CRESWELL – Everything about this heart-throbbing victory was Cres-well-crafted.
For several moments during Saturday night’s 3A playoff game against Salem Academy, it appeared that it just wasn’t Creswell’s night. The visiting Crusaders were draining 3s with regularity, and the Bulldogs were struggling to get anything going offensively.
Even Creswell coach Jesse Thomas said the thought came into his mind that the Bulldogs could be in for a long night.
“It came in there a couple of times,” Thomas said. “We couldn’t trade a basket for a basket with them. There were multiple stretches where we couldn’t answer. They would score two or three times on four or five possessions and we couldn’t match them. That’s happened a lot this season, every once in a while there’s this mental piece, where we lose focus for three or four minutes of game time, but we didn’t let it get out of hand.”
But the Bulldogs hung tough, holding Salem Academy to nine points in the fourth quarter and rallying for a 57-55 victory behind the shooting of guards Ace Arnold and Tanner Frieze.
The final three minutes were chock-full of big plays. After Creswell’s Mason Schartz hit two free throws to tie it 53-all with 2:50 to play, Noah Burns hit a floater in the lane to put the Crusaders (18-8) back in front. Schartz then scored inside to tie it again at the 1:47 mark.
The Bulldogs’ Hunter Mustin then stole the inbounds pass and hit Luke Bailey for the go-ahead layup with 1:15 remaining, making it 57-55.
Both teams had missed opportunities after that, with Salem misfiring on a 3-pointer at the final buzzer.
“We never stopped battling,” Thomas said. “They were up 4 at the start of the 4th and I told them if we held them under 10 in the 4th we would win the game and they scored 9. Their two leading scorers had 16 (Boone Dunne and Burns) – both are very skilled and all of their best players are juniors and sophomores. They’re going to be really good for the next couple of years.
“Tanner really stepped up for us. We’ve seen him do this before and he stepped up when we really needed him tonight.”
Frieze hit 5-of-6 from the floor, his hottest game of the season.
Next up for Creswell is second-seeded Cascade Christian, which defeated the Bulldogs 53-49 in an early-season matchup. Creswell jumped out to a 17-7 lead in that game, but Schartz got two quick fouls, Cascade quickly negated that deficit.
“They have four or five guys who can score, including Deryk Farmer who’s a D-I football athlete,” Thomas said. “He’s a senior but they’re very young otherwise.
Cascade Christian is a powerhouse program, earning a three-peat state championship from 2022-24. Meanwhile, top-seeded Westside Christian was stunned by No. 17 Banks after defeating Banks by 32 points during the regular season.
Creswell goes into Thursday’s game as the underdog, but that’s a role they’ve become accustomed to.
“The reality is we might be the least basketball talented team in the final eight,” Thomas said. “We have very good athletes and we’re physical and get up and down the floor, and the only way we give ourselves a chance to win is when we’re efficient on the offensive end and we don’t turn the ball over and we make stops.”
