Bronny James, Sierra Canyon might have received ‘blessing in disguise’ with stunning loss to West Linn (Oregon) at Les Schwab Invitational

The fired-up Trailblazers bounced back the next night to beat fellow national powerhouse Bishop Gorman (Nevada) for third place at the tournament.

Author:
Alex Tam
Publish date:
Jan 2, 2023 12:10 PM EST

By Alex Tam | Photos by Soobum Im

HILLSBORO, Ore. — One night after a stunning loss to local Oregon team West Linn that reverberated through social media, many were wondering how Bronny James and Sierra Canyon would bounce back.

The Trailblazers, ranked 16th nationally in the latest SBLive/Sports Illustrated Power 25, entered the Les Schwab Invitational with a ton of intrigue and were expected to roll to at least the championship game.

But with less than 24 hours to prepare for Friday’s third-place contest, where were the Sierra Canyon players’ minds, knowing they had fallen short of their goal?

“Shoot, our mood — it was all bad,” senior forward Ashton Hardaway said. “It was bad. Our whole locker room energy was really off. We were really hard on ourselves, like we didn’t expect them (West Linn) to have that type of game … but they had an excellent performance.”

The sting was less about the 17-point margin and more that their defense failed them by allowing 66 points combined to West Linn’s duo of Jackson Shelstad (38) and Adrian Mosley (28).

“We felt like we didn’t come out to play,” Sierra Canyon coach Andre Chevalier said. “Had we played our best game and lost, it would’ve been fine, but we didn’t play our best game. We’ve never given up 30 and 40 points to anybody, respectively.”

The players acknowledged they did a lot of self-reflecting in the hours after the loss. A team meeting was held to help everyone remind themselves who they are and how good they can be.

“We just remembered our work and who we are,” Hardaway said. “We won’t win every game, we don’t lose every game either. But we’re a good team and we’ve got to remember that. We just had to have a next-game mentality.”

Sierra Canyon looked sharp and used a strong second half to pull away from Nevada powerhouse Bishop Gorman, ranked 20th in the country, and won 81-66 for third place at the 26th edition of the LSI at Liberty High School.

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Chevalier called the victory a good “character” test for his team. Hardaway felt their emotions were still “super heavy,” and senior Dylan Metoyer said the game brought out an us-against-the-world mentality Friday.

“It is frustrating because a lot of people prepare for our downfall,” Metoyer said. “They want us to lose. They don’t want to see us win, so we’ve got to deal with that. Not everyone wants us to win, so we’ve just got to stick with each other.

“With Sierra Canyon, it’s expected to come with that. We just tried to focus and not listen to all the social media and stay focused on our goal.”

The Trailblazers’ defense, which struggled the night before by letting West Linn shoot 50 percent from the field and get 34 free throw attempts, was much improved. After Bishop Gorman came out hot with five 3-pointers in the first quarter to take a 17-15 lead, the Gaels made only 5 of 13 from long range over the final 24 minutes.

Sierra Canyon held Bishop Gorman to 40 percent shooting for the game (20 of 50), including 3 of 13 in the third quarter (23.1 percent).

“In the first half, they were making 3s and we were going under screens and they were just shooting it,” Metoyer said. “So, we learned from our mistakes and wanted to force them inside to our bigs.”

Metoyer helped fuel the Trailblazers in the fourth, scoring eight of his 10 points in the quarter. His key offensive rebounds gave his team extra possessions as part of a 21-7 run to give Sierra Canyon an 80-62 lead with 1:19 left that was capped by James’ layup.

James, a senior and eldest son of LeBron James, was one of four Trailblazers in double figures with 10 points, including six in the fourth.

Hardaway led Sierra Canyon with a game-high 21 points, including 15 in a first half during which he shot 6 of 9 from the field with three 3-pointers.

“I came into the game wanting to be very aggressive,” said Hardaway, the son of NBA legend Penny Hardaway. “I really wanted to take my anger out on them for that loss last night. All I wanted this game was not to let our team lose, and I did my best to do that.”

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Chevalier said it was a “great team effort,” noting the contributions off the bench from 7-foot junior center Majok Chuol and 6-foot-8 junior forward Noah Williams, who combined for 14 points and 10 rebounds.

“We finally had people come to the table,” Chevalier said. “Majok Choul played very well. Noah Williams played great in the second half. It was a whole team win, and that’s what we needed to do.”

Chevalier also was happy with his senior backcourt of Metoyer and James.

“Dylan and Bronny have been with us for four years, so they know what they’re supposed to do,” Chevalier said. “We’re just trying to push them to do more, be more responsible in how we operate on the court, and they did a great job of that today.”

Bishop Gorman junior John Mobley Jr., an Ohio State commit, led the Gaels with 25 points and said his team tried everything to get back on track in the second half.

“We got to rebound more, we got to stay locked in the whole game,” Mobley said. “Coming out at half, you always got to throw the first punch. I think we did better at that in the first quarter, but in the second half, we laid back, but we will get better at that.”

Sophomore Chris Nwuli, a 4-star prospect, added 13 points and six rebounds for Bishop Gorman, and junior Ryder Elisaldez chipped in 10.

For Sierra Canyon, Isaiah Elohim had 11 points before leaving the game in the fourth with an apparent injury after falling on his arm on a block attempt. Junior Justin Pippen added seven points off the bench.

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Chevalier said there are no excuses for his team coming up short of its goal but took it as a learning experience.

“We were mad (last night) because we had an opportunity to win a championship,” he said. “When you have championship pedigree, you just find ways to win, and we didn’t do that. We’ve had adversity we’ve had to deal with — like every time we come to a place where we’re playing against the local team, local fans, but that can’t be an excuse. We still have to find a way.”

Hardaway said the loss could be a “blessing in disguise” as the Trailblazers move forward with their league schedule and postseason up next.

“That game is going to stick with us for a very long time, especially if we’re going to the playoffs coming up soon,” Hardaway said. “League is going to start up, so now we’re just trying to get prepared for that.”