Senior-dominated team takes home school's first Oregon 1A state boys basketball title.
Country Christian earned the MaxPreps Oregon Team of the Week for going 28-1 and winning the state 1A boys basketball championship.
Courtesy photo
At 28-1, the 2014-15 boys basketball season for
Country Christian (Molalla) was just about perfect.
In fact, according 11-year head coach Doug Nofziger, the one blemish on the season — a 63-47 defeat on Dec. 27 — was really the key to the team's state 1A championship, the first in school history.
So, though not perfect by definition, Nofziger really considered it so. Considering his team had been a perennial state contender for years, only to fall short, it sure felt perfect.
Starting in 2007-08, the Cougars went 19-3, 19-7, 20-7, 24-3, 23-5, 20-9 and 19-6.
"We've had aspirations of winning it all many years, and many years we reached the Elite 8," he said. "We just could never quite get to that Saturday night. We just never quite had all the pieces. This year we had the pieces.
"Just as the wild old man said, ‘You've got to have the horses to win it all.' Well, we had the horses."
In the state title game, a 61-53 win over Nixyaawii Community,
Luke Carter had the best game of his career with 20 points and 12 rebounds. Carter was 7-for-7 from the field and 6-for-6 at the free throw line.
Ben Grandle added 13 for the Cougars, who won in the first two rounds by counts of 50-40 and 72-48.
Of the 14-person roster, 10 were seniors, to go along with two juniors and two sophomores.
Watching this group progress was of great satisfaction to Nofziger.
"Watching them grow and mature, having all the same goals to win a state championship and to see them accomplish it — it was something special," he said.
Grandle was especially special. The 6-foot-5 guard "was unguardable," Nofziger said. "He was the Player of the Year in our league and it wouldn't surprise me if he's the 1A Player of the Year," he said. "At 6-5 he could go inside or outside. He was one of our big 3-point threats too. He was a stud."
Other top players for the Cougars were:
Carter -- "As solid as they come. He broke through in the biggest game of his career. That's how it was with this team. Someone new would come through every game."
Jordan Syphard -- "One of the most incredible athletes I've ever coached. He's only 5-10 but we've never had a kid with more dunks in a season. He needed to be more consistent on his 3-pointers so instead he really worked on his mid-range game and improved immensely."
Avery Nofziger: "He didn't score much but we didn't need him to. He was our leader in assists."
Mitchell Sandberg: "It didn't matter if the opponent's best player was 6-4 or 5-7, we'd put him on him. He's only 5-10 himself, but he's so strong and so full of grit.
"You need guys like (Sandberg) who will do all the dirty work."
Nofziger said he went to his bench early and often. "We went eight, nine, 10 deep," he said. "There was little to no drop-off."
There was one big drop-off at the midway point of the season when the team traveled to Stanfield and went down to defeat 56-45. The Cougars started with nine straight wins.
"It was about a four-hour drive to get there," Nofziger said. "We were definitely lethargic before and during the game. It was a good loss to take. We definitely got re-ocused after that."
Did they ever, winning the last 19 straight.
"They all bought in," Nofziger said. "There's no 'me' in team and even though we had a lot of talented guys, we really played as a unit. From top to bottom, there were few if any issues off the court. It made it all so enjoyable."
