CRESWELL – Heading into Friday night’s league championship game, Creswell coach Tyler Hollingsworth was a little more optimistic than usual about his team’s chances.
During basketball practice about two weeks earlier, Hollingsworth’s girls asked if he had ever won a league title.
“Nope!” he said. “But I got second a bunch.”
“So (sophomore guard) Mila (Nguyen) said, ‘We’re gonna get one for you.’ And I thought, ‘There you go. She came through. She put that in the basketball atmosphere.’ And I’m a big believer in how you believe and positive thoughts. … She told me this was going to happen, so I kept thinking to myself, if we keep taking care of business, we might have a shot.”
It turns out that Nguyen and her Creswell teammates survived a knock-down crosstown showdown, earning the Mountain Valley Conference championship with a 33-32 victory. There was nothing “soft” about either team’s style of play – it was a rugged game with numerous players hitting the deck chasing loose balls.
“We talk about playing harder than anybody else,” he said. “That’s our goal every game. … When they go on a run, a lot of credit to our girls – we kept finding ways to get it done.
“They’re a tough defensive team. We knew it would be a dogfight, and thankfully a Bulldog won it!” he said with a chuckle.
Creswell seemed to be in control with 3:10 to play when Raelee Green scored to make it 31-23.
That’s when Brooke Weimer became a one-girl wrecking crew for the Billies. She got a steal and was fouled, completing a three-point play at the 2:49 mark to make it 31-26. Then she got another steal on the next possession, setting up Katie Dutton for a 3-pointer to close the gap to 31-29. Dutton hit another 3-pointer less than a minute later, with 1:40 showing, and Pleasant Hill suddenly had a 32-31 lead.
“Brooke is a great on-ball defender who is frequently able to bait people into making bad passes,” Billies coach Paxton Miller said of Weimer, who had a game-high 14 points, 9 rebounds, and 4 steals.
The last minute of the game was chaos.
Green, who led the Bulldogs with 12 points, had a steal and was tripped up around halfcourt. After a mad scramble, Kylie Leonard scored on a layup to make it 33-32 with 50 seconds to go.
Pleasant Hill missed its next shot and Creswell’s Brooke Moehlmann got the rebound with 26 seconds remaining. The Dogs lost the ball on an inbounds pass with 9 seconds left, but forced a jump ball with 3 ticks remaining.
The Billies got off a desperation shot at the buzzer, but Karsyn Stapleton’s 3-pointer just barely grazed the rim.
“I have some of the most competitive kids in that locker room,” Hollingsworth said. “They’re competitive with each other in practice; when we do shooting drills, they say, ‘What did you get, what did you get? I’m gonna beat that!’
“And that goes a long way, because when they get on the court, you see that competitive nature. I’ve been fortunate the last couple of years to have girls that love to go out and compete.”
If Pleasant Hill gets past Sisters on Wednesday, the Billies will be visiting the Bulldogs again on Friday at 6 p.m. in the league playoffs. Last year, Pleasant Hill won the first three meetings, then Creswell upended the Billies in the playoffs.
“Obviously we would have liked to win, but we still have a chance to control our own destiny,” Miller said. “But we have to take it one day at a time. We had two very close games against Sisters. This is my second year here and this was my seventh game against Creswell – we’ve gotten to know each other pretty well and almost all of these games are like this – close, hard-fought battles.”
