By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
AMITY, Ore.– The Blanchet Catholic Boys Basketball team came in with a plan for the PacWest Conference League Championship Game:
Defense First.
And man, it felt like it worked to perfection after the Cavaliers got into a groove against their rival in Salem Academy on Saturday night at Amity High School. Were there nerves at the beginning that may have slowed the execution of their gameplan? Sure. Blanchet held leads of 12-5 and 18-11 on the Crusaders, only to see Salem Academy rally back. A 9-3 run by Salem Academy after Blanchet built that 18-11 lead had the Crusaders trailing the Cavs 21-20 with 4:58 left in the opening half.
But then. Blanchet’s defense took control late in the half. Over the final five minutes before the break, the Cavaliers limited Salem Academy to just two points. That defensive effort allowed Blanchet to regain momentum offensively and extend its advantage to 33–22 by halftime.
“We’ve been talking about all season how we’re a defensive team first and that’s where we win. So we worked really hard this week and the boys implemented it perfectly. I couldn’t have asked anything more from them,” said Blanchet Head Coach Hans Rasmussen.
The defense continued their work into the second half as their lead reached 17 points with 3:40 left in the frame. Blanchet led 45-28 at this point in the contest.
For Salem Academy, the plan is to peak right now going into the 3A State Playoffs, but the silver lining coming out of the League Championship Game is that they’ll see similar kinds of team’s like Blanchet if they reach Coos Bay here in two weeks.
“That’s the silver lining for sure, if you’re not going to peak right now, you might as well see these kind of intense games to learn from and we have nearly a week to learn from stuff and get ready for whoever we play on Friday,” said Crusaders Head Coach Jeff Dunn “Blanchet’s a good team and their defense was better than our offense tonight and we got a pretty good offense. And for us to work on offense is a good thing, but we got to keep our heads up.”
Salem Academy cut the deficit to 12 points going into the fourth quarter, but Blanchet stayed the course and closed out the 61-45 victory over the Crusaders to win the PacWest Conference League Playoff Title.
“It was perfect, we knew what we needed to do and had to do. A big thing for us is being disciplined, it’s our identity and sticking to our identity. We know exactly who we are, and we play like us, we can’t lose,” said Blanchet’s Sam Mosar. “So just sticking to what coach said and executing the game plan.”
Mosar scored 25 points in the victory to lead the Cavaliers. Boone Dunn led the Crusaders with 14 points.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
