In one of the biggest Oregon tournaments of the year, the Wilsonville Wildcats came close in the final but ultimately fell to the West Salem Titans. This tournament featured some of the best teams in Oregon as well as two out-of-state powerhouses, Cane Ridge from Tennessee and the reigning tourney champs from California, Rancho Christian. Coming into this tournament the Cane Ridge Ravens were predicted to win, mainly because they ranked in the top 20 for all public schools in America and led by 5-star prospect and  University of Alabama commit, Brandon Miller. 

There were also many Oregon teams, such as Beaverton, Roosevelt, and Wilsonville, who were believed to make a deep run in the tournament. All four of these teams made their way easily through the opening round with none of their games being closer than 10 points. During his first performance in front of the Oregon highschool basketball fans, Brandon Miller scored 40 points in Cane Ridge’s first round win over Lincoln. In their opening win against Corvallis, Wilsonville saw multiple players with ten or more points, mostly scored in the paint by their dominant forwards. With a tough side of the bracket ahead, Wilsonville prepared for the team from California, Rancho Christian. Rancho Christian were coming into this tournament with high expectations after winning the championship while being led by now NBA rookie Evan Mobley. Those high expectations were let down due to injuries earlier this year. Their main man in the paint, 6’11” Martin Gumwel, was out so the team looked towards their Rodney Brown Jr., a 6’6” guard. WIth both teams having just about two days to prepare, the stage was set for a highly anticipated matchup between the two teams that had played in the previous tournament’s championship.

 The game ended up being highlighted by an amazing 24 point game by WIlsonville’s senior guard, Enzo Chimienti. Led by his performance the Wildcats managed to pull away in the fourth quarter to close out a 54-41 win over the reigning champs.One of the other quarterfinals that day was the national powerhouse of Cane Ridge taking on a top Oregon team, the Beaverton Beavers. Coming off of a 40-point performance against SIlverton, Brandon Miller would look to lead his team to a win; however, out of the gate you could tell this was going to be a very different style of play. Beaverton opened up the game with a barrage of threes as well as clinical defense. Once they had opened up a lead they made sure to take advantage of there being no shot clock in high school basketball and only take open shots. On the other side of the court the Ravens could not get any momentum going. They had a few breakaway moments but could not close the deficit. In the end Beaverton managed to close out the game with a ten point win over the heavily favored Cane Ridge Ravens. 

Other action that day saw West Salem have a dominant showing over Silverton and Roosevelt win on an insane full court pass to a last second tip in.With the two national teams down into the losers side of the bracket, it was four Oregon teams vying for the championship.

 Wilsonville prepared for Roosevelt while Beaverton got ready for the home team West Salem. The head coach of Wilsonville, Chris Roche, described the short prep time that they had to prepare for the semifinal. “We were better able to assimilate big chunks of information in a game plan with very little less time than I expected”. He was very happy with how well they were able to prepare in just about 24 hours. The next day both Roosevelt and Wilsonville took the court, hoping that the limited time they had had to practice would benefit their gameplan. During the first half Roosevelt took over and were leading 29-19. Their play so far had been led by their sophomores Terrence Hill, Utrilio Morris, and Donatello Tupper. After the break the Roughriders built their lead up to 12; however, this game was nowhere near to over. Throughout the last two quarters Wilsonville fought their way back into the game. With just under a minute left in the final quarter Roosevelt missed a free throw and were then only up 52-51. The Wildcats drove down the court and Kellen Gutridge made a clutch shot to put Wilsonville up one. Roosevelt missed their next shot, the WIldcats got the rebound and were then fouled. They managed to hit one out of the two free throws to put them up 54-52. WIth time running out Roosevelt threw up a deep three, which hit the back of the rim and bounced off. With that, Wilsonville moved on to their 3rd straight championship game. Coach Roache had one to describe this, “Remarkable”, this was a perfect description as they had faced some of the toughest teams and made it through to the final game. 

The other semifinal, between Beaverton and West Salem, went to double overtime. The game started off as another dominant performance by Beaverton, with them being up 27-7 in the first half. The West Salem Titans were down but not out. With the crowd behind them they began to catch up to the Beavers. Beaverton held the lead 52-49 with just moments left. The Titans inbounded the ball to their senior guard Jon Breyman, he dribbled the ball up as the clock ticked down and tried to get an open shot. WIth a quick step back to loose his defender and got the shot off before time ran out. It seemed like the shot was in slow-motion, slowly arcing it’s way towards the hoop and as the clock hit zero the ball went “swish” through the basket. The crowd went wild, after an amazing comeback the Titans had now sent the game to overtime. This first overtime was very back and forth eventually ending with the score still tied. This sent the game to a second overtime period which went back and forth and ended with West Salem winning the 65-62. They had just made the biggest comeback of the tournament as well as playing in one of the longest games. This gave them less than 24 hours to prepare for the championship game against WIlsonville. 

After that game I spoke to the Beaverton coach to get his opinions on their play so far. He talked about how the Beavers had had issues with closing out games. This was definitely the case in their semifinal game. 

While both Wilsonville and West Salem prepared for the championship game there were still lots of important games going on. In the first placement game of the day, Cascade took on Salem Academy. Salem Academy, a very small 2A school, had had an interesting tournament so far. They had lost to Rancho Christian in the opening round and then lost again in overtime against Corvallis. Due to the format they would have been placed in the lowest bracket; however, the event organizers did not want any league matchups and because Corvallis was set to play another 5A-3 team, Crescent Valley, it was decided that Salem Academy would be given the win and play Crescent Valley. Led by the Oglesby brothers, they managed to beat Crescent Valley in double overtime to send them to the fifth place game against Cascade. Cascade had lost their opening matchup against SIlverton and then won out to make it to this point. The game was highlighted by Cascade’s center, Dominic Ball, and his prowess in the paint. This helped lead cascade to a 59-50 win to finish fifth in the tournament.

