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Grants Pass drives by Sunset Mail Tribune / Andrew Mariman Grants Pass' Bruce Voges, left, drives past Sunset's Sam Rayburn in Saturday's game. With the win, the Cavemen advance to the Class 4A boys basketball tournament in Portland for the third straight season By DON HUNT Mail Tribune GRANTS PASS - Three years, three trips to the boys Class 4A state basketball tournament. The Grants Pass Cavemen are getting a little spoiled, they'll admit, but they earned another journey to the big dance in Portland with a 54-51 subtournament victory over Sunset on Saturday night. Tom Cohen scored 15 points, Tyler York added 12 and Kory Mahr chipped in 10 to lead the Cavemen, who nearly squandered a 13-point lead in the game's final two minutes but hung on for the win before a standing-room-only crowd of about 1,800 at Heater-Neumann Memorial Gym. "We're going to the state tournament with a clean slate and we're going to forget about the last two minutes of this game," said York, the Cavemen's three-year starting point guard. "We played great for 29 or 30 minutes and that's what we're going to build on." The victory was Grants Pass' 21st of the season in 25 games, and even though the Cavemen are likely to draw a lower seed when the tournament seedings are announced today, coach Bill Cowell believes his squad can compete with anyone in the 16-team field. "We're not going to be intimidated by anyone, I know that," said Cowell, whose team advanced to the semifinals last season before losing in overtime to Churchill, the eventual state champs. With a full-house crowd roaring its approval, Grants Pass jumped to an 18-8 lead after one period as Cohen drilled a pair of 3-point baskets and York drained another. York then swished a 17-foot jumper early in the second period to give the hot-shooting Cavemen a 12-point lead, and Sunset seemed on the verge of getting blown out. But the Apollos are a resilient bunch. After tying for third place in the Metro League and advancing to the subtournament as the No. 4 seed because of a tiebreaker, they notched nail-biting wins on the road against Oregon City and David Douglas prior to meeting Grants Pass. A 12-point deficit in hostile territory wasn't going to phase them. Still, Grants Pass played almost flawlessly in the first half and added the exclamation point by working off the final 27 seconds before Bruce Voges knifed inside and flipped in a 5-foot shot as time expired, giving the Cavemen a 29-16 advantage at the break. And things only got worse for Sunset in the third period. A driving layup by Mahr, back-to-back baskets by York and a layup by Voges extended a 10-point Grants Pass lead to 40-22 with 2:13 left in the period. But just about the time the Grants Pass faithful were getting on their cell phones and making motel reservations in Portland, the Apollos came storming back. Senior guard Jaymie Steck, who scored 15 of his game-high 19 points in the fourth quarter, drilled three 3-pointers in the final 3:35, including two within the final minute of play to spark the Sunset comeback. Steck's final trey, from the left wing, came with 47 seconds to play and got the Apollos within 52-49. At the other end, GP's Bart Bailey narrowly missed two free throws, and Sunset got the ball back with a half-minute to play and a chance to tie. But before Sunset could launch a shot, Brant Minor punched the ball away from one of the Apollos, Cohen grabbed it and was fouled. Although he had missed the front end of a one-and-one 34 seconds earlier, Cohen hit two shots from the stripe with 20.9 seconds remaining that gave Grants Pass a 54-49 lead. "I finally got a couple of free throws to fall when we needed them," Cohen said. The Cavemen weren't out of the woods yet, however. They inexplicably fouled Steck from the 3-point line with three seconds left, and he made two of his three free throws to make it 54-51. Sunset then stole the inbounds pass near midcourt and Brett Stuvland's high-arching 35-footer at the buzzer for the tie nearly went in. "I thought it was in," said Stuvland, who finished with 12 points. "It was right on target but came up a little bit short." Sunset finished its season with a 20-7 record and just missed sending veteran coach Ken Harris to another state tournament. "All the credit goes to Grants Pass, but our kids felt like they could do better," said Harris, who has coached for 42 years, the last 22 at Sunset. "We dug an awfully big hole and nearly crawled out of it." It wasn't difficult to discern the Cavemen's problems in the second half: they went 3-for-8 from the line in the fourth period, including the front end of two one-and-ones, and 6-for-15 for the game. SUNSET (54) - Steck 19, B. Stuvland 12, Rayburn 8, Jackson 8, C. J. Stuvland 2, Mishler 2, Christianson 0. Totals: 19-40 10-11 51. GRANTS PASS (51) - Cohen 15, York 12, Mahr 10, Minor 6, Voges 6, Bailey 5, Draper 0. Totals: 22-44 6-15 54. Sunset........................................................ 8 8 12 23 - 51 Grants Pass........................................... 18 11 14 11 - 54 3-point goals - Sunset 3 (Steck 3), Grants Pass 4 (Cohen 3, York 1). Reach reporter Don Hunt at 776-4469, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.