Central Catholic ends Tualatin’s reign over Oregon 6A boys basketball: ‘If you want to be the champion, you have to beat the champion’
The king is dead.
Who’ll take his place won’t be known for another 24 hours.
But Tualatin’s reign over Oregon’s Class 6A boys basketball realm ended Friday afternoon at the University of Portland’s Chiles Center, stopped after 727 days by Central Catholic in the semifinals of the OSAA state tournament.
The two-time champion Timberwolves didn’t give up their crown without a fight, but the Rams — led by sophomore guard Zamir Paschal down the stretch — knocked them off the throne with a 73-67 victory.
“I told the boys before the game that if you want to be the champion, you have to beat the champion,” Rams coach David Blue said. “If they sat last year and watched the way Tualatin beat West Linn, the way they came out with urgency and desperation — we knew that they were going to do the same thing tonight.
“Our composure has been something that has been an obstacle for us in the past. But our resilience and composure tonight, even when we were making mistakes, I can’t be more proud of that group.”
Now, the Rams (26-3) stand on the precipice of doing something — sweeping the football and boys basketball big-school titles in the same school year — that hasn’t been accomplished since Corvallis did it in 1983-84, and winning the program’s first title since beating Clackamas for its only championship 30 years ago.
They’ll meet Roosevelt at 4:30 p.m. Saturday in the championship game. The Roughriders (26-2), who blew out Beaverton 73-45 in the late semifinal, are also looking to make history, with their only title coming in 1949.
“We’re trying to do something that Central hasn’t done in a while,” Paschal said. “So, it’s just about staying humble, staying hungry, playing with a chip on our shoulder because we know we still have doubters.”
After Cole Javernick’s right-wing three-pointer with 4:07 left gave Tualatin the lead at 62-61, it was Paschal who took over for the Rams.
He made two free throws with 3:43 left to put Central Catholic ahead to stay, then added a driving layup, hit two more free throws and found Isaac Carr for a layup with 35 seconds to play that pushed the advantage to 71-65.
“If they put a good defender on me or Isaac, Bam can just take his defender to the rack every time,” said Pepperdine-bound senior Marley Zeller, one of five Rams to score in double figures with 12 points. “Then, he’s a great defender and rebounder for his size. He’s a great player, great teammate.”
Paschal scored 12 of his 17 points in the second half, sharing team-high honors with Carr, a University of Oregon commit.
“Zamir got in foul trouble early, and at halftime, I know he’s frustrated,” Blue said. “But I personally feel like he’s one of the best players in the state, no matter what grade, and I say to him, ‘You go out there, and you lead us. You take over.’
“That’s all I needed to say to him. He’s pretty easy to communicate with. Just take over, and he did that.”
While Paschal took on the scoring burden down the stretch, his older brother Duce locked horns with Timberwolves star Jaden Steppe, holding the Colorado State signee scoreless over the final 6½ minutes.
“Jaden is really good at basketball, but he earned everything he got tonight,” Blue said. “Duce got in there against a guy who’s bigger and stronger, and he just gave him fits all night.”
In a game of massive runs, the top-seeded Rams scored 22 consecutive points during a six-minute stretch of the first half to lead 30-11 with 6 minutes before halftime.
Then, they watched Tualatin (21-7) outscore them 41-13 over the next 11 minutes to build its largest lead at 52-43 midway through the third.
But after Steppe — who scored 21 of his game-high 23 points during their big run — picked up his fourth foul with 2:05 left in the third, the Rams righted the ship, closing the quarter with an 8-2 spurt that propelled them to their first championship game since 2013.
“That was definitely a turning point because they literally don’t have any big threats aside from him,” Zeller said. “So, we got our momentum back. It’s a game of runs. They made their run, and we got them back at the end.”
Steppe also pointed to that moment when he was whistled for an illegal screen as when the tide turned against the Timberwolves.
“That was really hard for us, obviously,” Steppe said. “I sat down when we were up (nine), and I felt like we had the game back. We were down like 18 or something crazy, and we came back.”
Steppe then took a second to reflect on the end of the Timberwolves’ championship run, which saw them win 13 consecutive postseason games — including a win over then-unbeaten Summit in 2022 and knocking off seemingly invincible West Linn last year.
“Just a lot of hard work and dedication,” he said. “You can’t expect anything else. That’s how hard it is to lose. We just fight really hard. Our whole team does. I knew we could come back.”
Tournament preview | Players to watch | Top storylines | Our predictions | Bracket
COMPLETE PLAYOFF COVERAGE
Photos by Dan Brood
