HILLSBORO, Ore.-- If you looked closely enough at the faces of Bishop Gorman-Las Vegas players and coaches as they filed to the locker room on Thursday night you may have caught a glimpse of a few slight smiles and looks of relief.
Like many nationally-ranked high school programs, the Gaels (8-1) came into the Les Schwab Invitational expecting to have time to get their legs under them. Instead, they received a sense of what the tournament is like as they trailed for nearly two-thirds of the game before rallying back in the fourth quarter to defeat Lake Oswego 63-52 in the nightcap game of the tournament’s first day.
“I’m relieved,” Bishop Gorman head coach Grant Rice said. “We tried to tell our guys that they would give us a good game. They gave us all we could handle today.”
For a majority of the night, it seemed as if Lake Oswego (2-3) might be the team to pull an improbable upset by beating top-ten nationally ranked Bishop Gorman, a team in pursuit of its ninth-consecutive Nevada state championship. The Gaels lost their only game of the season less than a week ago against Centennial-Calif., but could they lose two games to out-of-state opponents back-to-back?
As the Lakers continued to hold the lead into the fourth quarter the players on the Lake Oswego bench believed an upset was possible, the coaches believed it, and most importantly, the fans believed it. With each passing made basket there was a feeling of what-if in the air.
But sometimes it is the hope that kills you.
After a quiet first half, junior Zaon Collins -- who finished the night with a game-high 23 points and six rebounds -- helped lead the Gaels comeback, scoring six-consecutive points midway through the fourth quarter to give his team a lead it would not relinquish. Senior Mwani Wilkinson added 18 points and four rebounds.
“Zaon took over that second half,” Rice said. “He’s the kind of guy that would rather have 15 assists than 20 points, but when we’re a little underhanded, we needed Zaon to score and he did.”
Collins added: “Somebody just gotta man up, take responsibility, and take over the whole game. Control the pace, control everything, get the team fired up. I felt like I was that guy tonight.”
But before Collins took over the game, it was Lake Oswego that had the crowd reacting to its every move. The Lakers jumped out to a quick 10-0 lead which sent those who stuck around Liberty High School into raptures and set a tone for the rest of the night. When senior Jack Chlumak, who finished with 19 points and six rebounds, hit another timely first-half shot the gym erupted into cheers, and when a Laker missed an easy lay-up the groans were just as audible.
The Gaels brought it to within a point midway through the second quarter as senior Braden Lamar converted the and-one opportunity, but Lake Oswego was able to establish a seven-point league before the break.
“We came out lackadaisical,” Collins said. “We thought that it was going to be handed to us, but we had to fight for the win.”
“We wasn’t running hard, we wasn’t playing hard,” he added. “We just had to pick up our energy and just play our game.”
It was at the break when Rice made his biggest adjustment: switching his team to a man-to-man defense scheme and banking on individual talent to see his team through. And it worked.
Lake Oswego hit just one three-pointer after halftime, and it was deciding to alternate between a full-court man defense and trapping defense that helped free Collins up late in the game.
And when the fourth quarter struck, the floodgates opened and, by winning the final quarter 21-9, Bishop Gorman showed everyone in the gym why it is a top-ten program in the country; with a last-minute alley-oop slam for good measure.
With its win, the Gaels will take on Eastside Catholic who defeated Wilsonville 78-69 earlier on Thursday. Lake Oswego will play Wilsonville at 1:30.
“It’s always good to get the first one over with,” Rice said. “We’re relieved to get that win, and now we get to face a really good team in Eastside Catholic tomorrow.”
