Corvallis rallies to reach 5A championship game; Spartans top Thurston, the only team to defeat them

EUGENE — Defense has carried the Corvallis High boys basketball team all season long and nevermore so than on Friday afternoon in the OSAA 5A state tournament at McArthur Court.

With the Spartans clinging to a 42-39 lead over Thurston late in the fourth quarter, Cade Hearing stepped into the passing lane, picked off a pass intended for Colts star Drew Wiley and flipped the ball to a streaking Nadav Heyman who easily scored.

“Wiley is a great shooter and is their star player,” Hearing said. “So I was thinking he was probably going to get the ball and he’s got a really high release so he can shoot the ball in my face. But I read the lane and tried to get out there and it worked out well.”

That set of plays gave CHS a five-point lead with 12 seconds remaining and capped a furious rally by the Spartans, who trailed 34-29 going into the fourth.

After Heyman sank two free throws with four seconds left and Thurston’s Michael Akins missed a desperation 3-pointer on the ensuing possession, the Spartans players ran over to the CHS student section to celebrate.

Their 46-39 victory puts them in today’s state championship game against Jefferson at 6:30 p.m. It marks CHS’s first appearance in the title game since 1986, when it lost 56-54 to Grant. The Spartans have won five championships, the last in 1984.

For the team’s six seniors, making it to the title game gets them one step closer to realizing a goal they set out to reach they were in fifth grade.

“Tomorrow,” Hearing said. “Focusing on our game tomorrow. We’ll prepare tonight and then go out there again.”

Getting there didn’t come easy for the Spartans. In fact, things looked gloomy in the third quarter. CHS saw its four-point halftime lead quickly erased as the Colts came out shooting the ball extremely well.

The Colts opened the third with a 7-0 run and took their first lead of the game, 25-22, when Calvin Green sank a 3-pointer.

Thurston outscored the Spartans 16-7 in the quarter. A 3-pointer by Cameron Horrell sandwiched between four free throws by Heyman was all CHS could muster as the Colts tightened their defense. The Spartans, however, turned the tables on Thurston in the fourth quarter when it mattered most.

They scored the first nine points of the quarter, capped by a 3-pointer by Nick Eason with 3:34 remaining, which gave the Spartans a 38-34 lead.

Joey White, however, sank a 3-pointer of his own 17 seconds later to pull Thurston within one.

With 1:22 left, Alex Hendrickson put back a missed lay up attempt by Heyman to give CHS a 40-37 advantage. The Spartans squandered several chances to put the game away after that.

Wiley turned the ball over and committed a foul with 1:02 remaining, but Hendrickson’s pass was stolen by Maddie Boehen seven seconds later. After a Thurston timeout, Wiley missed a jumper that Eason got his hands on, but he was called for traveling with 37 seconds to go when he tumbled to the floor with the ball. A foul by Eason then sent Akins to the free-throw line with 29 seconds remaining and he made both shots to make it 40-39.

Eason got a chance to redeem himself two seconds later when he was fouled by Tim Autele. He calmly sank both free throws to put the Spartans up by three again and put the finishing touches on a strong fourth-quarter performance.

Eason, who has struggled shooting-wise in the tournament, scored seven points in the quarter.

“Nick hasn’t shot as well as he would like and we would like,” CHS coach Greg Garrison said. “But he is very capable. He hit that big three for us and he’s an outstanding player who has been through this before, so I was very confident in him going up to the free-throw line.

Added Eason: “It’s like Cloud 9 hitting a three at Mac Court. It felt like the momentum was going their way for awhile in the third quarter, so I wanted to be aggressive. I felt like I was forcing some shots at the beginning. So I just wanted one I knew I could knock down and when I got that three at the top of the key, I let it fly.”

Eason finished with 13 points for the Spartans, who were led by Heyman’s 14. Hendrickson also scored in double figures with 10. Akins had 14 points to lead Thurston. Wiley, who scored 21 points in the Colts’ quarterfinal win over Century, was held to six points on 2-for-9 shooting while being guarded mainly by Hearing.

“We knew Wiley is a special player,” Garrison said. “He’s a D-I athlete. That was one of our game plans obviously, like most teams, we wanted to limit his touches . . . Cade did an outstanding job defending him.”

He did so despite playing only seven minutes against Hermiston in the semifinals on Wednesday due to foul trouble. And Hearing saved his best for last.

He made sure Eason’s clutch free throws wouldn’t go to waste on the next possession, when he stepped in front of Wiley and came up with the ball.

Afterall, playing defense is what the Spartans do best.

Corvallis 46, Thurston 39

CORVALLIS 15 7 7 17 — 46

THURSTON 6 12 16 5 — 39

Corvallis: Nadav Heyman 14, Eason 13, Hendrickson 10, Horrell 6, Hearing 3, Orman, Younger

Thurston: Michael Atkins 14, White 12, Wiley 6, Boehen 4, Green 3, Autele, Wymore