PORTLAND, Ore.--Friday night's matchup between No. 4 ranked Jesuit and No. 19 ranked West Linn may have been chalked up as yet another drab preseason December game, but the two coaches roaming the sidelines were reminiscent of a heavily contested postseason clash.
Both Jesuit head coach Gene Potter and West Linn coach Eric Viuhkola have won a combined 11 state titles since 1998, but on the final day before winter break it was Potter that had the final say as the Crusaders (4-1) knocked down 10 three-pointers and survived a furious late rally en route to a 68-61 win over the Lions (2-3).
Senior Micah Garrett finished with 16 points and freshman Jackson Shelstad added 17 for the Lions. Junior Liam Ruttledge finished with 16 and senior Matthew Levis chipped in nine for the home team.
“I think Jesuit is a really strong and well-coached team,” West Linn senior Joe Juhala said. “I think it is a good test for the season because we’re playing hard teams right now and we’ll get to see where we are.”
After a slow start in which neither team could gain much separation, the Crusaders began to pull away in the second quarter behind guard James Lang’s stellar shooting night. The 5-foot-11 junior knocked down a team-high five three-point baskets and led all scorers with 20 points.
“My coach has always told me just to shoot, green light all the time, and my teammates realize I had the hot hand so they just kept giving it to me,” Lang said.
Lang helped the Crusaders establish a 53-44 lead entering the fourth quarter, but the Lions did not go down without a fight.
West Linn opened the final frame on an 8-2 run to draw to within 55-50 and later had an opportunity to pull to within one, but a missed layup turned into a transition three that Ruttledge, who finished the night with four made triples, rattled down to extend the hosts lead back to six.
But the Crusaders couldn’t capitalize down the stretch and left the door open for a potential West Linn comeback. Jesuit missed two consecutive one-and-one opportunities and with just over a minute remaining, Garrett drove to the rim and converted the layup to bring the Lions to within one. With the Crusaders facing a rare moment of mortality at home and, the nerves in the gym were palpable, but much like they often do, Jesuit did just enough down the stretch to win the game.
“We kinda handled the pressure alright, but we still have to work on that at practice,” Lang said. “We have to get in and practice free throws and work on all those little things.”
And if it is the Crusaders that need to work on late-game execution, Viuhkola and his team will need to work on managing turnovers. On Friday night it was the Lions that dug themselves an early hole as they committed six first-quarter turnovers compared to Jesuit’s two.
Despite the tough road defeat that dropped the Lions to below .500 before the always-difficult Three Rivers League season begins, Juhala was proud of the way his team fought back in the second half.
“Everyone on this team is so driven, they just have that fight in them, and I think that helped us a lot tonight,” Juhala said.
While moral victories may not mean a whole lot in the grand scheme of things, Viuhkola and the Lions knew months ago that their early-season schedule would be a gauntlet. On the road at Jesuit was just another brutal early test in an opening stretch that has already seen West Linn take on Wilsonville, top-ranked Central Catholic, and Roosevelt.
And it won't get any easier as the Lions next game comes against nationally-ranked Norcross-GA and five-star Kentucky signee B.J Boston in the Les Schwab Invitational. That doesn’t even include the following three games in one of the toughest holiday tournaments in the country.
“We can’t really prepare for a team like Norcross because we’ve never played a team like them, but we just have to come out and play our game,” Juhala said. “Playing harder teams is going to drive us to work harder.”
Jesuit will also play in the LSI and its opening-round game comes against Southern California powerhouse Mater Dei-CA.
If Friday night was a warm-up game, then both teams still have some tweaking to do before the invitational begins. And both teams better be ready because the season is only beginning to heat up.
“I feel like if we show the effort that we have in our past couple of games I feel like we have a solid chance at surprising the nation,” Lang said. “We have to hustle, we have to get back on defense, and just work hard every day at every practice.”
