JANUARY 18, 2019, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A11
McNary loses heartbreaker at the buzzer
By MATT RAWLINGS
Of the Keizertimes
The McNary boys hoops
squad led for the most of the
contest, but a squandered op-
portunity in the fi nal moments
left the Celtics heartbroken in
the end.
With the score tied at 56
with 11 seconds on the clock,
McNary had possession of the
ball with a chance to score the
go-ahead bucket. But West
Salem’s Justin Scoggin came
away with a clutch steal, and
then went coast-to-coast to
fi nish a tough layup on the
other end as time expired to
give the Titans the 58-56 vic-
tory over McNary on Friday,
Jan. 11
“It stings. Losing tough
games hurt. But I couldn’t be
prouder of how hard our guys
played,” McNary head coach
Ryan Kirch said. “We’re walk-
ing out of here with our heads
held high.”
“Give credit to West Salem.
They battled for 32 minutes.
They are very well coached,
and their players made plays
when they needed to.”
Boston Smith led McNary
with a game-high of 19 points
and Griffi n Oliveira chipped
in with 12 points.
Nate Meithof added 11
points on the evening and Al-
fredo Villareal was also in dou-
ble-digits with 10 points.
West Salem grabbed the
5-4 lead in the early-going,
but fi ve quick points from Ol-
iveira gave the Celtics the lead
back midway through the pe-
riod.
Along with being a key
scorer for the Celtics, Olivei-
ra was also given the task of
face-guarding Scoggin for the
entire fi rst quarter.
“We knew that (Scoggin)
was a really good player and a
really good scorer for them, so
it was our game-plan to face-
guard him coming in,” Olivei-
ra said.
“On the offensive end, I
was just trying to take what
they were giving to me. I
wasn’t trying to force anything
up.”
Both Meithof and Junior
Walling hit a pair of foul shots
late in the quarter to complete
a 9-1 run, giving the Celtics a
13-6 advantage.
Despite putting the clamps
on the Titans offense with
ATTN: Investment
Property Owners
Right now is a crucial time to take
advantage of a 1031-Exchange
to optimize capital gains tax
reduction, increase your
base, and optimize
your cash fl ow.
KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings
McNary post Boston Smith (#30) tries to fi ght through a
double team after receiving the ball in the paint.
their hard man-to-man de-
fense, the Celtics started to
get into foul trouble towards
the end of the fi rst quarter. So
Kirch elected to move to a 2-3
zone at the beginning of the
second period after Meithof
and Smith each picked up
their second foul.
“We were trying to extend
the lead but needed to stay out
of foul trouble,” Kirch said. “So
I put Boston and Nate back in
because I wanted to protect
them for the rest of the second
quarter so we could try and go
to the third quarter with the
lead.”
Adjustments with defense
and personnel didn’t seem to
effect McNary offensively in
the second period. A put-back
hoop from Smith, followed
by a baseline fadeaway jump-
er from Oliveira and a three-
point play by Meithof allowed
Act before
investment
tax laws
change
Krisstine Jacobsen
Principal Broker / Owner
Call me at 503.504.7330
for a FREE market analysis
of your investment property
McNary to stay on top 26-19.
The Celtics extended their
lead to double-digits after
Smith muscled in a pair of
buckets deep in the paint late
in the second quarter, giving
the senior post 14 points for
the half.
“It’s always a point-of-em-
phasis to get the ball inside,”
Smith said. “I thought we did
a good job with our spacing.”
McNary kept the momen-
tum going to start the third
quarter as a runner from Vil-
lareal and a 3-pointer from
the corner by Meithof helped
McNary stay on top by dou-
ble-fi gures midway through
the third period.
But West Salem came roar-
ing back to tie the game with
a 10-0 run thanks to four sec-
ond-chance buckets.
The Titans even grabbed
their fi rst lead since the open-
ing minutes of the fi rst quar-
ter moments later, but Villareal
ended the third period with a
fl oater to tie the game at 46.
Villareal then started the fi -
nal quarter with a three-point
play, which was followed by a
jump-hook from Smith to put
McNary on top 51-46. West
Salem, however, came back
to re-take the lead with a 6-0
run.
The back-and-forth play
continued for the remainder of
the period as the Celtics were
able to capture the lead once
again after Smith hit a tough
jumper to make it 55-54.
After a defensive stop by
McNary, Smith was then
fouled on the other end and
sent to the foul line with 1:27
to go. Smith, however, was
only able to hit one of his two
shots, which allowed West Sa-
lem guard Kieran Pruett to tie
the game on the Titans next
possession with 1:15 remain-
ing.
Kirch wanted his team to
hold for the fi nal shot, so after
stalling for just over a minute,
the McNary head coach called
timeout and drew up a play for
Meithof.
“They were really pack-
ing the paint on Boston and
I was concerned with getting
him the ball in the right spot,”
Kirch said. “We had turned
it over three times in the last
four minutes trying to enter it
into (Smith). We tried to put
(Meithof) in a pick and roll
situation to draw his defend-
er out and open up a driving
lane.”
Meithof caught the ball
on the inbounds and started
to make his move. But after
trying to use a screen from
Smith, Meithof spun into a
double-team and had the ball
stolen by Scoggin, who then
took off in the other direction
with the intent of scoring the
winning bucket.
Oliveira was the last line
of defense for the Celtics, but
Scoggin just got around him
to put in a nifty scoop shot off
the glass as the buzzer sound-
ed, sending West Salem off to
victory.
Kirch took full responsibil-
ity of what took place during
the fi nal play.
“I need to put my players
in the best position to make
plays, and I didn’t do that in
the fi nal moments,” Kirch said.
“That’s on me. I’m so proud
of how hard our kids played,
competed for each other, and
represented our program.”
Despite the loss, this team
is confi dent in their ability to
pick themselves up off the mat.
“It’s just one loss. It will
sting tonight, but we got each
other’s backs and we’re not
worried about it.”
Smith added: “We’re deal-
ing with this loss in a positive
way.”
McNary travels to McKay
tonight for a 5:45 p.m. game.
KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings
Celtics point guard Alfredo Villareal looks to set up the offense.