Silverton rallies past Mid-Willamette rival Crescent Valley in thriller; Foxes will face top seed Redmond in 5A boys basketball semifinal

“We’d beat them twice and we knew we could beat them again, but they were ready. They had nothing to lose and they just went at it.”

By Bob Lundeberg | Photos by Leon Neuschwander 

The class of the Mid-Willamette Conference faced off again Wednesday afternoon at the 5A state tournament, and the third showdown was the best of the bunch.

Trailing by six early in the fourth quarter, senior-led Silverton dug deep and began getting stops and baskets against MWC rival Crescent Valley. The Foxes finally went ahead on a crafty Ryan Redman-Brown basket and played more great defense down the stretch to seal a 49-47 quarterfinal victory at Gill Coliseum.

No. 4 Silverton, which won both regular-season matchups between the teams en route to the MWC title, will face top-seeded Redmond at 1:30 p.m. Friday in the semifinals. 

“We knew coming into this that they wanted it bad,” said Redman-Brown, a 6-foot-5 senior who finished with 16 points, four rebounds, two assists, two steals and four blocks. “We’d beat them twice and we knew we could beat them again, but they were ready. They had nothing to lose and they just went at it.”

No. 5 Crescent Valley (20-7) went ahead late at Silverton in the first meeting, but the Foxes (22-5) regrouped to win 58-52. Silverton led wire-to-wire in Corvallis for a seven-point victory.

Foxes head coach Jamie McCarty felt like the Raiders controlled the majority of the action in Wednesday’s physical, defensive battle. With nine seniors on the roster, Silverton never panicked as it battled back for an 11th consecutive win over Crescent Valley.

“We finally slowed down and got to the right spots and executed the plays like we’ve done all year,” coach McCarty said. “But Crescent Valley does a lot to you to not let you do that. We’re both pretty similar. We’re both physical and put a lot of pressure on you, so it’s hard to execute sets against teams like that.”

Tied 9-9 after one quarter, 25-25 at halftime and 37-37 heading to the fourth, the Raiders jumped out to a six-point lead with 6:03 remaining on a Jake Leibelt basket. Leibelt converted another tough shot with 3:32 left that would have put Crescent Valley up 47-40, but Joseph Haugen slid in to take a basket-nullifying charge.

Haugen, who was playing with four fouls, then buried a corner three on the other end to make it a one-possession game. 

“That kid is such a warrior,” coach McCarty said of Haugen. “He got in foul trouble early and most kids, not on our team, but most kids would be on the bench sulking. And with Joey, the ref had to tell him to sit down because he’s up cheering for his teammates. … He’s a blue-collar worker, and that was huge.”

Added Redman-Brown: “It was a game-saver. We like taking charges, and he is the best at it on the team by far, besides Jordan McCarty.”

An Austin Ratliff layup tied the score on the next possession, and beautiful passing led to an easy Redman-Brown finish 25 seconds later for Silverton’s first lead of the fourth quarter.

“We just executed down the stretch so well, and we didn’t execute all game,” coach McCarty said. “I thought we were a hot mess the first quarter, we got better as the game went on, and by the fourth quarter, I thought we calmed some nerves. We settled down and we executed some sets really well.”

Adam Temesgen tied it at 47-47 on a driving layup with just under a minute remaining, but Redman-Brown answered 19 seconds later with a turnaround shot in the paint. Crescent Valley got multiple chances down the stretch as Silverton missed two front ends of one-and-ones, but the Foxes’ sticky defense won out.

Jordan McCarty, who recently signed to play football at Air Force, took just one shot in the second half but finished with 16 points, four assists and four steals. Teammate Neil Efimov added 10 points, four rebounds, five assists and three steals.

Leibelt had a strong game for the Raiders, finishing with 14 points, nine rebounds, four assists and two steals. Cooper Wakefield and Noah Dewey, the MWC player of the year, had 10 points apiece. 

Head coach Mike Stair was mostly happy with his team’s performance despite 20 turnovers — 11 in the second half. The Raiders defended like mad, out-rebounded Silverton 31-21, but made just one field goal in the final 4:46.

“We played with heart and played with poise,” Stair said. “We were able to cover some of our breakdowns here and there. I thought we were much better on the boards. We matched their intensity on the boards, and I thought that was a big factor in being in the game.”

In Wednesday’s first quarterfinal, Intermountain Conference player of the year Garrett Osborne put on a show for top-seeded Redmond.

The senior guard finished with 28 points, eight rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block as the Panthers cruised to a 51-37 victory over No. 8 Ashland.

Osborne hit a buzzer-beating three-pointer moments after throwing down a dunk to put Redmond up 30-18 at the half. The IMC champions never let Ashland back in it. 

Evan Otten had nine points, nine rebounds, two steals and two blocks for Redmond (21-5) while Tanner Jones added seven points and three steals. Egan Shields paced the Grizzlies (15-10) with 16 points, five rebounds and two blocks.