean nothing when the Eagles and Cougars lock up though, and anything goes. More importantly, she convinced her relatively undersized players of that too. So long as they played with relentless effort, they would have a chance.

And if they had been able to shoot free throws better, they would have had the win. After 2 and a quarter hours, and 55 fouls later, Stayton came up just short, losing 60-57 to Cascade in a bruising battle that had more physical contact than a rousing game of “Whack a Mole.”

The Eagles shot only 37% from the free throw line, and missed 5 straight in the final 2 minutes of the game, before Dlanie Coates made the second of a pair that kept it a one possession game.

The Cougars in contrast connected on 62% of their free throws, and though Sadie Trump made only the second of two with 3.6 seconds left, it did force Stayton to take a 3 pointer with their last shot. The shot never drew iron, and Cascade escaped with the bruising win, one that featured multiple technical fouls, and multiple players knocked out of the game with injuries, as well as several disqualified on personal fouls.

Stayton's Dlanie Coates scores 2 of her 14 points against Cascade.

The early going gave a clue of the rugged nature of the contest to come, as there were 11 fouls in the first 5+ minutes of the game, and Cascade was in the bonus after Stayton’s 7^th. foul less than 6 minutes into the first quarter.

The Cougars took a 13-7 lead after one quarter, and then appeared to blow the game open with a 21 point second stanza, taking a 34-17 lead to the locker room.

It appeared that it would be a matter of playing out the rest of the clock a couple minutes into the third quarter, with Cascade up 41-25. But then the Cougars suddenly went ice cold, and the Eagles lit things up. Back to back 3 pointers by Presley Gescher and Karmen Duchateau capped a 17-0 Stayton run that put the Eagles ahead by a point before a free throw by Cascade’s Alix Biddington slowed the onslaught.

Cascade took a 47-46 lead into the final period, and extended the lead to 4 points when Austyn Lowder made 3 of 4 free throws, after a foul followed by a technical foul.

Britneigh Gaetz’s basket capped a 7-0 Cascade run to start the 4^th quarter, putting the Cougars up 54-46 with 6:18 to go. But the Cougars went cold again, and a rash of turnovers compounded the problem. Cascade went 3:12 without scoring until a pair of Erica Lund free throws, but Stayton couldn’t score either during the melee.

The Eagles finally rallied, as Hannah Lopez’s put back and subsequent 3 pointer pulled Stayton within 56-54. Cascade made only 1 of 2 free throws on 4 different occasions in the final 2 minutes, but Stayton got no closer than 57-56, after Coates scored, but couldn’t complete the 3 point play, the first of the 5 missed free throws in the final minutes.

Cascade had to contend with scrappy Stayton without Kassie Sanders down the stretch, after Sanders fouled out after scoring only 5 points, including the 2 above. Gaetz led the Cougars, with 16 points, and Ale Marquez added 12. Biddington came off the Cascade bench, with 13 more points.

 Stayton's Hannah Lopez scores 2 of her game high 19 points

over Cascade's Sadie Trump.

Lopez led all scorers, with 19 points, and Coates contributed 14 more to the Stayton total.

Cascade made 29 of 47 free throws, while Stayton only got to the line 27 times, making just 10. It derailed Hollenbeck’s game plan that otherwise would have handily delivered an upset victory.

Stayton (5-11, 1-2) is tied with Central for 4^th. place in the Oregon West League, with a trip to Independence to take on the Panthers scheduled for Tuesday. Central trampled Taft 56-9 tonight.

Cascade (12-4, 2-0) heads for Philomath (13-3, 3-0) Tuesday, for a showdown with the Warriors with first place in the OWL on the line. Philomath put down Newport 45-23 tonight on the coast.

Stayton             7  10  29  11  -  57

Cascade        13  21  13  13  -  60

Stayton– Hannah Lopez 19, Delanie Coates 14, Rheanna Robbins 7, Montana Whisenhunt 7,

Karmen Duchateau 4, Presley Gescher 3, Molly Lopez 2, Maygen Pietrok 1. Fouled out – H. Lopez, Coates, M. Lopez.

Cascade – Britneigh Gaetz 16, Alix Biddington 13, Ale Marquez 12, Austyn Lowder 8, Kassi Sanders 5, Sadie Trump 4, Erica Lund 2, Mariah Bartlett. Fouled out – Sanders.

(Photos by Andy Wooldridge)

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