Rose City Roundup: MLK Invite coming up, more basketball notes around the city
Starting this Rose City Roundup off with a huge thank you to everyone reading this.
Early last week, we crossed 300 members for the Portland Preps website after only being around since August.
Not sure what a “good” number is for this type of thing, but having over 300 people willing to sign up over the course of six months feels like a good start!
And it wouldn’t be possible without all of you. Whether you signed up just to read one story or you’ve been checking out each piece, truly thank you for the support.
I’ve heard so much encouragement from the community over these past six months, which has only solidified my belief that our local communities want to see this type of coverage of the student-athletes that provide so much pride for each school.
And I want to keep providing this coverage and certainly will for the rest of the school of the year, but it does take some time and effort. So with that being said, you might see a couple changes to the website.
There will be some ads popping up soon that should be pretty minimal, just your classic Google-powered ones.
I also plan on adding a tips/donation button. Please don’t feel obligated to give, I only ask that you give if you have the means and feel like I’ve earned it from you.
My goal remains to keep the website free and I feel like these are the next steps I can take to get a good assessment of how to keep moving forward.
For now though, keep enjoying the website for free, donate if you feel so inclined and thank you so much for following along this school year. Plenty of more stories are to come on Portland’s prepsters, and I can’t wait to tell them.
Stories from last week
Andrew Haas excelling with the trust of his Cleveland boys basketball teammates
How Parkrose boys basketball has blossomed into 5A state title favorites
Grant boys basketball cements itself as PIL favorite, state tournament threat
PIL MLK Invite
If you’ve got the day off on Monday, there will be no better place to spend it at Benson High School with six games coming to the Astros’ home gym.
Lakeridge (7-7) and Roosevelt (5-7) boys basketball tips things off at noon in a battle between two teams looking to surprise inside their respective leagues this season.
After that it’s Tigard (4-10) and Jefferson (4-8) boys at 1:30 p.m., two teams in desperate need of a win to keep postseason hopes alive.
At 3 p.m. it’s No. 3 Oregon City (14-1) taking on a Cleveland (5-7) with the Warriors trying to spring a trip, then it’s PIL leader Grant (8-4) taking on the biggest surprise in 6A this year in Lake Oswego (11-2) set for 5 p.m. from Benson.
The night cap is a battle between Southridge and Benson boys and girls hoops. The ladies are up first at 6:30 p.m. in a top 10 matchup between the No. 5 Skyhawks (8-5) and No. 4 Astros (9-2).
The boys close the day out at 8 p.m. with No. 2 Southridge (10-3) looking for another win while Benson (9-4) hopes to make a big statement about where its young crew is.
If you’re a fan of hoops in the city, Benson will be the place to see some of Rose City’s best.
More basketball notes
After losing its whole starting lineup and going 0-7 in its nonleague slate, Jefferson girls basketball would have been easy to count out.
Instead, the Democrats have gone 4-1 to start out PIL play, which includes big wins over Lincoln (50-45) and Cleveland (51-41), two teams that were hoping to leap over the Demos this year.
Jefferson now sits in a tie for second place with Grant who is also 4-1 with wins over the Cardinals and Warriors. They’ll meet next week at 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 29 at Jefferson.
Up in north Portland, Roosevelt and Wells boys played the best PIL game of the season so far with the Roughriders surviving in double overtime behind 31 points and 12 rebounds from Andrew Kim.
The Guardians thought they won in the first overtime when Muhammed Carter scored on a putback as the buzzer sounded tied at 67, but the bucket was waved off and it went to a second OT period.
Roosevelt is now 4-1 in league play tied with Benson, but the two don’t meet until the end of the month at 6 p.m. Friday, Jan. 30 at Benson. Wells meanwhile is 2-2 in a tie for fourth with Lincoln, who it did beat already 60-53 on Jan. 9.
In the Mt. Hood Conference, the Central Catholic boys are off to a 2-0 start after a strong road win at top-10 Clackamas 67-60. The Rams are tied for first with 2-0 Nelson and will play in California for MLK Day before resuming MHC play at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 21 against Gresham at home.
Wrestlers out east
The annual Oregon Classic Duals was held this weekend out at the Deschutes County Fair and Expo Center with Cleveland and David Douglas boys wrestlers competing.
The Scots went 1-2 in the group stage on Friday, dropping duals to Newberg (68-6) and Oregon City (51-28) while defeating South Medford (48-35).
In the 6A Classic Cup on Saturday, David Douglas took out Sprague 40-36 to advance to the semifinals before falling to Roseburg 50-25. McMinnville took down the Scots 53-24 in the third place dual.
Some highlights included Milo Jimenez-Buerkle at 113 pounds as he went 5-1 across the Scots’ six matches. Jeremiah Pilat also won his first five matches of the meet before dropping a tight 4-3 decision in the final dual against McMinnville to go 5-1.
Tyler Hockett went 4-2 at 144, Ayden McNabb went 4-2 at 285 and so did Vinson Ashe at 106.
As for Cleveland, the Warriors weren’t able to pick up a dual win, going 0-3 in the group stage and then 0-3 in the Classic Cup.
However, junior Eli Borrayo continues to be a standout as he went 6-0 at 126 and continues to be one of the best grapplers in the city and the state.
Small school hoops
Portland Christian boys basketball continues to dominate, sitting at 14-0 overall and 5-0 in the 2A Northwest League. The Royals have a big one on the road this week at 7:30 p.m. at Knappa, who is also 5-0 in league this year.
De La Salle North Catholic boys hoops is hanging around in the 3A Lewis & Clark League, as it always does. The Knights are 5-9 overall and 3-2 in league with back-to-back wins. They’ll get their first shot against defending state champions Westside Christian at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 20 at home.
Portland Adventist girls basketball started 3A Lewis & Clark play with three wins, which included a big 50-41 victory over Westside Christian. The Eagles got their revenge on the Cougars already with a 51-36 this past week, but the Cougars at 7-6 overall and 3-2 in the league are proving they can hang with anyone.
Riverdale girls hoops are in the tough Coastal Range league and are looking to bounce back. At 9-5 the Mavericks have picked up some big wins, but lost to Yamhill-Carlton and Neah-Kah-Nie last week. Up next is first place Banks on the road at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 21 where the Mavericks will try to get back to their winning ways.
