By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

PENDLETON, Ore.–  Thinking this game over, this would’ve been a great placement game or first round game instead of what it ended up being with someone heading home following its conclusion.

Thankfully it lived up to the hype despite the cards that both Regis and Santiam were dealt.  Led by Diego Aguilar of the Rams’ 29 points and 7-for-11 from three to Ezra Downey’s 27 points and 4-for-8 from three.  Even Quetin Clark contributed another 20 in the game for the Wolverines as the trio, plus Gage Twede and some others from that Santiam-area got to play against one another one last time.

“We’ve been playing against them for years growing up, so it was awesome to play against them on this kind of stage,” Aguilar said.

“It was fun running against Diego and (Isaiah) Koehnke.  It was fun,”adds Clark.

And despite not having Twede in the line-up, Santiam and Regis went neck-and-neck with one another until the Rams began to pull away leading 51-44 with 5:40 to play in the game and momentum in their favor.  All a part of a 15-8 run that was dating back since the game was tied at 36-all at the 4:09 mark of the third quarter.  Slowly however, the Wolverines began to chip away.  One of those Magical Pendleton runs that had the game tied at 54 and Santiam looking for the possible win with Downey walking to the line.

“It was really big.  We tried everything we could without Gage, it was just tough.  We tried hard, it just didn’t work out.  We knew it was going to be a battle and it wasn’t going to be easy.  It was very tough going back-and-forth, playing as hard as we could.  Even with our bench, it was just tough,” Clark said.

Nerves were there as Downey took to the line for Regis.  They were missing a key starter in Roman Gould, but there was a sigh of relief fortunately for Regis as Downey couldn’t land one of the two shots and the game went into overtime.

“It was really relieving .  Me missing the lay-up at the end was heartbreaking and they got to the free throw line, I was so thankful they missed it because they really could have gotten it right there,” describes Downey’s free throws at the end.  “We know what we want, we went into the huddle and it could’ve been my last game.  I was just thinking, ‘leave everything I got out there'”

And leaving it all out there they did.  Koehnke scored the first four points, Aguilar added a lay-in and Lucas Koehnke contributed a three for Regis who opened the OT period on a 9-0 run and fully turned momentum into their favor for good as they advance to play Mannahouse Academy Saturday for the fourth-sixth place game.

Josh Blish recorded a 12-point, 19-rebound double-double for Regis and Jesse Dana grabbed 11 rebounds in his final game as a Santiam Wolverine Friday.

Photos By Jeremy McDonald