Don't call it an upset: No. 9 Crescent Valley knocks off top-seeded Willamette on first day of 5A girls basketball state tournament, will face Ridgeview in semifinal

By Bob Lundeberg | Photos by Leon Neuschwander 

Thursday afternoon’s 5A state quarterfinal between Crescent Valley and Willamette didn’t feel like a traditional upset.

The ninth-seeded Raiders looked every bit as talented as the top-ranked Wolverines, who had been 5A’s most dominant team all season. Freshman-led Willamette made a spirited late charge to briefly tie it up, but free throws from Taelyn Bentley and Charlotte Patel lifted Crescent Valley to a 48-45 state tournament-opening win at Gill Coliseum. 

“We tried to tell ourselves that the pressure wasn’t on us,” Raiders junior guard Gabby Bland said. “We should relax because we were expected to lose, and we play better when we relax and have fun.” 

Crescent Valley (20-7), which shared second place with Corvallis in the Mid-Willamette Conference, used that same mindset in the state round-of-16 against Wilsonville. The Raiders turned in their best performance of the season and took down the host Wildcats, 52-41.

Facing an even tougher opponent this time in Midwestern League champion Willamette (25-2), Crescent Valley played free and loose from the start just a few miles from its North Corvallis campus. 

Head coach Eric Gower could not have been more pleased with his team’s effort. 

“I just thought that that game showed their heart,” said Gower, who expects more of the same in the semifinals against No. 4 Ridgeview. Tipoff is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Friday.

“They are a group that just plays hard. As the year has gone on, they’ve done that more and more.”

The Raiders, who led by 12 after three quarters, hung on for dear life down the stretch as Willamette ratcheted up its defensive pressure. A Maddy Warberg three-pointer made it 45-42 with 59.5 seconds to go, and fellow freshman Brynn Smith canned another after a steal to tie it.

Bland threw up a runner on the other end that missed high off the backboard, but teammate Taelyn Bentley grabbed the rebound and was fouled on her putback attempt. The freshman calmly sank the first foul shot to put Crescent Valley in front for good.

Bentley said she was peeved about her 0-for-3 performance at the line at Wilsonville. She made 6 of 7 free throws at Gill.

“I just told myself before the first one that, ‘I’m going to make this free throw no matter what,’” Bentley said.

Bentley missed her second attempt, but Charlotte Patel secured the board — Crescent Valley’s 19th offensive rebound — and was fouled with 6.7 seconds left. Patel made both, and the Raiders prevented Willamette from getting a good look at a tying three-point attempt by using two of their fouls to give.

“I’m just so proud of our team,” said Bland, who paced Crescent Valley with 12 points, seven rebounds and three assists. “Even when bad things happened throughout the game, we just kept fighting. … We just stayed calm and knew that we could do it because we’ve been in a lot of close games.”

Crescent Valley entered Thursday with a 7-4 record in games decided by single digits. The Wolverines, whose only previous loss came against 6A power South Medford, have 20 wins by eight or more points. 

“We played very hard teams during our (conference) season,” Bentley said of matchups with Corvallis, Silverton and West Albany. “Those games really prepared us for having to go to this new court, new team, people we’ve never played against before, and show up.” 

Bentley finished with 10 points, seven rebounds (five offensive) and an assist. Nicole Huang nearly had a double-double with nine points, 10 rebounds and three steals.

The Raiders outrebounded Willamette 49-28. 

“I thought we maybe had a little bit of quickness advantage inside,” Gower said. “Tae is really physical and she moves well for her size … and Molly (Campbell) has soft touch. I thought we could get some shots in there, especially against their aggressive play.”

Using a seven-person rotation that included five freshmen and a sophomore, the Wolverines forced 23 turnovers but were undone by poor shooting. Willamette shot 5 of 31 from three-point range and 18 of 60 from the field. 

Smith, a star freshman guard, had 19 points, six rebounds and seven steals but shot 8 of 29 overall and 2 of 16 from long range.

“We knew they had some shooters, (Smith) and (Warberg),” said Bland, who has been playing through a sprained ankle the past two weeks. “And we knew (Smith) was good at driving, too. We just tried to take away what they were good at.”

Leading 25-21 at halftime, the Raiders seized control in the third quarter. Bland made a momentum-snatching three-pointer midway through the period, and younger sister Haley Bland knocked down one of her own for a 39-27 Raiders lead heading to the fourth.

Crescent Valley didn’t score for the first four minutes of the fourth as Willamette made things as chaotic as possible. It nearly worked, but the Raiders maintained their composure down the stretch.

Later in the day, Ridgeview (20-6) rode star newcomer Kyrah Daniels to a 53-43 victory over fifth-seeded Corvallis (20-7). 

The 5-foot-11 Daniels, who moved back to Central Oregon from Australia earlier this year, had 33 points — 24 in the second half — and 13 rebounds. No other Raven had more than seven points.

Taylor Brasfield paced the Spartans with 14 points and six rebounds.