Blanchet Caholic School’s girls basketball team poses with its OSAA Class 3A state championship trophy on Saturday, March 4, 2017.
COOS BAY – There were valid reasons to doubt the Blanchet Catholic School girls basketball team.
The Cavaliers were overlooked most of the year after losing to the top two teams in the state and with a team made up of a bunch of sophomores, one junior and one senior.
Even Saturday night, doubting Blanchet was understandable.
Playing in the OSAA Class 3A state championship game for the first time – and playing against two-time defending state champion Dayton – the Cavaliers trailed 34-20 early in the fourth quarter and looked to be finished.
Being overlooked has been a motivating factor for the team this season.
“We knew we were the underdogs, but we were on a roll,” said sophomore Ana Coronado. “And everyone was just kind of saying Blanchet’s just getting lucky with our shots, and if that has to prove anything, obviously we weren’t lucky with our shots tonight.
“We were our underdogs, especially being pretty young, most of us all sophomores and stuff. I think we just played our game and our level.”
Down by 14 points with just over seven minutes left, the Cavaliers went on a miraculous 16-0 run – including taking the lead with 33 seconds left on a steal and lay-up by Coronado– to knock the all-mighty Pirates off their perch with a 36-34 victory to win the program’s first 3A state championship at Marshfield High School.
Blanchet (24-3) faced unlikely situations many times this season – including in their semifinal upset of rival Salem Academy – and conquered all when it mattered the most.
“Our kids played lose all tournament, really,” Blanchet coach Ron Hittner said. “The thing I was probably most proud of was the sophomores for the most part didn’t play like sophomores. They played like they had been here before, and they really had their composure virtually the whole tournament.
“And at the end there, the beginning of the fourth quarter, we talked about not giving up. I think we were down 12 or something and we said, if we can get the game close, the pressure’s on them, not on us, and if can get it close, good things will happen.”
Blanchet answered the biggest challenge Dayton (28-2) had to offer.
Blanchet’s Ana Coronado tries to get up a shot against Dayton in the OSAA Class 3A state championship game on Saturday, March 4, 2017.
And they succeeded where few others have.
Where other teams have tried to play around Dayton junior guard Shawnie Spink, the two-time state player of the year, Blanchet went right at her.
The Cavaliers used a combination of pressure man-to-man defense – mostly with junior Emily Collier – with occasional double teams and applied every lesson they learned from studying her.
Spink was limited to 10 points, five rebounds and three assists, but she also committed 11 turnovers.
“Defending Shawnie, she’s a really good ball handler,” said Collier, a junior. “It was tough. I just knew I couldn’t get any fouls because I couldn’t foul out. I just had to annoy her.
“I just couldn’t let her get passes off, I couldn’t let her drive with her right hand. I kind of wanted to get in her head, which is hard to do because she’s so good.”
Even when Spink was limited, the rest of the Pirates got loose in the third quarter with a 12-0 run to go up 31-16.
Going into the fourth quarter down 31-18, Hittner stressed in his team the need to increase the pressure, not just on Spink, but on all of Dayton’s players.
It worked.
“I think our defensive pressure changed,” said senior point guard Sophia Poole, who had seven rebounds. “We knew that we didn’t want to lose, and we wanted to make every possession count and just go for the basket and go for the gold.”
Blanchet made shot after shot and defensive stop after defensive stop in the final 7:34.
But it wasn’t until Coronado made the biggest play of her career that people began to believe.
With just under a minute left and Blanchet down by one point, Collier had a pass stolen by Spink, she pressured Spink as she brought the ball up the court.
Coronado came out of nowhere to steal the ball, took it the other way and layed the ball in with 32 seconds left for a 35-34 lead.
Blanchet’s student section celebrates after the girls basketball team won the OSAA Class 3A state championship.
“I knew that she was going to do anything she could do to score and get that lead back,” said Coronado, who scored 13 points, had nine rebounds and four steals.
“I just it in my mindset that I needed to get the ball back. I just saw it coming and I felt like I needed to pressure her and make her do something a little different.”
Dayton’s Zach Bernards (11) chases down a loose ball in the OSAA Class 3A state championship game on Saturday, March 4, 2017.
Dayton’s boys, however, emphatically answered a furious third quarter charge from De La Salle North Catholic to win 64-55.
The state championship is the fifth in the program’s history, the others coming in 2001, 2002, 2012 and 2015, the last when this year’s seniors were freshmen.
“No one wanted us to win this,” said senior Zach Bernards, who scored 26 points and had eight rebounds. “All year no one wanted us to win it. And we came out and did it. That’s sweet. That makes it sweet. Everyone doubted us.
“It’s great. I’m so proud of everyone on this team. I love this community. You can’t describe moments like this.”
Dayton (28-1) charged out to an early lead, was up 28-20 at halftime behind deft shooting – the team was 11 of 28 from the field in the first half – and had the game seemingly in control.
But De La Salle North Catholic’s athleticism and skill in the half-court game and chipped away at the lead little by little.
Dayton’s lead was 43-41 going to the fourth quarter, but Dayton went on an immediate 8-0 run and the Pirates closed out eh game in an impressive manor.
Dayton senior Jalen Flowers scored 13 points and had eight rebounds, Bailey West scored 10 points and Tanner Lewis scored nine points, had seven rebounds and four blocks.
“All our guys are banged up,” Dayton coach Ron Hop said. “That’s what happens in a tournament. We weren’t real healthy coming n in here, but I’m just proud of our kids, the way we battled.
“If you’ve seen us play this year, we’ve had some games where we’re graceful and everything looks great. It didn’t look all that graceful and great down here, but you know what, it’s a grinder tournament, and we’re just happy to get three. It’s just kind of a testament to them.”
bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com or Twitter.com/bpoehler