Rivals, co-league MVPs finish high school careers as teammates in Washington vs. Oregon WAVOR all-star game
HILLSBORO, Ore. — Carson Frawley and Bryson Metz have put aside their longstanding friendship to compete head-to-head as 4A Greater St. Helens League basketball rivals for years.
And as the two have risen among the top players in southwest Washington - Frawley is a 6-foot-5 forward for Camas, and Metz is a 5-10 point guard for Union - they've done plenty of sharing.
They were named co-4A GSHL players of the year by coaches as seniors. Camas and Union — both in SBLive’s 4A Top 10 power rankings all season — shared the league title after splitting the regular season series (1-1).
On Sunday, they put on the same jersey for the WAVOR Washington versus Oregon senior all-star game at Liberty High School — the final game of their high school careers — and competed for a shared goal: state pride over their southern neighbors.
And they got it, as Team Washington beat Team Oregon, 128-98. Frawley scored 14 points and Metz added six points and four steals. They were all smiles during the on-court celebration after the game.
“We’re good friends off the court,” Frawley said. “We work out together, but during season it’s go-time, we’re rivals. It’s fun to be able to share the court with your friend for my last high school game essentially.”
The two have lifted and trained together in the Vancouver area for years. They got a chance to play together for the first time on an impromptu travel team when they were juniors in high school basketball when Washington was on pause due to COVID-19.
Throughout their senior seasons, they never let basketball get in the way of friendship.
At the end of Camas’ win over Union on Feb. 8 that earned the Papermakers a share of the 4A GSHL title — its first since 2011 — Metz zipped three quarters the length of the quarter and eked out a 3-point attempt at the buzzer, but the shot rimmed off.
The teams played a tiebreaker the very next day to determine the top two seeds in the 4A bi-district tournament. The second seed was set to face a road that included three-loser out games to get to a state berth while the winner had a much rosier path, so both teams agreed to play the tiebreaker on short turnaround despite the busy juncture of the season, instead of flipping a coin or another less labor-intensive method.
Union beat Camas by 22 to secure the top seed and Metz helped cut down the net in celebration. He emerged from the celebration to see Frawley, who had a game-high 21 points in the loss — sitting in the stands with his hood over his head, and went over to visit with him.
Camas was upset three games later in a bi-district loser-out and fell short of a trip to Tacoma. Metz led Union to the Class 4A WIAA state semifinals - and ultimately a fifth-place finish.
That’s what made their share of victory in the WAVOR all-star game Sunday a fitting end to their high school basketball careers.
Both will be rooting one another on in college, too.
Metz is signed with Vanguard University, an NAIA school in Costa Mesa, Calif. Frawley plans to play college basketball, but is still weighing his options.
“Me and Cars, it’s all fun and games, but (basketball) is about the relationships that you make, and just glad we got to come out on our last high school game together with a dub,” Metz said.
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