 Right after this game the fourth place game between Cane Ridge and Mountainside began. Cane Ridge had won out after their upset loss to Beaverton and was looking to redeem that initial loss. Coming into this tournament the Ravens were seen as the main favorite to go all the way. With that being said Mountainside played an amazing game. On offense, both teams were firing on all cylinders, with neither team managing to get their footing on defense. Led by another 40-point performance by Brandon Miller, Cane Ridge had built a small lead multiple times but Mountainside kept creeping back. With just under a minute left in the game it was just a one-point game. Mountainside had the ball and played time to get a nice shot off with just a few seconds left. That gave Cane Ridge the ball along the baseline with just 4 seconds left and down by one point. They inbounded the ball to guard Joshua Mcdaniel who took the ball the length of the court and got off a floater in the paint as the clock hit zero. The ball bounced off of the backboard perfectly and went right in the basket. With that game-winning shot the Cane Ridge Ravens took fourth place at The Capitol City Classic.

 After the game I asked Brandon Miller about his thoughts on this tournament and how it compared to competition in Tennessee. “It’s definitely harder because we are on the road so nobody knows who we are.” he said when asked about the differences between Oregon competition and how it is in Nashville. Another thing that seemed to affect Cane Ridge’s play was that they weren’t getting the calls they were used to. Miller said “We know we aren’t going to get as many calls.” and it showed in their play, because with time to prepare they had a hard time adjusting to the overall Oregon playstyle. 

The game after that saw one of the tournament favorites, Beaverton, take on Roosevelt. Both were coming off of tough losses, especially Beaverton who had come off of a double overtime loss to West Salem. Both teams got going early, with Beaverton hitting shots from the perimeter and Roosevelt establishing their presence in the paint. After a very high paced game Roosevelt managed to come out on top, taking third place at this year’s Capitol City Classic. 

It now was time for the championship game between the WIlsonville WIldcats and the home-team, the West Salem Titans. Fans for both sides packed the stands, all wanting to be there for this historical game, no matter the winner it would be the first time that a team from Oregon had won The Capitol CIty Classic. Both teams had taken very similar paths to get to this point. Wilsonville had won their first two games by an average of 16 points while West Salem had won both by an average of 19.5 points. After flying through the first two rounds both teams had very close games in the semifinals. Wilsonville won by just two against a very good Roosevelt team and West Salem came back from down twenty to beat one of the favorites for the tournament, Beaverton, in double overtime. With both teams averaging very high points per game, WIlsonville with 56 PPG and West Salem with 69 PPG, it was set to be a high paced game.

 Right after the tip off you could tell this was going to be a very different type of game. Both teams were taking their time to find open shots and locking it down on defense. At half the score was just 23-18 in favor of the Wildcats. West Salem started to get hot in the third after being down 28-21. They had a quick run and closed the deficit to just two points. As the game headed into the fourth quarter Wilsonvile was up 35-30. The Titans then went on another run and were down by just two points. It was with just over two minutes to go that Jackson Leach hit a three pointer to give West Salem their first lead of the game. Wilsonville couldn’t convert on their next possession and West Salem was still up by one. After a missed shot and then a putback layup by Tommy Slack, West Salem was now up 40-37 with just under a minute left. Both teams traded buckets and WIlsonville had one last chance to tie the game and send it to overtime. They tried their best to get an open shot but the TItans had everyone covered. Enzo Chimienti managed to get off a very contested three but couldn’t get it to go in. WIlsonville fans and players were looking for a foul to be called but the only whistle that blew signified the end of the game. The home fans went wild, the West Salem Titans had just become the first ever Oregon basketball team to win The Capitol City Classic. 

The final score was 42-39, the lowest scoring game of the tournament for any team. The Titans had taken down the top two 5A teams, Silverton and WIlsonville, as well as taking down a top ten 6A team in Beaverton, even coming back from down twenty. Jon Breyman of West Salem was awarded the MVP of the tournament. 

For Wilsonville, this was their third straight second place finish. Sophomore Kallen Gutridge made second team all-ccc and senior Enzo Chimienti made the first team. When asked about the Wildcats performance Coach Roache described just how proud he was of the team. “The CCC is one of the best tourneys in the region, and it’s a very tough event in which to win games. So for us to make the championship game – for the third straight time – is kind of remarkable”. He was very proud of how this young team had performed against state and national powerhouse teams. Even though they didn’t finish first it is still a huge success to only have one loss and to make it to the championship. 

Throughout the tournament they were led by seniors Logan Thebiay, who towered over others in the paint. and Enzo Chimienti, who often struck from outside as well as creating opportunities for other teammates. Maxim Wu, a junior, was their other main guard and proved his role by passing the ball efficiently as well as creating space from defenders with ease. This team’s future is also very bright as two of their sophomores, Kallen Gutridge and Kyle Counts. Their other key player this tournament was junior Tristan Davis. Davis was another one of their dominant forces in the paint. SInce The Capitol City Classic, WIlsonville has yet to lose a game. 

The team even went to a tournament in Alaska, The Clarke Cochran Christmas Classic, where they swept the competition and won the championship. They have now moved up to be ranked 1st overall for 5A teams in Oregon, with a record of 10-1. The only loss on the record so far was the very close and low scoring game against West Salem in the championship game of The Capitol City Classic. Their defense has been a key feature in their playstyle, through 11 games they have only allowed 36 points per game. Their offense has also been having success, averaging 57 points per game. These stats and the chemistry they have has set the stage for a very promising season.