Roosevelt (Oregon) topples Eastside Catholic (Washington) to win 2023 Hardwood Invite championship
PORTLAND - The Roosevelt boys basketball team waited 12 months for redemption Wednesday night at Parkrose High School.
A year after the Roughriders were blown out of The Hardwood Invite final by host Garfield in Seattle, they took the third annual tournament’s championship trophy back to North Portland by gutting out a 70-68 victory over Eastside Catholic.
“It’s so great to come out here and get our revenge,” said junior Owen Nathan, whose short jumper in the lane with 4.1 seconds left broke a 68-68 tie. “Last year, we got walloped by 30, but we came back, beat the Washington team this year.”
One big difference from last year’s run to the tournament final for the Roughriders (6-1) was the return of senior guard Terrence Hill Jr., who played last season at AZ Compass Prep after helping the program earn its first Class 6A state tournament berth since 1958 as a sophomore.
Hill’s driving basket with 41.7 seconds remaining tied the score at 68-68, setting the stage for Nathan’s heroics.
But first, Roosevelt had to get a stop, which came when Kodi Green’s wide-open 3-pointer from the top of the arc rimmed out with 16.6 seconds left.
Hill brought the ball across halfcourt and called timeout. Then, the Utah State signee and tournament MVP played decoy on the final play, which had senior point guard Utrillo Morris drive the right side of the lane, draw two defenders, then find Nathan alone in the lane.
“It was the perfect design by our coach (Jamarr Lawson),” said Nathan, who finished with 22 points and five assists. “It’s just a great way to start our season. That was only our (seventh) game of the year. We’re going to win a state championship right here. That’s the main goal. This is just a great building block.”
The Roughriders built an 11-point lead on Hill’s three-point play 2:57 before halftime and still led by double digits at 52-42 on Demir Johnson’s putback with three minutes remaining in the third quarter.
The Crusaders (7-1) chipped away at the deficit, with Kayden Greene making six free throws after being fouled on 3-point shots on consecutive possessions to draw them within 66-65 with 2:02 left.
They finally took their first lead since late in the first quarter when Virginia signee Jacob Cofie swished a 3-pointer from the right wing, going up 68-66 with 57.9 seconds remaining.
“We fought back in the second half, but we probably lost that game in the first half,” said Eastside Catholic coach Brent Merritt. “The first half, we weren’t together enough. We didn’t execute the way we normally do, and it kind of affected us.”
What frustrated Merritt the most about his team’s play throughout the tournament was that he felt “we underestimated some teams. Today, I feel like they just outlasted us. We made some key mistakes down the stretch. All the shots that we took, I’ll take those, but just some execution points that we didn’t do. We didn’t help on penetration that we normally help on. So, just some small things that really hurt us a lot today.”
Cofie finished with a game-high 26 points on 11-of-15 shooting to go with seven rebounds, five assists and two blocked shots. Greene added 12 points and three assists, and Nate Krohn had seven points and eight rebounds.
Hill led the Roughriders with 23 points, going 9 of 14 from the field and making all three of his 3-point attempts. Chance White had 12 points, and Morris added five assists, five rebounds and three steals.
Photos by Taylor Balkom
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Photo by Taylor Balkom
