PORTLAND — In recent times, Ethan Harris and Jace VanVoorhis watched the Northwest’s premier highschool boys basketball vacation showcase as spectators from the grandstands of Hillsboro’s Liberty Excessive Faculty.
Like the remainder of their teammates Thursday at Portland State College’s Viking Pavilion, the 2 Camas Excessive standouts soaked within the ambiance and expertise of the annual Les Schwab Invitational. This time, it was on the ground on the invite-only occasion that includes a number of the nation’s elite groups and the area’s high groups.
For the primary time within the occasion’s 28 years, Camas obtained an invite to the 16-team discipline.
Regardless of a 64-58 loss to Westview (Ore.) within the occasion’s opening recreation Thursday, the Papermakers are grateful to be a part of an elite discipline.
VanVoorhis referred to as it an final expertise.
“You see the big names,” VanVoorhis stated, “and go, ‘Oh, wow. I want to play there one day.’ And now Les Schwab invited us out and it’s a great experience.”
Whereas the occasion is in its twenty eighth 12 months, it’s again in Portland for the primary time since 2003 after a long-standing run in Hillsboro. This 12 months’s discipline at Portland State options two nationally ranked groups — La Lumiere (Indiana) and Gonzaga School (Washington, D.C.) — plus defending Oregon 6A state champion Central Catholic.
The event options 16 groups and 32 video games over 5 days. Harris and VanVoorhis stated the setup and top-end expertise mirrors the Pro16 League on the NETPRO circuit, a nationally aggressive AAU each gamers compete in on separate groups in the course of the summers.
“These games are nothing new to us,” Harris stated. “Playing against those high-level kids (on the AAU circuit) prepares you for these games. When you come back to high school, you feel more prepared.”
Camas now joins Evergreen (1997, 2005, 2021), Prairie (2006, 2009), Mark Morris (2007), Columbia River (2008, 2012), Skyview (2018) and Battle Floor (2019) as Southwest Washington’s all-time invitees. Class 1A Annie Wright of Tacoma is the opposite Washington faculty within the 16-team discipline.
Camas performs once more at midday Saturday in opposition to the loser of Friday’s Annie Wright/Adrienne Nelson (Ore.) recreation. The event concludes Monday.
The Camas-Westview recreation was the primary of 4 on Thursday’s opening day. Sizzling exterior taking pictures paved the way in which early and is what gave Camas (4-2) its largest lead at 40-31 to open the third quarter. At one level, the Papermakers have been taking pictures 56 p.c on 3s (9 of 16) for the sport earlier than Westview ended the quarter on a 12-3 run. The 2 groups have been tied at 43 coming into the ultimate 8 minutes.
From there, it was a see-saw opening 2 minutes of the fourth: 5 lead adjustments and no workforce led by greater than 2 till Westview grabbed a 57-53 lead inside 3 minutes to play.
By that time, Camas dedicated three consecutive turnovers, and over the ultimate 6:10 of the sport, hit simply two discipline objectives.
Harris famous plenty of similarities between Thursday’s loss and the workforce’s season-opening defeat to Lake Metropolis of Idaho. Extra notably, how Westview’s stress on protection impacted Camas’ passing, Harris stated.
Stated VanVoorhis: “Our execution down the stretch was more poor than it was in the first three quarters and that has to change.”
Harris, Camas’ 6-foot-8 junior, had a team-high 17 factors, seven rebounds and two blocks. VanVoorhis, its senior level guard, had 14 factors and 5 assists. Sophomore Landon Frost got here off the bench for 11 factors on 4 of 4 taking pictures.
Jason Grady and James Kefgen every had 16 factors to steer Westview.
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WESTVIEW (Ore.) 64, CAMAS 58
WESTVIEW — Kai Russell 13, Jason Grady 16, Peyton Learn 10, James Kefgen 16, Lucas D’Haem 8, Dayton Jenkins 0, Ian Bautista 0, Jacob Epstein 1. Totals 23 (7) 11-18 64.
CAMAS — Cade Washington 6, Nyima Namru 6, Jace VanVoorhis 14, Channing Nesland 5, Ethan Harris 17, Carter Morgan 0, Landon Frost 11. Totals 20 (11) 7-10 58.
Westview 11 13 19 21 – 64
Camas 18 10 15 15 – 58