It’s a season to remember for Sherwood boys basketball: ‘Most fun I’ve ever had’

The Bowmen wrapped up the Pacific Conference title and are looking to make some noise — and have more fun — in the postseason

Sherwood junior Brody Rygh throws down a second-quarter dunk during the Bowmen’s 62-48 victory at Century. / Dan Brood

Don’t look now, but it seems like everything is coming up Sherwood.

It’s coming up Bowmen boys basketball, to be more exact.

The Sherwood squad is having fun, it’s playing well, it got its title back, and it wants to keep it going as long as it can — maybe all the way to the Class 6A state tournament.

That’s probably why you see so many smiles on the Bowmen’s faces these days.

“Dude, this season is a blast,” Sherwood senior guard Connor Parry said after the Bowmen’s Pacific Conference title-clinching 62-48 win over Century on Wednesday at Century High School. “It’s been a lot of fun. I’m just taking it all in, my senior year. I’m just enjoying the time with my guys. I’m leaving it all on the floor.”

“This has been the most fun I’ve ever had,” said Sherwood sophomore guard Avery Johnson, who scored a game-high 18 points in the victory at Century. “It’s just a great bunch of kids, and we’re having so much fun.”

Sherwood sophomore Avery Johnson goes up to the basket for two of his game-high 18 points for the Bowmen in their 62-48 win at Century. / Dan Brood

“It was a lot of fun tonight,” Sherwood coach Rahim Tufts said. “It’s a great atmosphere, and (Century’s Scott) Kellar is one of the best coaches in the state. They had a great game plan, and they played really well. I said it during a timeout, ‘Guys, this is so much fun — just enjoy it.’”

No problem there.

Swarming on defense, pushing the ball in transition and crashing the boards, the Bowmen were seemingly on their game — producing even more smiles.

“Our defense really helped us out, and our communication really helped us out,” Sherwood junior guard/wing Brody Rygh said. “It was driving, kick-out threes, and just driving to the paint really helped us out tonight. It was a lot of fun.”

With the joyful victory, its fifth in a row and 11th in the past 12 games, Sherwood improved to 10-0 in Pacific Conference play (18-5 overall) — wrapping up the league title for the Bowmen, as second-place Forest Grove is three games back with two to play.

That’s a big thing for the Bowmen as they had won every Pacific Conference crown since the conference’s inception in 2018 until last season, when Liberty claimed the title.

“That’s a big thing,” Rygh said. “We didn’t win last year — we lost to Liberty. That was a tough one. So, we were here to get it back. That was a good feeling.”

“This is big. This clinched the league title for us,” Johnson said. “That’s a great feeling.”

“It’s nice to get it back,” Tufts said. “We talked about that the first time we played Liberty. We said, ‘Hey, they got it from us last year; let’s go get it back.’”

Not only has Sherwood reclaimed the Pacific Conference title, but the Bowmen have done it in dominant style, as the closest contest they’ve had in conference play this season was Wednesday’s 14-point win over the Jaguars.

“It’s been our length, honestly,” Johnson said of the key to the performance in league play. “We’re just taller than every team, bigger than every team. And we’re bringing it every day. We can’t control who we play, but we can control how we play.”

“It’s been our shooting, our driving, our length and just getting some boards. That’s really helped us out this season,” Rygh said. “We’ve got a lot of key role players and key players knowing what to do.”

The Bowmen squad definitely appears to be deep.

With players such as senior guard Brady Hix, senior post Walt Rosenberg (who both started in the game at Century), senior wing Spencer Christensen and junior guard Riley DeBorde, just to name some, the Bowmen have plenty of combinations of talented players they can put on the court.

Sherwood senior Brady Hix tries to power his way to the basket in the Bowmen’s 62-48 Pacific Conference win at Century. / Dan Brood

“We just have a lot of different weapons on both sides of the ball,” Tufts said. “Tonight, they were really focused on taking Brody (who scored 26 points the night before in an 82-40 win over Liberty) away. They were face-guarding him at times. We just used him as a decoy at times. Other guys stepped up, and when we get the ball moving, we’re tough to guard, because we have guys who can score.”

And there’s the 6-foot-3 Parry, a star pitcher who has committed to play college baseball for the University of Portland, who is doing everything he can for the Bowmen in his final basketball season.

