This season for West Oak Boys basketball has been a renaissance for their program. After being picked in the preseason to finish dead last in Region 1 3A coming off a losing season last year, the Warriors have turned doubters into believers.
1st year Head Coach Matt Rowland is the youngest Varsity Head Basketball Coach in the state. He also has turned heads and opened eyes. There's an obvious belief in each other within the culture of that program.
Prior to the Boys game, West Oak's girls handled Seneca 49-28. The Lady Warriors finished with a 7-3 region mark which is tied for 2nd with Crescent. Walhalla's Girls won the region with a win over Pendelton on Tuesday. Crescent and West Oak split the two regular season meetings , so they will meet in a play-in game for 2nd place. That winner will get homecourt in the 1st round and the loser will end up on the road in the 1st round next week.
That's been evident as the season has went along. On Tuesday night, West Oak downed Seneca 54-42 to get a season sweep over a local and region rival.
The win over Seneca, locked up a 2nd place finish for West Oak's Boys which means they will have home court in the 1st round of the playoffs next week. That is something the program hasn't done in over a decade, the season sweep of Seneca is the first for the program since 2012, as well.
West Oak got a hard fought win at Seneca in the first meeting, a few weeks ago. It was to be honest a sloppy game in which the two teams combined for well over 50 turnovers. West Oak had 30 giveaways in that game and still found a way to win. On Tuesday, the Warriors were much more prepared to handle Seneca's full court pressure. They cut down the turnovers by 12 in the 2nd meeting and it was obvious Rowland had implemented and emphasized new press breaker packages in the last few weeks.
What's more impressive than that, is West Oak did that without their normal starting PG Charlie Daniels. He's been sidelined with an injury that he suffered in a heart breaking home loss to Region Champs Daniel, a couple weeks ago.
Seneca also looked much sharper in the 2nd meeting than the 1st. The Bobcats came out ready to play and lead 15-12 after the 1st. The game was tied at 19 with under a minute left in the 1st half. West Oak then closed the half in text book fashion scoring two straight buckets to finish the 1st half and took a 23-19 lead into the break.
It was tied at 29 with 2:40 left in the 3rd, when the turning point of the game happened. A Seneca player got a technical after a shooting foul was called. West Oak's Lucas Towe hit all four of the free throws. That was part of a 7-0 run for the Warriors to close the 3rd quarter. They led 36-29 after three, again West Oak's ability to close out quarters was on display.
West Oak then opened the fourth on a 7-2 run, that was part of a 14-2 swing from the point of the technical. That swing became 19-9 just a few minutes later. That allowed West Oak to take control of the game and gave them a double digit lead for the 1st time. Credit to Seneca for playing hard to the finish, but wouldn't get any closer than 10 in the closing minutes.
Warrior Forward Lucas Towe is in my mind and many others, the front runner for Region 1 3A Player Of The Year. The Junior again had a big time performance, in a game that had playoff implications on the line. Towe had 12 of West Oak's 23 1st half points and finished with a game high 21.
On Senior night in front of the hometown crowd, West Oak Senior Forward Brayden Moore added 11 points and was relentless on the glass, all night. Drew Crompton added 10 to give the Warriors three players in double figures. West Oak Guard Kaden Griffin was rock solid in handling the bulk of the minutes at point, with Daniels out with his injury.
Seneca was led by Senior Jaxson Burnette's 14. Junior Guards Zay Poole and Cam O'Kelley added 9 and 8 points, respectively.
The win gives West Oak a 16-9 regular season record and a 7-3 mark in region. The program's best finish since 2012. Seneca fell to 10-14 overall and 5-5 in region play. This year break's Seneca's stranglehold on Region 1 3A after they won three straight Region Titles. It's their 1st losing season overall since the 2018- 2019 campaign and the 1st time they haven't been over .500 in region since 2011-2012.
It was a close to capacity crowd at West Oak on Tuesday night and the atmosphere was electric. I would expect an even more energized scene when they host a playoff game, next week. West Oak will host Region 2 3A's 3rd place finisher, Powdersville.
Seneca with the loss was thrusted into a 3-way tie for 3rd with Walhalla and Pendelton. The Bobcats swept Pendelton in the regular season and split with Walhalla. Walhalla split with both teams, so we will likely see play-in games that determine the 3rd and 4th place finishers in Region 1 3A. So, Seneca will have to wait for the dust to settle to find out their fate.
After the game, I caught up with the young coach who has been the catalyst for the renaissance year that West Oak is experiencing. My conversation with Matt Rowland is below, his good friend, mentor and former boss Seneca Coach Kevin Padgett hi-jacked the interview , a little bit. I left that in for you to hear it. While any coach hates to lose, Padgett is beyond proud of his former assistant.
