‘There was never an ounce of doubt in our team.’ Oregon boys put up valiant fight before falling short vs. Washington at WAVOR all-star basketball event

“We ended up losing, but I felt like we played hard and gave ourselves a chance, and we also had a lot of fun together.”

By René Ferrán | Photo by Ken Waz  

Shortly after Josiah Lake and his Tualatin teammates cut down the nets at the University of Portland’s Chiles Center, he was back on the court with a new set of teammates.

Team Oregon came together more than two weeks prior to Sunday’s 27th annual WAVOR The Game basketball series at Liberty High School in Hillsboro, preparing to face a Washington team that boasted four Division I signees and gathered for the first time only a couple of days ago.

The extra prep time wasn’t enough to help Oregon avoid a third consecutive defeat in the series. Unlike last year’s 30-point rout, however, Oregon stayed within striking distance for most of the game before falling 110-97. 

WATCH: Game highlights

“With our group, we’re all competitive, and we had the mindset that we wanted to win this thing,” said Gresham’s Esyah Pippa-White, who scored a game-high 23 points. “We ended up losing, but I felt like we played hard and gave ourselves a chance, and we also had a lot of fun together.”

Like the Oregon girls team that had cohesiveness because of club ties, six of the nine Oregon boys who played Sunday were on the same Team Fly club team last year, including both sets of brothers — Malachi and Moroni Seely-Roberts of Lincoln and Malik and Kalim Brown of Tigard — as well as Lake and Cleveland’s Jackson Cooper.

“It was like two weeks or so of hanging out a lot and figuring out each other’s games, and you just build that chemistry,” said Cooper, who had 17 points and 12 rebounds. “Six of our players played club together, so we definitely got a good dynamic within this team.” 

“For me, this was very different and very fun,” Pippa-White added. “It’s the best players in Oregon. Everybody’s smart, so you have trust in everybody. It’s not like your high school team, where you’ve got to take over. Here, you can swing somebody the ball and trust and rely on them. It was very fun, and it was a pleasure to be here.” 

Malachi Seely-Roberts scored Oregon’s first nine points, all on three-pointers, and Oregon led 11-8 before Washington went on a 13-2 run to take a lead it never relinquished. 

The margin grew to 20 in the opening moments of the second half, but Oregon scrapped its way back into the game, getting as close as 82-75 on Evan Otten’s layup with 10:07 left.

Otten, a 6-foot-10 post from Redmond, was an anomaly on the Oregon roster — the only player from outside the Portland area and its only pure back-to-the-basket player — and the Oregon Tech signee chipped in 10 points and nine rebounds in 19 minutes.

“Being the only non-Portland guy here, adjusting to the way they play, it was kind of new to me,” Otten said. “They play fast, play hard, a lot of flashy dump passes. But it was fun. I had a lot of good teammates.” 

Oregon was within eight at 100-92 after Pippa-White’s three-point play with 4:07 left, but Washington answered with one final spurt to push the lead back to 14 on Sylas Williams’ putback with less than three minutes to go.

“Every time we’d go on a run, they would hit a three or something that just messed up the run,” said Cooper, who recently signed with Oregon Tech. “But there was never an ounce of doubt in our team. We went out there and fought really hard. We played a helluva game.”

Oregon leads the series, 15-12. 

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Washington 110, Oregon 97

       Washington — Parker Gerrits (Olympia) 6-11 3-4 19, Tyce Paulsen (Curtis) 2-6 0-0 5, Vaughn Weems (Federal Way) 6-10 0-0 13, Maverick Sanders (Mount Spokane) 4-8 2-4 12, Mason Williams (O’Dea) 3-6 0-0 7, Kobe Parlin (Mark Morris) 5-8 6-8 16, Brooklyn Hicks (Timberline) 3-10 2-2 9, Andrew Collins (Tumwater) 3-4 2-2 10, Kelson Gebbers (Brewster) 2-5 2-2 7, Sylas Williams (Jackson) 5-9 1-2 12. Totals 39-77 18-24 110.

       Oregon — Malik Brown (Tigard) 1-4 0-0 3, Jalen Childs (Beaverton) 3-9 0-0 6, Josiah Lake II (Tualatin) 4-10 0-0 9, Malachi Seely-Roberts (Lincoln) 5-13 0-0 14, Evan Otten (Redmond) 5-11 0-0 10, Kalim Brown (Tigard) 1-3 0-0 2, Jackson Cooper (Cleveland) 8-14 1-2 17, Esyah Pippa-White (Gresham) 7-12 6-10 23, Moroni Seely-Roberts (Lincoln) 6-13 0-0 13. Totals 40-89 7-12 97.

       Halftime—Washington 63, Oregon 45. Three-point goals—Washington 14-27 (Gerrits 4, Sanders 2, Collins 2, Paulsen, Weems, M.Williams, Hicks, Gebbers, S.Williams), Oregon 10-28 (Ma.Seely-Roberts 4, Pippa-White 3, M.Brown, Lake, Mo.Seely-Roberts). Rebounds—Washington 45 (S.Williams 14), Oregon 48 (Cooper 12; Otten, Mo.Seely-Roberts 9). Assists—Washington 26 (Gerrits 6; M.Williams, Hicks 4), Oregon 22 (Cooper 6, Childs 5). Turnovers—Washington 15, Oregon 19. Fouls—Washington 14, Oregon 20. 

Photo by Ken Nowaczyk

Photo by Ken Nowaczyk

Photo by Ken Nowaczyk