No. 11 Sandy boys basketball bests McMinnville with fourth quarter surge

Published 9:12 pm Wednesday, January 3, 2024

On a night when the shooting stroke just wasn’t there, Sandy boys basketball did all the little things right in the fourth quarter to ring in the new year with a win.

Tied 42-42 with visiting McMinnville in the final frame, the Pioneers leaned on savvy veteran plays. There was senior Hunter Dunham who began hoovering up defensive rebounds to limit the Grizzlies second-chance points; a highlight-reel, sneaky steal from senior Marcos Ramirez, who made up for a botched break-away layup by swiping it from behind and knocking down a three-pointer as the rest of the players ran down the court; and a pair of offensive rebounds from junior Jacob Brown on his own misses for easy put-backs, including after a near-dunk that left him and Ramirez wryly grinning.

All of that was enough to stave off McMinnville and claim the 58-53 victory Wednesday evening, Jan. 3, after a prolonged holiday break.

For No. 11 Sandy (8-1), Ramirez had a team-high 19 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists; Brown had 18 points and 7 rebounds; and senior Carson Reilley added 8 points and 7 rebounds.

For McMinnville (6-5), junior forward Walt Rosenberg had a game-high 22 points; and senior Owen Wark scored 18 points with 3 three-pointers.

After Sandy pulled ahead 17-11 in the opening quarter, the Grizzlies took advantage of a dismal offensive stretch from the home squad to fight back into it. Back-to-back steals from McMinnville cut it to a one-possession game with just under three minutes left in the half. They took the lead with 18 seconds left with a post score from senior Mitchell Taylor, and nearly added to it with a buzzer beater that was halfway down after Taylor forced a turnover on the subsequent Sandy possession.

The Pioneers, meanwhile, just couldn’t find a bucket. Their last field goal was courtesy Dunham with 3:52 on the clock, a drought that stretched into the third quarter until Ramirez scored a jumper at 6:06.

That third quarter is when Sandy made its own late surge. A 7-0 run down the stretch, sparked by a roaring and-one from junior Johnathin Silvis, brought it to that 42-42 score.

In that fourth quarter, Brown got the offense going, a nice bounce back after he was largely stymied in the middle quarters with some foul trouble. He scored 4-straight points at the midway point to hold off a threatening Grizzlies run, and then hit a dagger three with 45.9 seconds left that served as the nail-in-the-coffin.

Now all eyes will be on hotly-contested Mt. Hood Conference play. Other highly-ranked boys squads include No. 3 Central Catholic, No. 7 Gresham, No. 9 Barlow, and No. 13 Nelson. Sandy opened league play Tuesday evening, Jan. 9, against David Douglas.