The #13 Jesuit Crusaders, standing at 5-7 on the season, pulled off an upset beating the #1 West Linn Lions on Tuesday night, 64-52.
After back to back close losses against two of the top teams in Oregon, along with two of the top players in Oregon with Jalen Atkins and Isaac Carr, Jesuit came into Tuesday night with motivation to close out a close game and get over the hump, and most importantly, back into the winning column.
Coach Potter made the decision to put sophomore Major Williams into the starting lineup for the first time this season as Williams has proven to be one of the Saders most reliable shot creators and playmakers through their first 13 games.
Along with Williams, senior Ryan Fraser has seen a large increase in minutes with higher production levels on the scoring front. With the absence of junior Joe Stimpson due to injury, Jesuit has relied on their depth beyond the starters to put in good minutes, and they’ve delivered.
On the West Linn side, the Lions missed the presence of senior Gavin Gross, a dominant senior, who’s been out with a broken wrist. A fairly tall lineup for the Lions, the Crusaders had to find a way to still apply paint pressure and stretch the floor.
The Lions came out firing with Sawyer Young scoring the first 7, as Jesuit would call a timeout halfway through the first quarter, down 9-3. From there on, Jesuit went on a dominant run led by Coach Potter implementing more of an isolation based offense as opposed to off-ball screening.
Between senior Patrick Kilfoil good night from three along with Williams and Fraser’s balanced scoring, Jesuit had a balanced offensive approach. However, the main story of the night was Jesuit’s physical defense, holding the best team in the state to poor efficiency and creating points off turnovers.
Jesuit would go up double digits at half and keep their lead throughout the third quarter, never letting up with their level of physicality and approach, ultimately winning by 12 and advancing to 6-7 on the year.
“We came in and wanted to make a statement that we can compete with anybody. Coming off a couple close losses against good teams, we were due to get the job done and I’m glad I was able to contribute the way I did,” Fraser said.
With the win, the Saders moved to #11 in the rankings before starting their Metro League season at Aloha on Friday the 17th.
