McMINNVILLE – The “stars” just didn’t line up in Springfield’s favor in this year’s Class 5A Girls Basketball State Championship game.
Payton Starwalt scored 26 points and extended her all-classification record for 3-pointers in a season with 136 as West Albany – fittingly a long shot as the No. 5 seed – held on for a 51-48 victory over the No. 2 Millers, who were making their third title-game appearance in five years.
And the Millers are eager to get a shot at redemption.
“We’re looking forward to the offseason,” Springfield coach Joe Williamson said Monday, reflecting on Springfield’s loss Saturday night at Linfield University.
“We have a lot of work in front of us – people don’t realize what it takes, all the time and work and dedication these girls have to put in every day to be successful.
“But now they have the experience of knowing what it feels like to be in that (state tournament) environment. Seeing both stands packed to the rafters, everybody cheering their tails off. So they got a little taste of that, and they’ll be working hard to get another chance to come back next year.”
Part of the reason for Williamson’s optimism is the breakout freshman season of Nuari Filipe, who scored 26 points on 11-of-17 shooting against West Albany. The 6-foot Filipe averaged 20 points and eight rebounds in her first high school season.
“She scored 565 points this year,” Williamson said. “She’s on pace to get 2,500 points and 1,000 rebounds, and her numbers, of course, should only get better.
“She’s always level-headed and always ready. She faces different types of defenses that try to double-team her and scheme to stop her, and she handles it like it’s no big deal.”
Filipe also came up big in a 55-50 victory over South Albany in the state semifinals, knocking down a pair of late 3-pointers to key the Millers’ late comeback victory. Filipe scored 17 points in that game while junior Sailor Hall scored a game-high 20.
Those efforts landed Filipe a spot on First Team on the All-Tournament Team while Hall made Second Team.
Springfield won the Sportsmanship Trophy.
Impactful seniors
The Millers graduate only two seniors – Darissa Romero Ah-Sam and Kimora Wright.
“Kimora and Darissa will both be missed very much for their leadership and basketball abilities they brought to our team,” Williamson said.
Romero-Ah Sam, who was First Team All-Midwestern League along with Filipe and Hall, has been an instrumental piece of Springfield’s success during her three years as a starter. She was also named the league’s Defensive Player of the Year.
“The impact she has had goes far beyond what shows up in the linescores,” Williamson said. “She’s been a very intelligent team player who makes an impact on both ends of the court.”
Throughout most of her career, Romero Ah-Sam has battled a lingering back injury, oftentimes fighting through sciatica pain to play. She was cleared to play just one week before this season started, and she averaged 11 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 6 assists.
Williamson said Darissa has been getting lots of attention from colleges, including junior colleges, D-II, D-III, and NAIA schools. But he said he’s selfishly hoping she stays close to home so he can watch her games.
“Whoever gets her will get a real competitor and a real supporter to Springfield,” Williamson said.
In her final high school game, Romero-Ah Sam – whose sister Danaeja was the 5A Player of the Year and led the Millers to the 2023 state title (they also won back-to-back titles in 2011-12) – was limited to eight points while playing just 24 minutes due to foul trouble. She did, however, finish with a game-high eight assists and three steals.
Early foul trouble
Three Millers, including Romero-Ah Sam, were on the bench with three fouls in the first half.
“We haven’t had that many girls in foul trouble all season,” Williamson said.
“We had to adjust. In a game that close, with so many girls in foul trouble, in spite of that – to be down by one with 6 seconds left – we didn’t let it deter us from trying to win that game.”
A 3-pointer by Hall had trimmed the deficit to 49-48 with 2.9 seconds left, but West Albany’s Cate Kurth sank two free throws for the final margin, as the Millers were unable to launch a final shot.
Fouls played a major role early, as West Albany went 11-of-14 at the line while Springfield went 0-for-2 while taking a 23-22 halftime lead.
“I’m not going to blame it on the officials but the foul calls were obviously very one-sided,” Williamson said. “So we had to alter our gameplan.”
For the game, the Millers had nearly twice as many field-goal attempts as the Bulldogs – 51-26 – but West Albany outshot Springfield 50-35 percent.
A 20-point third quarter put the Bulldogs ahead to stay. They led by as many as nine points, but the Millers were almost always within two scores of catching – or passing – them.
With her four 3-pointers against Springfield, Starwalt once again was a stalwart presence for West Albany. By eclipsing the all-classification record previously held by Colby Wood of Butte Falls in 2019 with 132, she achieved something that would have been unheard of not too many years ago.
“She’s an incredibly gifted player, not only physically but intellectually as well,” West Albany coach Shawn Stinson said after the contest. “She’s a coach on the court – she sometimes sees things on the court better than I do and comes over and tells me her ideas about what she thinks we should do and I trust her 100%.”
There’s another special connection between the two schools. In a sense, it’s Springfield against Thurston.
“We’re really talented and we’re very passionate about what we do and what we want to accomplish,” Stinson said.
“I’m a Thurston grad, so that’s my crosstown rival right there, so it’s been a long time coming, so there was something extra special right there,” Stinson said, referring to his school’s 73-year drought without ever winning a state title – boys or girls.
The most extra special thing, though, was the experience of coaching this group of players, he said.
“It’s the most unselfish group of kids I’ve ever been around,” Stinson said.
“They love each other, they don’t care who gets the credit, they just want to win. I’ve been coaching for 27 years and I’ve never seen chemistry like this.
I’m just overwhelmed with pride. Fifteen years ago we lost to Springfield (in the state final). I told the girls we’re here to make history and they did.”
Seventy-three years in the making is quite a large body of work, and they’re gonna be remembered for a long, long time.”
The Bulldogs might be back again next year, too. They also lose only two seniors – and Starwalt returns for her senior season.
