Regis’ Sam Nieslanik (22) drives past Yamhill-Carlton’s Jackson Harloof (13) in the second half of the Regis vs. Yamhill-Carlton boy’s basketball game in the first round of the North Marion Holiday Classic at North Marion High School in Aurora on Thursday, Dec. 17, 2015. Regis won the game 59-44 and moves on to play in the semifinals at 8 p.m. on Friday.
AURORA – In the first 23 minutes and 59 seconds of Tuesday’s game, Brendon Woodcock didn’t score — not that he shot the ball much.
In the final 8:01, Regis High School’s 5-foot-9 senior point guard hit every shot he attempted.
Regis dug its way out of an 11-point second quarter deficit to Yamhill-Carlton and with 5:40 left Woodcock buried a 3-pointer and finished with 16 points as the Class 2A Rams defeated the 4A Tigers 59-44 in the opening round of the North Marion Holiday Classic.
“I’ve noticed that as the season goes on, I think at least half of my assists has come off of him,” said junior guard Bryce Piete, who scored 10 points. “My first thought is if I’m driving, I’m mostly looking for him out of the corner of my eye setting up at the 3-point line.
“I just think that he has that confidence as he’s ready for that ball and as soon as he gets that ball either he’s taking it to the hoop or he’s hitting that 3. Just the whole game he progresses better.”
A Regis team that came into the game No. 11 in the OSAA’s power rankings improved to 5-1 with its third-consecutive win.
More than that, the Rams showed that they really can play to the level that brought them a third-place trophy at the state tournament a year ago.
Well, they showed it in the fourth quarter.
In the first half Regis committed a bunch of turnovers and made Yamhill-Carlton (2-3) look good.
“We started making smarter passes, we didn’t just throw passes just to get it up ahead,” Woodcock said. “We were actually looking to see if the open guys were there. We started getting them tired, also, and so we started breaking them down a little bit and so it started helping us a lot more in transition.”
The first half was not especially pretty for Regis.
Yamhill-Carlton went on an eight-point run early in the first quarter to lead 8-2 and got a lot of easy baskets in transition.
Tanner Myrick’s 3-pointer put the Tigers up 27-16 with 3:41 left in the first half.
Regis finished the half strong and Gibson Brown’s basket off an inbounds pass cut Yamhill-Carlton’s lead to 27-25 at halftime.
The Rams didn’t start the second half well, either, and Yamhill-Carlton quickly led 32-25 after a baseline jump shot by Luca Queirolo.
“We came in and we played flat,” Regis coach Tony Miller said. “We, for some reason, were not up-tempo and playing with the heart and desire we needed the whole first quarter, most of the second quarter and at the beginning of the third and the fourth quarter.
“We have a new team. We’ve got some guys in different roles, trying to learn some substitution patterns, but those are just excuses. What we talked about at halftime is show up to play as hard as you can. I have one rule in my program, go as hard as you can.”
Regis got it back to a one possession game late in the third quarter and kept Yamhill-Carlton in reach with smart play in the half court.
With 5:40 left and Regis down by two, Woodcock took a pass from Piete in front of Regis’ bench and sank a 3-pointer for a 42-41 lead with 5:40 left, Regis’ first lead since the first shot of the game.
Woodcock kept making baskets down the stretch. He was 6-for-6 from the free throw line in the final 2:55 and made shots seemingly every time he touched the ball.
As the second half went on the Rams broke down Yamhill-Carlton’s 2-3 zone with quick passes and was able to get players open in space, especially Woodcock.
“I feel like there’s a lot of different players that can catch fire on our team, and if they’re on fire, it’s down in the post and they’re open, I’m just going to throw them the ball and get buckets,” said Regis senior post Sam Nieslanik, who scored 13 points.
bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com, (503) 399-6701 or Twitter.com/bpoehler
Regis: Brendon Woodcock 16, Nieslanik 13, Bry. Piete 10, Schmitt 8, Brown 7, Bra. Piete 4, Williams 1, Kelley. Totals 19 15-20 59.
Yamhill-Carlton: Tanner Myrick 17, Queirolo 8, Horne 7, Stokes 4, Frost 4, Rabung 2, Ramsdell 2, Harloff, Garrison, Mitchell. Totals 20 2-8 44.
|
REG |
9 |
16 |
11 |
25 |
— 59 |
|
YC |
14 |
13 |
11 |
6 |
— 44 |
3-point goals: Regis 4 (Woodcock 2, Bry. Piete, Brown); Yamhill-Carlton 2 (Myrick 2).