State boys basketball: Grant upsets Lake Oswego, Benson wins at the buzzer

LAKE OSWEGO – When No. 7 Lake Oswego and No. 10 Grant High School boys basketball met up back on MLK Day earlier this season, it was a great game at Benson Tech High School.

The Lakers were able to escape with the 78-73 win, setting the stage for some revenge for the Generals as the two met up again Friday night in the second round of the 6A state playoffs.

With a spot in the state tournament at the Chiles Center on the line, the two sides went back and forth all night once again, trading runs as each minute ticked down.

Eventually, Grant created some distance in the third quarter, saw it fall to a three-point game in the fourth, but were able to hold on for a 75-68 win and a return trip to the 6A state tournament.

“We never let the noise get to us,” Grant sophomore Malik Mason, who scored 27 in the win, said. “We heard it of course, but didn’t get into our heads like that. We play hard, keep our heads down and push through it.”

Mason got the ball rolling when he hit a 3-pointer to open the game at Lake Oswego High School.

Fellow sophomore Jamarea Sanders hit a three of his own and scored seven in the first to help the Generals keep pace.

The Lakers were No. 7 for a reason, and they hit two 3-pointers of their own to win the first quarter 16-15.

Mason kept firing in the second quarter though, hitting another 3-pointer and getting fouled on another where he stepped to the line and hit on all three shots.

“(Mason) has been huge all year,” Grant head coach Sean Brownhill, the PIL Coach of the Year, said. “He’s kind of the guy where sometimes he will facilitate, sometimes he scores. Depends on the night with him. We’ve seen him have huge scoring bursts.”

Helping drive the Generals though was the freshman big man in Abraham Cogan who was everywhere in the paint all night.

At halftime, Cogan had nine points and seven rebounds and simply provided another aspect to the game that Lake Oswego couldn’t answer.

“He’s just gotten better and better every day,” Mason said of Cogan. “Practicing with him every day, he’s becoming more and more of a dawg.”

“(Cogan) has grown so much from the start of the season to now,” Brownhill said. “I don’t think he gets credit enough for his skill set, he shoots it better than people know. He’s really grown and in the second half of league, he’s really taken off where he’ll have 18 or 22 (points). We needed it tonight.”

Those two helped Grant sneak in front 34-33 at halftime, along with a three from sophomore Jaylen Mills and four points from sophomore Jacob Harper-Grant.

Cogan got it going in the third with a huge post up,spin and dunk, which was followed by a three-point play from Mason, another bucket from Cogan and one underneath from Harper-Grant to make it 47-36 Grant with 4:40 left in the third.

“As a team, we learned that we gotta play more together and lift each other up, keep the energy,” Cogan said of lessons learned from the first matchup with the Lakers. “We didn’t have great energy against them the first time and didn’t play a great game. We came out here and we wanted to get to Chiles. We’re a young team, but y’all can’t stop us.”

LO wasn’t done though as Jackson Freeman kept scoring for the Lakers, including a corner 3-pointer that helped tighten the gap at 50-47 Grant after three.

The Generals energy never dipped though despite the starting five nearly playing all 32 minutes. Cogan picked up an offensive rebound and slammed it home, followed by Sanders scoring through contact despite some cramping in his legs.

After Sanders hit the free throw, it was a 65-56 lead with 3:34 to go and Grant could taste the upset.

Lake Oswego wouldn’t die though and made it a 65-62 game and pushed the young Generals into a pressure situation on the road.

But Mason wasn’t phased as he came down the court and drained a 3-pointer to go up 68-62, and following a Grant stop, went up for three again and was fouled. He hit all three free throws and it was a 71-64 Grant lead with only 1:27 to go.

“He hit some big threes man,” Cogan said of Mason. “He had some daggers that we needed for the team. He was keeping the energy up, everyone else was lifting him up too and he was confident enough to make them.”

