Sometimes the Creswell players and coaches must be wondering if the forces of the universe are conspiring against them. The Bulldogs — who finished their season with an 11-11 record – found so many unlucky ways to lose games this season, it was unfathomable to even think they could face the worst of their bad luck in their final loss, a 52-43 defeat at Santiam Christian.
That’s exactly what happened, though.
This time, it wasn’t poor free-throw shooting, lack of offensive execution or defensive breakdowns that cost them the game.
It was the officials, Creswell coach Jesse Thomas said.
“The official did not let us ready ourselves to play. We filed a report of the incident, and it will be addressed,” Thomas said. “The next morning I had calls from all over the state, everybody was wondering what the officials could have been thinking.”
The situation was this: Thomas called a timeout with Santiam ahead by 4 with under 2 minutes to play. When the horn sounded to end the timeout, the Bulldogs headed to the far end of the court.
But the referee, without any kind of warning, allowed Santiam to inbound the ball long before Creswell’s defense had time to set up. Santiam got an uncontested dunk to go ahead by six while the Creswell players and coaches stood dumbfounded.
“(Assistant coach) Pete (Apo) and I were trying to get the sideline official’s attention,” Thomas said. “Then the ref whistles a technical against Pete, We kept trying to ask them, ‘Why did you do that?’ The kids are all confused, it was pretty chaotic in there. … Then they gave Pete a second ‘T’ and ran him out of the game. I had never seen anything like that.”
Once order was restored, Santiam shot – and made – four foul shots, and that 4-point deficit at the 2:00 mark suddenly became 10.
Game, set, match.
“I’m bothered by it because it took away an opportunity for our guys to win.” said Thomas, never one to complain about officiating.
AJ Hodge led the Bulldogs with 13 points and 6 rebounds while Max Velarde contributed 10 points and 5 rebounds.
That left Creswell one last chance to salvage a .500 season. The finale was at La Pine, and the ’Dogs were able to end the year on a high note, winning 65-47. Velarde paced the win with 20 points, 8 rebounds and 6 steals. Connor Hanson added 19 points and 4 assists, and Hodge tallied 11 points.
“We had some of the highest highs and lowest lows this season, but I’m proud of them,” Thomas said. “I wish from a basketball standpoint that we would have done some things differently, but our guys never stopped battling and worked hard all the way until the end.
“When I look at our shortcomings, I keep coming back to the fact that we’re not only young, but we’ve lost at least a year – and in some cases more like a year-and-a-half – because of Covid.”
The three teams that advanced to the playoffs out of Creswell’s league – Pleasant Hill, Harrisburg and Santiam Christian – went 6-0 against the Bulldogs. The first five of those games all either went to overtime or double-OT, or were settled on last-possession shots.
“The hard part now is that (the players) have to sit around and wait a year for next season to start,” he said. “We just have to hope that they’ve learned from all of these tough losses.”
