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CHRISTMAS CLASSIC: Pirates sink No. 1 Challengers By Danny Penza Updated: Dec 21, 2022 09:46 PM A A 8 View all photos Top-ranked Cascade Christian falls to No. 3 Dayton in early Class 3A showdown Coming out of his team’s first loss of the season this past weekend, Cascade Christian boys basketball coach Brian Morse was as interested as anybody to see how the Challengers would respond to open their own tournament. What played out was another game in which the Challengers had to fight from behind. Cascade Christian’s fourth-quarter rally in the closing two minutes came up short, as the Challengers couldn’t completely shake some offensive struggles and opened the Cascade Christian Christmas Classic with a 57-50 loss to Dayton on Wednesday night. “The biggest thing in the game is that it doesn’t matter how good we are, if a good team comes into our house and outworks us in every aspect of the game, then you’re going to lose and you’re going to lose bad — and that’s exactly what happened,” said Morse. “Dayton outworked us the whole game, and it was very disappointing on our part. Like I told the team, last year, I can’t think of one game where a team outworked us. There may have been teams that were better than us, but nobody outworked us. “Tonight, Dayton played a great game, they outworked us, they shot the ball well and made us look bad. It will hopefully be an eye-opener for the guys and they learn from it and they make a dedication to not get outworked by anybody again.” In a meeting of two teams ranked in the top 3 of the latest Class 3A coaches poll, No. 1 Cascade Christian — which was coming off a 47-43 overtime loss to Class 4A’s top-ranked team, Philomath, last Saturday night — held a slim lead for much of the first half against third-ranked Dayton. But it ended up being a lengthy third-quarter cold spell that saw the Pirates (5-1) ultimately take the lead for good and force the reigning state champion Challengers (2-2) to eliminate a near double-digit deficit. Austin Maurer’s three-point play gave Cascade Christian a 33-29 lead with just under three minutes to go in the third quarter — which proved to be the last time the Challengers were in front. Dayton used an 11-2 run to flip Cascade Christian’s advantage into a 40-33 deficit. In total, Dayton outscored Cascade 17-8 in the third. “The third quarter is the main quarter where (Dayton) blitzed us and we had trouble scoring,” said Morse. “They played phenomenal.” One of the keys to the Pirates’ third-quarter run was how they defended the 7-foot Maurer, who had previously scored eight of his team’s first 13 points to help Cascade build an early lead. After successfully converting the three-point play, Maurer was limited to just three points, finishing the game with 14 points and five rebounds. “Dayton did a great job with their defensive pressure and we had trouble getting the ball into Austin,” said Morse. “We didn’t make a dedicated effort to get it into him, and when the ball’s not going into him then it’s much easier to defend against us, I think. Dayton played inspired and shot the ball well and they don’t have a guy over 6-2. They played a great game.” The Challengers pulled within three points when Maurer banked in a 3-pointer from the left wing to make it 53-50 with 59.7 seconds to go, but a pair of free throws from Lucas Ashley pushed the Pirates’ lead back up to two possessions. All 15 of Dayton’s free throw attempts came in the fourth quarter, and 11 of the Pirates’ 15 points in the period came from the charity stripe. Drew Hall led Cascade Christian with 16 points and three assists, while Jaren Fronckowiak added nine points and hit a pair of 3-pointers. Caleb Primbs scored 14 points to lead a Dayton squad that had three players finish in double figures. “We didn’t get into a real good flow and we didn’t have any fastbreak points,” said Morse. “We didn’t push the ball up the court and we just played uninspired at times.” DAYTON (57): Hodges 10, Primbs 14, Wall 9, Gentry 0, Garrison 6, Freeborn 11, Gallegher 0, Ashley 7. Totals: 22 9-14 57. CASCADE CHRISTIAN (50): Richardson 0, Fronckowiak 9, Anderson 2, Wallace 2, Hall 16, Farmer 0, P. Maurer 4, Brown 3, A. Maurer 14. Totals: 17 11-15 50. Dayton11141715— 57 Cascade Christian1611815— 50 3-point goals — Dayton 4 (Primbs 2, Freeborn 1, Ashley 1), Cascade Christian 5 (Fronckowiak 2, Hall 1, P. Maurer 1, A. Maurer 1). Fouled out — Anderson. EAGLE POINT 62, PHOENIX 39: Peyton Pierce scored 18 points and Eagle Point limited Phoenix to just 16 second-half points as the Eagles pulled away against the Class 4A Pirates to snap their seven-game losing skid. Eagle Point (2-7), which lost to Phoenix just eight days earlier, outscored the Pirates 28-16 in the second half to build upon an 11-point halftime lead. Robin Trenbeath scored 10 points to pace the Pirates (6-3). EAGLE POINT (62): Smith 0, Jackson 3, Pierce 18, Livingston 7, Brionnes 4, Raber 