By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
STAYTON, Ore.– We may see this match-up once again later on this season in the 4A State Playoffs between Baker and Stayton in the Girls Basketball realm.
Both ranked highly in the 4A rankings and the Coaches Poll, they showed why they may be the frontrunners for the 4A State Championship when the time comes in March.
With their intensity, they tipped it off Wednesday afternoon in the Championship Game of the SCTC Tournament. And after the first quarter, a relatively defensive one, both teams were tied up at 11 apiece.
The Bulldogs made their first run of the game, building a 19-13 lead on the Eagles before Stayton rallied back. By halftime it was still tied, this time at 21-21.
The Eagles too had a run. Two actually in the second half. The first one saw Stayton burst out to a 31-24 lead in the third quarter before Baker pulled back within three going into the fourth quarter with the Eagles leading 34-31 on their Eastern Oregon counterpart.
That was when Stayton had their second run of the half. They answered the Bulldogs 7-3 advantage to close out the third quarter with a 9-2 run to start the fourth. It was 43-33 Stayton at this point with 4:23 left in regulation.
“We knew coming in how good they were. It’s a little frustrating at the end, I felt like we were in a good spot and I thought they did a great job and we’ll learn from that, get better,” said Stayton Head Coach Tal Wold. “We need to be better with the ball and getting girls into some spots and finishing plays. Some of that is learning and going through it. It’s expensive learning as I call it because it happens in a game of this magnitude, it’ll be good for us.”
But Baker wasn’t done and out just yet. They began climbing back. Soon enough, as time was about to hit zero and they were down three and needed a shot, they got it to force Overtime.
Molly Rasmussen hit the three-point shot to help extend the game into overtime. The shot itself was one of those incredible shots as it hit the back of the hoop, went up and found its way down the hoop to tie the game up at 48.
It gave the Bulldogs some extra momentum on top of the momentum they had to even get back into the game late. The shot fed right into a 5-0 run to start overtime, giving Baker a 53-48 lead and made the Eagles come at them if they wanted to take the win
“We were watching the ball to see if it would fall through, it’s a game of inches. It was a great look and we kind of lucked out on the shot that went in and we got five quick points and that momentum was huge,” said Baker Head Coach Jason Ramos. “We ratcheted up the defense there at the end where we needed to and we got what we got out of that. Our girls just battled. “We’ve been in these situations before and credit to them, they played until the very end and we made a couple of adjustments, amp’d up the pressure and the ball bounced our way a couple of times and that’s how we got it to overtime.
Stayton made one last push. They regained the lead, 56-55, with 20.4 seconds remaining before Baker pulled back ahead with 8.3 seconds remaining off a Kyndal Chandler short-range shot. The Eagles turned to Brecci Hampton for the game-winner at the buzzer, but the junior’s shot just missed it’s mark as the Bulldogs were able to snap Stayton’s 18-game winning streak and to take the SCTC Tournament Championship 57-56.
“You got to have a game like this to get a gauge of where you’re at. We felt like we’re one of those teams and we have lofty goals, so to come down here and do this against a really, really good team, it’s going to build some confidence going forward. It sets the bar moving forward for us,” said Ramos.
“It was super fun. We were talking before, Jason and I, this is going to be a super fun game where you’re going to have a battle and every possession is going to be important and it has all that stuff. I thought it was really good and I enjoyed playing them, competing against them. They were huge and we really had a battle. It was fun to watch, fun to coach and the girls had a good time,” adds Wold.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
