The Warriors win their first state title since 2002 after starting the season 0-2. They're the Oregon Team of the Week, presented by the Oregon National Guard.
Philomath boys basketball is the Oregon Team of the Week, presented by the Oregon National Guard.
Courtesy of Hood's Digital Photography
It's one thing to win a state title. It's another to bring an entire community together.
That's what the boys basketball team at
Philomath has done, following a 48-39 win over La Salle Prep last week at Gill Coliseum in Corvallis.
Ben Desaulnier scored 23 of his game-high 30 points in the first half, making 11 of 21 shots as the Warriors finished 23-3.
Ben DeSaulnier, Philomath
Courtesy of Hood's Digital Photography
They won their second title, the first coming in 2002, when current head coach Blake Ecker was an assistant.
For their championship, the Warriors have been selected as the MaxPreps Oregon Team of the Week, presented by the Oregon National Guard.
"It is fantastic," Ecker said. "I was an assistant coach on the team that won in 2002, so to get here this year is very cool. The team and kids had an amazing run.
"We're a pretty small community of about 5,000 and this has brought our entire community together. Our team and community had a common goal and that was to get there and they supported us through it all."
After losing their first two games, a state championship was the furthest thing on Ecker's mind.
"We were playing selfish and not playing team ball," Ecker said. "We had to sit down and talk about how we needed to play together and that if we did that we could really have something. Once we started playing more as a team, the wins started piling on. We realized we could be great and we had a vision of what could happen and what we could accomplish. The kids saw that and bought into that."
Did they ever. They won 23 of their last 24 games and gained some major momentum right before the playoffs with a 104-62 win over Stayton. They hadn't scored more than 77 in any game before that.
The Warriors opened postseason with a 73-51 win over Sweet Home, but barely escaped North Valley, winning 44-43. They then knocked off La Grande 61-52 in the semifinals.
Trey Ecker, Philomath
Courtesy of Hood's Digital Photography
It helped to have the 6-2, 205-pound DeSaulnier, one of the state's best all-around athletes. As a junior, he made All-State in football, basketball and baseball.
He averaged 29 points per game and scored 53 in a game last month while only playing three quarters.
"Ben was definitely our best player on our team this year," Ecker said. "He will probably be named the Player of the Year in our division. He is an athletic young man, he's had a great attitude all season, and he has worked hard all year long."
Other key players were
Cole Chambers,
Brodie Marchant,
Koeby Bennett and
Trey Ecker, who had eight rebounds and 14 assists in the win over Sweet Home.
Before this season, Philomath hadn't won 20 games in any season under Ecker, though they were 19-7 and 18-6 the two previous seasons. Before that, the Warriors were 12-12, 8-16, 12-12, 18-9, 18-7 and 12-15.
"To all come together, especially being the underdogs, and then to achieve (the championship) is amazing," coach Ecker said.
MaxPreps editorial assistant Kirstin Beal contributed to this report.Do you know a team that deserves
consideration for Oregon Team of the Week? Email us with your
nominations at ORteamoftheweek@maxpreps.com.
