Benson boys basketball stands strong in 6A semifinals loss
ST. JOHNS — Make no mistake, there wasn’t a moment without pride or competitiveness shown by the Benson Tech High School boys basketball team to end its season with a 72-47 loss in the 6A semifinals.
The final score might have been lopsided on Friday, March 13 inside Chiles Center. The magnitude of the moment wasn’t lost on them, though. They didn’t look lost, intimidated or shrink in the moment.
The No. 17-seeded young Astros have played with house money this entire tournament. An improbable buzzer beater over top-ranked Southridge and ousting Clackamas wasn’t a flash in the pan. Benson made the Final Four and no one can take that away from them.
“It is a different unfathomable type of pride,” Benson senior Dache Acelar. “It is unfathomable. It is something we have been building for years, I’ve been building it with this program and I want to fight for it. There are students in the student section wanting to be here so it is easy to leave it all out there.”
Benson got out to a 19-13 lead at the end of the first quarter behind freshman Kendall Hopkins-McGlothen, providing six points, three rebounds and two assists. The game was played fast and might have had spectators thinking Benson could continue its magical run.
The Astros kept to their gameplan by getting to the rim, keeping the Timberwolves off the boards and keeping turnovers to a minimum.
Midway through the second quarter, Tualatin began to press ahead after drawing three fouls on Richad Hudson and switching to a 2-3 zone on defense to prevent Hopkins-McGlothen from slithering to the hoop.
It was a rubber meets the road moment but it proved to be too much as the Timberwolves went on cruise control the rest of the way.
“Getting my third foul was a big piece,” Hudson said. “I don’t think they would have gone in a 2-3 zone. I got to take that on my shoulder and know not to foul.”
Astros head coach Earl Clark agreed about how the game changed with a strong player like Hudson on the bench.
“Losing a player like Richad at that point, you know, he's been our leader in so many ways, and so when he was off the court, I just think that we just kind of got rattled as a young team, and in the moment, you can kind of feel it and trying to bring it back together," Clark said.
Tualatin forward Damian Olvera led with a double-double with 18 points and 12 rebounds along with five offensive rebounds
Jemai Lake added 17 points, Lemon racked up 13 points and Pat Vialva Jr. had 10 points to balance the Timberwolves attack to earn a berth to the title game.
And with Tualatin winning the third quarter 20-9, Benson saw some mistakes being made with turnovers, miscommunication on defense and some rushed offensive possessions.
Clark and Hopkins-McGlothen both could see how a veteran team like Tualatin pulled away.
“It's an opportunity for a young team, a young inexperienced team,” Clark said. “To be able to feel what it's about. Man, I don't think that we take it for granted to be in this moment. And so when you're playing against a team like Tualatin, who's experienced…the boys played their tails off.”
Hopkins-McGlothen added: “We were ranked 17th, so we had to go everywhere (around the state). We fought through it and we have been comfortable with the uncomfortable. People didn’t expect us to be here. We had a sense of urgency and they just got into their flow.”
Hopkins-McGlothen had a team-high 16-points, Dayle McKelvey had 10 points and Acelar pitched in seven points.
Despite missing a chance at playing for all the marbles in the championship game, the season isn’t done with the third/fifth place consolation game on Saturday.
You could see the focus and determination to not let this loss affect Benson. Heads were held high in the waning seconds of the game and the vibes were positive in the locker room afterwards.
The goal has been to finish this season as one of the best teams in Oregon and Acelar hopes to make that happen in his last game of his senior year.
“We want to make sure that as hard as we work, that we get what we deserve,” he said. “We've come this far, we can't give up now because we didn't get first place. There's only three teams that end with a win, and we want to be one of them.”
