By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
STAYTON, Ore.– Tuesday’s Oregon West Conference opener between Cascade and Stayton came down to one last shot to decide the winner between the two rivals at Stayton High School.
Down 45-43, three seconds remaining in the game. Stayton had the ball. they needed a shot to either extend the game to overtime. Or if they’re lucky, win it in regulation.
And as faith would have it. The latter would occur.
The Eagles inbounded the ball to Ruben Reyes and he immediately was met by a Cascade defender. He took a few dribbles and from about the halfway point from the top of the three-point line and half-court, Reyes sent up a prayer of a shot just before the clock expired.
It landed. The shot found the bottom of the net to give Stayton the win.
Stayton 46, Cascade 45 was the final. It was the Eagles second win over their rival, the other being on December 28, 2024 during the SCTC Tournament, since the 2019-2020 season.
“It was crazy. Down two, I had to hit a three to win the game. They trusted me with it and I’m glad they did because I hit it. I’m thankful for that, thankful to God,” Reyes said of his shot.
Stayton’s game-winning shot almost didn’t come to be.
The Eagles came out firing, catching the Cougars in an early game slump. Stayton led 23-15 with a minute left in the first half before Cascade began to comeback.
A 5-2 spurt made it a 25-20 halftime deficit and thanks to a strong third quarter that bled into the first minute of the fourth quarter, the Cougars led Stayton 38-31. A 23-8 run after trailing 23-15 right before the halftime intermission.
“We just went back to trying to execute what we initially had planned and the kids did it. It wasn’t anything. No talk, nothing like that. Just back to actually what we’re supposed to be do and the kids did that in the second half, but it was a little too late,” said Cascade Head Coach Jeff Bennett. “We still got some stuff to figure out…No matter who we’re playing, who it is, we want to win that game.”
Stayton stormed back. They refocused and dug in. That 38-31 deficit at the 7:01 mark of the fourth quarter was reduced to 41-38 two minutes later. Both team’s traded buckets, the score being 43-40 Cascade with 4:42 remaining and it remained like that for nearly the remainder of the game as both defense’s clutched up.
It wasn’t until Brysen Higgins’ splitting a pair of free throws with 24.1 remaining broke the scoring drought that put Cascade ahead 44-40. Mason Silbernagel drained a three before the Eagles put Higgins back on the line with 16 seconds remaining. Higgins split to make it 45-43 going into eventually what became Reyes’ game-winning shot as Cascade made the Eagles burn through their remaining timeouts before Reyes connected on his shot at the buzzer.
“Just got to have the grit. Grit and push, don’t stop trying and push through the end and we came out with the win,” Reyes said. “Hopefully we can roll into the season with that. Two big wins over Madras and Estacada helped us leading into this game and hopefully we can keep running with this with the run we have.”
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