“I’m trying to facilitate, trying to get to the rim and kick it out to my guys, and knock down shots when I’m open,” said Parry, who had 17 points, 14 rebounds (including 10 in the first half) and two steals in the win at Century. “We don’t have a selfish dynamic at all, which is really nice. We might have a different leading scorer every game. It doesn’t really matter to us. A team is a team.”

And that team has some lofty goals for the rest of the season.

“I think this is one of the best teams that we’ve had, and we’re really excited for the playoffs. I’m excited for it,” Rygh said. “We’re looking at the tournament. This is our goal for the whole season. We really want to get to the Chiles Center (site of the Class 6A state tournament) with this team.”

Sherwood junior Brody Rygh drives the baseline in the Bowmen’s 62-48 win at Century. Sherwood clinched the Pacific Conference championship with the victory. / Dan Brood

The Bowmen haven’t been to a state tournament since they played in the 2014 Class 5A state event at the Knight Arena in Eugene. And it’s probably fair to say they’re not one of the big favorites to reach the 6A tournament this year — but they’re OK with that.

“I think we’re the underdog, and we know it. I love it,” Parry said. “We’ve never been to the Chiles Center before, so that’s the No. 1 goal.”

“We’re looking forward to that, 100 percent,” Johnson said of the playoffs. “We’re working hard to try to get better every day.”

The Bowmen sound like they’re ready to put in the work these last few weeks to make that happen.

“It’s just going to take more resilience and hustle, and we have to be locked in every single day. It’s day by day. It’s not going to happen overnight, so we just have to keep pushing,” Parry said. “I’ve played basketball my whole life, and knowing this is going to be last year on the court, I’m ready to leave it all out there.”

Parry certainly seemed to do that in Wednesday’s game at Century. He had six points and six rebounds in the first quarter, which ended with Sherwood holding a 15-8 lead.

Sherwood senior Connor Parry goes up for a jumper during the Bowmen’s game at Century. Parry had 17 points and 14 rebounds in the 62-48 win. / Dan Brood

But the hot-shooting Jaguars came roaring back in the second quarter, sinking four 3-pointers in the period. Century ended the half with back-to-back 3-pointers by junior Jace Willett and senior Jessley Bukeyeneza, who sank his as the buzzer sounded, trimming Sherwood’s lead to 33-28.

The Jaguars cut the margin to two, at 36-34, with 6 minutes and 2 seconds left in the third quarter. But the home team wouldn’t get any closer. Sherwood’s defense made sure of that. The Bowmen, with Johnson scoring nine points, outscored Century 18-9 in the final 5:30 of the period to take a 54-43 lead to the fourth. The Bowmen limited the Jaguars to five points in the final quarter to close out the title-clinching 62-48 win.

“We’re a gritty team. Even if we’re not shooting well, we’re getting rebounds, we’re pushing in transition, and we’re finding ways to win,” Parry said. “It was just our resilience. They kind of punched us in the mouth to start off the game. In the second quarter it was close. But we were just resilient and found a way to punch them back.”

Then there was the Sherwood defense, which helped force Century to a 19-for-50 shooting night from the field.

“Every night presents a different challenge,” Tufts said. “They shot well in the first half. They always shoot well at home, especially against us. But we just found a way to get to the paint, get to the cup, and our defense in the second half of the third quarter, and the fourth, really buckled down.”

“It’s been a big thing that Tufts has harped on,” Parry said of the team’s defense. “Since Day 1, we’ve been a defensive team. Defense wins championships. So, that’s been our focus.”

Sherwood coach Rahim Tufts directs the action in the Bowmen’s Pacific Conference title-clinching 62-48 win at Century. / Dan Brood

Johnson scored his game-high 18 points on an 8-for-11 shooting night.

“It went well,” said Johnson, who had two steals. “The shot wasn’t going down for me, but I was able to get points going to the rack. Connor got to the rack. It was good.”

Although Century seemed to focus on stopping Rygh from scoring, he still came up with nine points and seven assists. Christensen added six points for the Bowmen, and Hix scored five.

Sherwood made 27 of 58 shots from the field with seven 3-pointers.

For Century, Bukeyeneza had 14 points, 12 rebounds and four assists.

Sherwood has two conference games remaining, against Newberg and at Forest Grove, before starting postseason play.

“We’ve got two league games left, and we’re just trying to get better every day and prepare for the playoffs,” Tufts said. “We just want to enjoy being together these last few weeks.”

Probably no problem there.

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