3A Doubleheader: Five Takeaways

Jed Tai December 17, 2018 @ 11:59 PM

To be honest it wasn't a true doubleheader, but we caught one full game and the end of another 3A contest in a couple of games around the Portland Metro area on Monday night. Here's a quick recap of the action. Catlin Gabel 52, Pleasant Hill 50 We only got to catch the last couple of minutes of this game but if there was a part of the game to catch, that was it. At the end, Catlin Gabel had possession and after their original play broke, junior point guard Jett Sheng improvised and hit a driving runner at the buzzer for the victory. Horizon Christian 48, Oregon Episcopal 36 After a slow start, Horizon Christian found a groove behind senior forward Connor Zralka and powered past OES in the second conference game for both teams. The Hawks were especially impressive defensively, forcing several Aardvark turnovers and limiting OES to 12-for-38 (.316) shooting from the field. Five key takeaways from Monday's action: Eagles Starting to Turn it Around Catlin Gabel had some trouble early on this season, but it appears the Eagles may be getting things going in the right direction. The competition has been tough - there have been two blowout losses, but both have been to top 3A contenders Dayton and Western Christian. Head coach Shawn Molloy has a crafty point guard in Jett Sheng and a rapidly developing big man in 6-foot-9 sophomore Jonah Zeller, two great pieces to work with. Next up though is another power in Santiam Christian in the first round of the Dayton Tournament. Zralka an Unstoppable Force The 6-foot-5 senior was practically unstoppable in the game against OES. Connor Zralka started off a little slow and even picked up a couple of offensive fouls. But Zralka settled down and got into a groove, and at one point in the game had hit ten shots in a row. There's no doubt that he is extremely aggressive offensively, often times putting his head down and attacking the basket where he is able to finish around the hoop strong in a number of creative ways. But Zralka also stepped out and hit a couple of pull-up jumpers around the elbow. We caught up with Zralka after the game and will have an update posted on him soon. Hawks Have Shooters While Zralka is clearly the main offensive weapon for Horizon Christian, the Hawks do have a number of guys who can hit the open three to take the pressure off their star senior. Four different guys all hit at least one triple in the game against OES and overall they shot a respectable 5-for-12 (.417) from distance. Senior Kyle Free hit a couple while junior Cade Tillema, senior Travis Schiele, and junior Max Peterson all hit one each. OES Rebuilding The Aardvarks have taken some lumps so far this season but they have some younger players who are developing and head coach Ed Kirk is giving them the freedom to do so. In the game against Horizon Christian, 6-foot junior Charles Willmott wasn't shy about taking shots and while he didn't hit a great percentage (2-for-12), you had to like his aggressiveness and willingness to create. Fellow 6-foot junior Luca Pejovic-Nezhat probably had the best night for OES. He didn't start but ended up playing most of the game, as he was aggressive on both ends and ended up leading the team in scoring with 12 points on 5-for-11 shooting. Pleasant Hill Will Be Back It was a tough loss for the Billies, especially having made the long drive up to Portland. But head coach Matt Thornton should feel good about his team as he has a solid and athletic one-two duo in 5-foot-10 senior Stephen Parmenter on the perimeter and 6-foot-5 senior Logan Pruitt in the interior. The Billies will play in the Dayton Tournament where they will match up against 3A's best later this week.