‘We were the hungrier team.’ West Linn ‘won’ the regular season, but Tualatin wins what matters most — another state title

By René Ferrán | Photos by Naji Saker 

As far as the Tualatin players were concerned, West Linn could have all of its regular-season accolades: 

Its Capitol City Classic title.

Its Les Schwab Invitational title.

Its Three Rivers League title.

Its No. 17 spot in the SBLive/Sports Illustrated national rankings.

For the Timberwolves, all they cared about Saturday night was cutting down the Chiles Center nets for a second consecutive season.

Doing so by avenging three previous losses to the Lions with a 60-47 victory in the OSAA 6A boys basketball state championship game on the University of Portland campus?

That just made it all the sweeter.

“We could tell they were already happy with winning LSI and being nationally ranked,” said Timberwolves junior Jaden Steppe, who finished with 19 points and 10 rebounds. “We weren’t happy. We had nothing to be happy about this year. So, when we came out, we wanted it more. We were the hungrier team.”

Meanwhile, the devastation of Saturday’s loss showed as the Lions lined up to receive their second-place medals.

“This loss just hurts so much,” said senior Mark Hamper. “You know, it kind of overshadows everything great that we accomplished this year. It’s going to take a while for this one not to hurt.”

In the 12 months since Tualatin won its first state championship in program history by upending then-unbeaten Summit, the Timberwolves had undergone a coaching change — Bubba Lemon taking over for Todd Jukkala — and graduated two heart-and-soul players, guards Malik Ross and Noah Ogoli.

The third member of their guard triumvirate of a year ago — senior Josiah Lake — returned to lead their title defense.

And with the Timberwolves (24-5) nursing a seven-point lead entering the final media timeout with 3:52 left, Steppe knew Lake would not let the Lions (28-2) mount a rally.

“There’s no way they were going to come back,” he said. “I knew JoJo wasn’t going to mess up and let this one drop.”

Lake scored nine consecutive points for the Timberwolves in the final 3:12, finishing with a steal and layup with 46 seconds left to push the lead to 56-45. 

“We wanted this game,” said Lake, who led Tualatin with 20 points. “We said from the beginning that we wanted to see them in the championship, and it happened, and we got it.” 

Lake said the difference Saturday night compared with the first three matchups, which were all closely contested West Linn victories, was the Timberwolves’ energy on defense — and he set the tone, taking primary responsibility guarding University of Oregon signee Jackson Shelstad.

Shelstad still finished with a game-high 24 points, but he had only two assists and had to work hard for each of his 11 field goals in 20 attempts.

“I mean, he’s a great player, but we knew our chances are better when he doesn’t have the ball,” Lake said. “He’s a scorer, pretty much unstoppable, so that was our main thing — to get the ball out of his hands and make the other guys score.”

In part, that had been Lincoln’s plan in the semifinals — make the Lions shoot over the top — but West Linn foiled it by shooting 57% from the field and hitting 12 three-pointers en route to matching the then-6A tournament scoring record in an 89-69 semifinal win. (The Cardinals broke the record in beating Barlow 94-74 in Saturday’s third-place game.)

One night later, the Timberwolves held the Lions without a field goal in the first quarter while building a 12-1 lead.

“You know, when you hold a team to one point through eight minutes, especially a nationally ranked team, you know good things are going to happen,” said junior post Jayden Fortier. “I think they were a little flustered. We finally figured out how to slow Jackson a little bit, and they couldn’t get going.

“In football, losing to them by 12, and then all three games we played — LSI, at their place, at our place — and to finally get them in the state championship, it means the world. This is the one we got.”

West Linn ended up 2 of 19 from three-point range and 20 of 50 (40%) overall. No other Lion finished with more than seven points, and Tualatin also owned the boards, outrebounding the Lions 37-23.

“Our student body, our crowd, I want to thank them, because that helped us a lot to get our energy going in that first quarter,” Lake said. “And they stuck through with us the whole game and kept the energy up.”

Lions coach Robert Key thought the up-and-down pace of Friday’s semifinal win might have gotten to his team, which typically goes only six deep.

“We were just so flat tonight,” he said. “I was completely caught off-guard. Hats off to my players. They competed. But I think the night before took a lot out of us.”

Hamper simply credited the Timberwolves defense, which came out aggressive from the outset.

“We left some shots out there that we usually hit, but we couldn’t get going tonight,” he said. “That’s a great defensive team. Just a great team overall. They deserved it tonight over us, for sure.”

With each team sporting a bevy of Division I football talent — Hamper (Idaho) and Sam Leavitt (Michigan State) for the Lions; Fortier, junior AJ Noland, and seniors Jack Wagner (Idaho) and Richie Anderson (Fresno State) for the Timberwolves — Lemon appreciated the physicality on display in the final. 

“This was one of the first games where we’ve actually been able to play physically,” he said. “The refs let us play a little bit, and I was happy to see our guys match the intensity. We actually told the kids, ‘Don’t just match their intensity, but just go and hit them first.’”

Nick DiGiulio’s basket 12 seconds into the second quarter started a 6-0 run that closed the gap to 12-7. The Lions were within six at 21-15 late in the period when the Timberwolves took off on an 18-5 run that spanned intermission, with Steppe’s reverse layup pushing the lead to 39-20 with 4:56 left in the third.

“We always play good in the big moments,” Steppe said. “We shot the ball well tonight, and all of our role players stepped up.”

That included Fortier, who chipped in nine points and a game-high 15 rebounds, and senior Jack Wagner, who had eight points.

“Jayden, he was my pick tonight,” Lemon said. “He actually scored the ball, and I told him, ‘All I need from you is 15 rebounds,’ and he ended up with 15. I said, ‘Own the boards,’ and he owned them.”

Then, Lemon took a moment to talk about his star guard.

“Josiah just does whatever it takes to win,” he said. “That’s all he cares about. I’m going to miss that guy. I hope he goes on to be successful, but I’m going to miss the crap out of him.”

Lake will also miss being a part of the Timberwolves program. So, he soaked in every last second of the celebration before being ushered off the court one final time. 

“You know, we weren’t perfect this year,” he said. “We lost some games, won some ugly games. But this is the game that mattered. We pulled it out. We won. That’s all that matters for right now. We’re just going to enjoy the moment, and then someday soon, the juniors are going to get back to work for next year and get it done again.” 

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