By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
BEAVERTON, Ore.– Mid-Pacific just kept coming.
They didn’t care that they entered the game 4-9 on the year. They didn’t care about Regis’ resume and their 6-0 start to the season. The Hawaiian-based team just came to play against their Oregon counterpart on Sunday night at Valley Catholic.
Physical, aggressive, matching the Rams uptempo style the Owls did and aided them to stay with one of the top teams in Oregon’s 2A Classification. They led 8-3 to start, Regis tied it at 10, Mid Pacific pulled ahead 22-16 just to see Regis rally ahead 33-22 thanks to a 17-0 run in the second quarter.
The Owls cut it to five before Regis made another run. It was a good test of answering adversity for the Rams, who were coming off a two-point victory over Enterprise nearly a week ago, to be tested in this fashion. Physically and mentally to overcome and close out a victory.
“They were really physical. They kind of just kept coming at you, coming at you. I thought we had them a couple of times. Their tenacity was really tough,” said Regis Head Coach Jason Koehnke. “We have a lot of things to clean up, but I’m proud that we kept taking it and finished the game. It is good for us to win some close games that you have some big last possessions, it’s good for our team to do that.”
It was a 42-37 Regis lead with 3:21 left in the third stanza before the Rams made another push. They led 53-44 after three and had a 57-47 cushion nearly 90 seconds into the fourth quarter before Mid Pacific made one more run.
Nearly four minutes later on the game clock, with 2:18 left in the game, the Owls led 64-63. Darius Chizer led Mid Pacific with 24 points, with five three-pointers and Ashton McCauley 21, with four three-pointers. The Owls hit on 11 three-pointers in the game, and the three ball helped them stay in contention throughout.
Regis dug deep. They pulled back ahead 66-64 with 36.1 left as they got a basket and a free throw to get back ahead. But it was the final 12 seconds that ultimately helped the Rams hold off the Owls in this one.
Mid Pacific was able to get to the basket, and started to get shots up. One, two, three shots and nothing was falling. They kept fighting for the tying shot, Regis kept fighting for that one defensive rebound to push it up court. Eventually the latter was the final result of the battle in the trenches as the Rams were able to get that defensive rebound and pushed it up court to close out the 66-64 victory.
“It was really scary to be honest. I was just sitting there and trying to get that rebound to secure that win the whole time and I got that and I knew the game was over,” said Eli Silbernagel said of those final 12 seconds. “It was really hard, but I feel like those are what makes us better. Those close ones that you got to keep fighting and fighting.”
Silbernagel led the Rams with 27 points while Lucas Koehnke contributed another 14 points in the victory.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