Grant was able to hold on from there for the 75-68 win as Mason finished with 27 points and five rebounds while Cogan had a big 18 points and 11 rebounds. Sanders and Harper-Grant each finished with 12 points.

The No. 10 Generals are heading back to the Chiles Center for the first time since 2024. Grant went on to take sixth place.

After Grant was pillaged in the portal last summer and pushed to start four sophomores and a freshman this season, it looked like the Generals were in for a down year.

Instead, the PIL co-champions will be playing during the final week of the season and have a 1-in-8 shot of winning the program’s sixth state title.

Up next is the favorites in the tournament in No. 2 Central Catholic, with tipoff set for 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 11.

“Everybody had us down and out, probably wouldn’t win any games ever,” Brownhill said. “We knew what we had. … Young guys coming together and we stress that all the time, together. The more they do it together, that’s what happens, they played really well.”

More local results

If you thought the Grant upset was massive, let me tell you, it was far from the biggest one on the night.

No. 17 Benson, trailing by seven going into the fourth quarter on the road at No. 1 Southridge, came roaring back to force overtime.

In the extra period, the Skyhawks went up 73-71 with just over four seconds to go.

The Astros inbounded the ball to freshman Kendall Hopkins-McGlothen who drove it down the court, pulled up in the middle at the top of the arc and fired a 3-pointer.

Swish.

Benson won at the buzzer 74-73 to knock off No. 1 Southridge, becoming the first No. 17 seed to do it in the 32-team format 6A adopted in 2011.

Hopkins-McGlothen finished with 25 points to lead the Astros while junior Richad Hudson had 15 and junior Malu Niko had 11.

Benson will be at the state tournament for the first time since 2012 when it made it in the 5A classification. It’ll be the Astros first time at the highest classification’s state tournament since 2006.

The opponent will be No. 8 Clackamas, who won its own double OT thriller over Happy Valley rival Nelson.

Tipoff is set for 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 11 inside the Chiles Center.

Benson and Grant will be joined by No. 2 Central Catholic, who entered as the tournament favorite and certainly are now with the elimination of Southridge.

The Rams took on No. 15 South Salem in the second round Friday and only led 40-32 at halftime.

However, as they’ve done all year, the Rams turned on the jets and blew by the Saxons 86-65.

Senior Jalen Nicholson and junior Isaac Bongen each had 20 points while senior Robbie Long III had 12, senior Bam Paschal had 13 and junior Malcolm Weatherspoon had 10.

Central Catholic, whose only loss to an in-state opponent this year is Southridge, will look to end the run by Grant as the two meet up for the nightcap in the quarterfinals at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 11 at the Chiles Center.

And it wasn’t just the boys in 6A having fun as Parkrose, seeded No. 3 in the 5A bracket, blew by its first round opponent in No. 14 Churchill with a 76-36 victory.

Sophomore Jayden Hall led the way with 19 points while his teammates weren’t far behind. Senior Varryk Hardges had 17 and senior Fuzzy Montague chipped in 16 as well.

The Broncos are heading to the 5A state tournament for the first time since 2017 when they took third. The Broncos have three boys basketball state titles in program history, but the last came in 1982.

Parkrose has only lost three games all year, one to a 5A opponent, and that’s who it will get in the quarterfinals in No. 6 Canby. Tipoff is set for 6:30 p.m. at Linfield University in McMinnville.

One local boys team did fall on Friday night unfortunately, and it came out in Pendleton in the 2A state semifinals.

Portland Christian, looking to make the 2A title game for the third consecutive and continue an undefeated season, couldn’t buy a bucket in a 47-44 loss to No. 3 Regis.

The Royals shot 34% from the field and 58% from the free throw line while committing 13 turnovers inside the Pendleton Convention Center.

PC led by five at the break still, but the Rams were able to slowly chip away until they took the lead back in the fourth quarter and fought off any Royals attempt at a rally.

PC will play for third place against No. 4 Oakland at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, March 7 at the Pendleton Convention Center.