Corvallis' last shot falls short in bid for 5A state title

EUGENE - As Nadav Heyman's desperation 3-pointer at the buzzer fell short, so did the Corvallis High Spartans' chances to send the OSAA 5A boys basketball championship game into overtime, as Jefferson held on for a thrilling 55-52 victory Saturday at McArthur Court.

CHS finished with a 25-2 record and a second-place finish at the tourney.

"I drove and the ball got kind of loose and I fumbled it," Heyman said. "I didn't have time to look for an open guy. I had to recover it and shoot and it wasn't the shot we wanted."

Heyman, who was named to the All-Tournament team for the second consecutive year, had two defenders in his face on the final play, much like he did most of the game. As a result, he was held scoreless in the first half.

In fact, the senior point guard didn't make his first field goal until the fourth quarter, but it was a big one. He drilled a 3-pointer from the right corner to cut CHS's deficit to 45-41 with 6:31 remaining.

At the 3:55 mark, he came up with a steal and converted a layup to pull the Spartans within 46-44, and they tied the game at 46 on two free throws by Camron Horrell 50 seconds later.

Three straight points by the Democrats' Terrance Ross put them back up by three, but Heyman drove the lane for an easy layup to cut the lead to one with 1:52 left. That, however, was the closest CHS would get the rest of the way.

Even though Heyman heated up when his team needed him most, he was disappointed in his performance. He finished with nine points on 4 of 12 shooting and committed five turnovers.

"I felt like I let my team down," Heyman said. "I made a lot of stupid turnovers that were uncharacteristic. I tried to step up and do what I could, but I couldn't have been more proud of these guys, they played outstanding."

Senior Nick Eason led the Spartans with 15 points and grabbed seven rebounds, while fellow seniors Cade Hearing and Alex Hendrickson added 13 and 11 points respectively. Eason was also named to the all-tournament team with Heyman.

"Jefferson is a great team, they have some great players," Eason said. "We couldn't stop them on defense for awhile, both teams played their hearts out, that's all you could ask for."

The Democrats, who avenged last year's 77-61 quarterfinal loss to CHS, were led by Kalonji Paschal's 14 points. Jefferson used its speed and athleticism to get the ball inside in the first half to take a 32-24 lead into halftime.

Spartans coach Greg Garrison said the difference between this year's game and last year's was how his team handled the Democrats' defensive pressure. It finished with 15 turnovers and shot 34 percent from the field. The Spartans had the ball stolen from them eight times.

"I think we handled their pressure a little better last year," Garrison said. "Tonight, I don't think we did as good of a job as we should have. Once we got the ball past half court, I thought we were pretty effective."

The problem was that CHS wasn't able to get into a rhythm on offense until it was too late. Trailing 43-36 going into the fourth quarter, it finally started getting good looks and started its rally, which was spurred by a Hearing basket and Heyman's 3-pointer.

"I thought we fought back really hard at the end and had a chance to win or at least tie," Garrison said. "We just didn't get it done at the end . . . We didn't execute the way we wanted to or play the way we wanted to until midway through the fourth quarter and by that time it was a little bit late."