A Ruthless Battle With Beaverton | Coverage of the 1/17/20 Basketball Game

By Dillon Bergmann

This article was originally published on Feburary 13th, 2020

On the night of Friday the 17th last January, the Sunset Apollos basketball team battled against Beaverton’s. Sunset entered the game with a record of seven wins and six losses (1–0 in the Metro League). Beaverton went into the game with a record of eleven wins and two losses (1–0 in the Metro League as well).

Before the game, I chatted with both team’s coaches. Coach Sherwood of Sunset was unphased and said that, just because the game was a rivalry, it didn’t mean that their tram would change their game plan, as he had high confidence in the team. He also did not expect chippy play, but said it could happen due to some personal rivalries. According to Beaverton’s coach, Mr. Vancil, like Sunset, Beaverton’s game plan was to remained unchanged. Vancil wanted Beaverton to play defense and to score more points. Beaverton has had one of the best defenses in the state and tends to focus on low scoring games. They only allowed, on average, 42 points per game. Sunset, on the other hand, scored 65 points per game, which makes it one of the better offenses in the state.

Before the game started, you could feel the energy in the gym; this was a rivalry game. The Beaverton student section began by taunting the Sunset players during warm ups. During the introductions, the Beaverton student section showed great disrespect to Sunset by turning their backs and holding up signs of clowns.

The game started, with Beaverton winning the tip off. With 5 minutes and 1 second left in the first quarter, there was controversy, after being awarded 3 free throws since the foul occurred on a 3 point shot attempt. Sunset was only given 2 shots. This, however, was quickly realized, and a false whistle was declared, allowing for Sunset to have an extra free throw attempt. After a back and forth fast-paced first quarter, the score was Sunset 14 Beaverton 13.

The battle with Beaverton continued in the second quarter. During the quarter, Beaverton had a free throw disallowed due to illegal actions by the free-throw shooter, and both fan sections traded insults. After another quarter of fast-moving play, Sunset was down 24 to 27. To distract and give the crowd a break, the middle school Sunset teams put on an exhibition game during halftime.

The second half started with a foul utopia with fouls committed by both teams. The chants between the fan sections also increased during every stoppage of play. During the third quarter, Beaverton was charged with too many men call, which is two foul shots for the other team [Sunset] and loss of possession. The quarter ended with Sunset still down with a score of 33 to 39.

The fourth quarter started; the play was fast-paced and had high intensity. On a breakaway, Sunset bobbled the ball and voluntarily stopped dribbling, and when Sunset player regained control. He was correctly called for a double dribble. The game continued as a two-possession game. With 1 minute and 24 seconds left, Brandon Sato made three clutch free throws. The game was looking to go Sunset’s way finally, then Sunset deflected the ball out of bounce. Then out of the blue came a Jump Ball, which became Sunset’s. The Beaverton player made their way up the court, with new hope the Referee’s whistle blew, and traveling was called. This gave Sunset new wind as they were only down by two points.

Brandon Sato attempted to inbound the ball when after looking at the situation called a 30-second timeout. Sunset regrouped, and Sato inbounded to Reece Arenz. Arenz was clobbered by strong defense just what Beaverton wanted; but, out of the blue, he saw Kell Estep (who is a former Beaverton player) wide open in three-point range. He passed a Hail Mary pass to Estep, who took the wide-open three-point shot. The crowd held their breath, and it went entirely through the basket. Beaverton called a timeout right away to regroup. The game resumed with Sunset playing ruthless defense. There were 15 seconds left in the game. Then the ball went out off a Sunset player with 6 seconds to go.

The crowd held their breath as Beaverton charged at the net, but a fearless Sunset defense stopped them with one second left. Beaverton then called yet another time out. They tried to do something, but to no avail. Sunset ended up winning the game 52 to 51, by a single point.

The Scroll’s three stars of the game are as follows: Eli Vernon, Braeden Sato, and finally, the MVP is the man, the myth, the legend, Kell Estep! He defeated his former team with one heck of a three-point shot that will go down in Sunset history.

Mr. Sherwood, when asked for comment on the game, said, “this game was awesome! We won, and we played great. There is nothing more I could have asked for from the team, a great win.”