8, Moreno 0, Weaver 9, Perezchica 3. Totals: 24 12-16 62. PHOENIX (39): Trenbeath 10, Je. Selden 0, Mooring 2, Ja. Selden 2, Ponce 3, Hernandez 2, Harper 8, Ayala-Talbott 2, Decker 1, Bolstad 9. Totals: 14 7-14 39. Eagle Point17171216— 62 Phoenix716106— 39 3-point goals — Eagle Point 2 (Pierce 2), Phoenix 4 (Trenbeath 2, Ponce 1, Bolstad 1). ST. MARY’S 58, SANTIAM CHRISTIAN 44: Noah Friesen scored 25 points to boost St. Mary’s, which got off to a good start with a 17-10 edge in the first quarter and sealed the upset by going 11-for-14 from the foul line in the second half. Kayden Walker and Kent David each added eight points apiece to lead the Crusaders (1-5), who snapped their winless streak. Blake Boshart and Benjamin Bourne each scored 14 points for Santiam Christian (4-4), which is ranked No. 8 in the 3A coaches poll. SANTIAM CHRISTIAN (44): Carley 7, Boshart 14, Trimmer 0, Yenchik 3, Fosdick 3, Smith 3, Bourne 14. Totals: 19 2-2 44. ST. MARY’S (58): David 8, Friesen 25, Flowers 0, Kranenburg 0, Foster 6, Walker 8, Delplanche 5, Patel 6. Totals: 21 11-14 58. Santiam Christian10121210— 44 St. Mary’s17111614— 58 3-point goals — Santiam Christian 8 (Carley 1, Boshart 2, Yenchik 1, Fosdick 1, Smith 1, Bourne 2), St. Mary’s 5 (Friesen 4, Delplanche 1). Girls EAGLE POINT 58, NORTH VALLEY 25: Eagle Point registered its fifth straight victory with the runaway morning win over Class 4A North Valley. Morgan Dole, Jill Garlitz and Thianna Deng-Gomes all shared team-high honors with 12 points to lead a balanced attack for Eagle Point, which led 26-10 after the first quarter. The Eagles improved to 6-1 overall, while North Valley dropped to 2-5. NORTH VALLEY (25): Wheeler 8, Champion 5, Godfrey 10, Brito 2, Smith 0, Kilborn 0. Totals: 8 9-16 25. EAGLE POINT (58): Dole 12, Schauffler 0, R. Baldwin 8, A. Baldwin 2, Garlitz 12, Lindstrom 10, Deng-Gomez 12, Ledbetter 0, Cabrera 0. Totals: 25 3-6 58. North Valley10645— 25 Eagle Point2613136— 58 3-point goals — Eagle Point 5 (Dole 2, R. Baldwin 1, Garlitz 2). Fouled out — Ledbetter. CASCADE CHRISTIAN 29, PHOENIX 18: Cascade Christian junior Timnah Roberson scored on a driving basket with 1 1/2 minutes to play and then added two free throws to all but seal the homecourt victory over Class 4A Phoenix in a game filled with long scoreless stretches. Phoenix (5-4) got a 3-pointer from Anabell Delgado two minutes into the fourth quarter to trim its deficit to 20-14 but the next points came with two minutes to play on a free throw by Cascade’s Jordynn Jones and then Roberson tallied her quick outburst. The Challengers (3-1) led 13-9 at halftime and went up 18-11 through three quarters after a 3-pointer by Jones with 30 seconds on the clock. Jones finished with 14 points and five rebounds and Roberson had seven points and three boards. Morgan James scored four straight points late in the fourth quarter to finish with eight points for Phoenix. PHOENIX (18): James 8, Nolan 0, Woodward 2, Mohamud 1, Delgado 5, Rector 4. Totals: 6 4-10 18. CASCADE CHRISTIAN (29): Akins 2, Lane 0, Vanlandingham 0, Ferreira 0, Coats 0, Jones 14, Law 0, Roberson 7, McCauley 6, Haley 0. Totals: 10 7-10 29. Phoenix5427— 18 Cascade Christian67511— 29 3-point goals — Phoenix 2 (James 1, Delgado 1), Cascade Christian 2 (Roberson 1, Jones 1). Fouled out — Rector. KLAMATH UNION 54, ST. MARY’S 19: Class 4A Klamath Union built a 29-8 lead at halftime and held that momentum to drive past 3A St. Mary’s, which got 13 points from Maddie Ward. The Crusaders dropped to 0-3 this season while the Pelicans, which got 16 points from Keely Hall, moved to 2-2. KLAMATH UNION (54): Russel 6, Langley 4, Hall 16, Garcia 6, Serrato 2, Pena-Hutchinson 2, Harmon 5, Slaven 3, Dentinger 2, Derry 2, Neese 6. Totals: 24 4-8 54. ST. MARY’S (19): Ward 13, Ayala 2, Bowdoin 1, Jensen 0, Mejia 3, Magda 0, Medley 0. Totals: 7 5-10 19. Klamath Union19101015— 54 St. Mary’s5383— 19 3-point goals — Klamath Union 2 (Russel 2). Photo by Denise Baratta. Drew Hall makes a drive to the basket for Cascade Christian during Wednesday's game against Dayton. Photo by Denise Baratta. Cascade Christian's Austin Maurer looks for a pass opportunity as Dayton's Morgan Gallagher attempts to sneak in for a steal. Photo by Denise Baratta. Austin Maurer, (34), looks for an opening over a crowd of Dayton defenders Wednesday night. Photo by Denise Baratta. Dayton players collide with Cascade Christian shooter Jaren Fronckowiak during Wednesday's Christmas Classic Tournament. Photo by Denise Baratta. Cascade Christian's Triston Wallace (4) and Deryk Farmer, left, fight for the rebound against Lucas Ashley (43) of Dayton. Photo by Denise Baratta. Drew Hall puts up a floater for Cascade Christian Wednesday night against visiting Dayton during the Cascade Christian Christmas Classic. Photo by Denise Baratta. Cannon Anderson shoots for two points for Cascade Christian Wednesday against Dayton. Photo by Denise Baratta. Austin Maurer drives past Morgan Gallagher of Dayton.