The Clackamas High School girls basketball team entered the 6A state championship game without a loss to a team in Oregon.
After the final 32 minutes of the season, that fact remained true.
The Cavaliers took control at the start and never gave the lead back despite star sophomore Jazzy Davidson getting into foul trouble against No. 2 South Medford.
The Panthers made their run late, pulling within four points in the fourth quarter, but the experience from senior Rhyan Mogel helped the Cavaliers stay strong and close out the 56-46 win and help the Cavaliers win the first state title in program history.
“It feels good, a lot of it has to do with my team,” Mogel said. “I was able to capitalize today, but it’s because every single kid on that team was out working hard and doing their job. We had each other’s back, so it’s a testament to everybody.”
Fellow senior, the only two on the Clackamas side, Eliza Buerk started the game off by hitting a 3-pointer in the corner to give the Cavaliers a lead.
South Medford star senior Donovyn Hunter, who’s committed to Oregon State, helped keep her team in it with tough defense and helped draw two early fouls on Davidson.
That left Mogel to step up on Hunter defensively, much like the day before in the semifinals when Mogel switched onto Jesuit star Sofia Bell and held her in check. Clackamas led 15-11 after the first quarter.
Davidson picked up her third foul quickly into the second, and that’s when South Medford made its run to take the lead 19-18 with 3:18 left in the half.
But it was Mogel to the rescue once again as she got to the rim and hit 5 of 6 free throws to close the quarter and give her team a 23-19 lead at the break.
“She’s super special to me, and to watch her have to step up when Jazzy was in foul trouble and guard such a strong kid (in Hunter),” Clackamas coach Korey Landolt said. “Rhyan’s as strong as an ox. We asked her to do everything today. We asked her to defend the best player, we asked her to take care of the ball, to score for us. She just did it all.”
The big shift in the game came right out of the break as the Cavalier went on an 8-0 run to push the lead to 31-19, forcing a Panthers timeout at the 5:35 mark in the third quarter.
Mogel and Davidson scored six of those eight points, driving home their dominance on the night.
“This team is really special to me and we’re all like sisters,” Davidson said. “They’re amazing (the Mogel sisters), we’ve been playing with each other since like the third grade. Honestly, they’re like my sisters too and it’s just so fun playing with them.”
Davidson picked up her fourth foul halfway through the third and rode the bench the rest of the frame. But this time the Cavaliers wouldn’t allow a big run thanks to buckets from Allie Roden and Buerk.
Hunter wasn’t going to go away that easily, even though she faced foul trouble herself when she got No. 4 right before the third quarter horn.
Her and the Panthers’ swarming defense started to cause some havoc again in the fourth quarter, making it a 50-46 Cavalier lead with only 2:01 left in the game.
However, the Cavs started to run out the clock, and sophomore Sara Barhoum knocked down two critical free throws to grow the lead to six again.
On the other end, Davidson came up with the block on Hunter close to the rim, Mogel grabbed the rebound and the party was on after she made the lead eight points with only 37 seconds to go.
“We all stepped up, I had no doubt (Davidson) was going to come back in and continue to contribute in the ways she could and she really did,” Mogel said. “Having her on the court, whether she has to be more conservative or not, it takes the pressure off.”
Mogel finished with 18 points and five rebounds to guide the Cavaliers and was named the player of the game on the court that she'll be getting a lot more familiar with next season as she's signed to play at the University of Portland. Davidson chipped in 12 points along with two blocks and two steals.
Hunter had 15 points and four rebounds to lead the Panthers. Sara Schmerbach had eight points and seven rebounds while Kendall Fealey chipped in eight as well.
The All-Tournament teams were announced as well. The second team featured Kendra Hicks from Jesuit, Annie Koenig from Barlow, Taylor Young from South Medford, Emma Sixta from Jesuit and Brynn Smith from Willamette.
The first team was led by unanimous picks in Hunter and Davidson, as well as Mogel, Sofia Bell from Jesuit and Kennedie Shuler from Barlow.
“There was some comparisons to us last year made yesterday,” Landolt said. “The fact that we had to prove ourselves every single round basically, they stayed together and really dug their heels in and weren’t really going to settle for anything else.”
The title marks the first for the Cavaliers girls basketball squad, a fact not lost on Landolt, especially after all the changes recently in Happy Valley. Clackamas finishes the season with a 26-4 overall record, all four losses coming to out of state competition.
With that kind of dominance, the next question becomes how many more blue trophies can this wave of talent at Clackamas win?
That question will be answered later, and for now, it’s a good day to be a Cavalier.
“It feels amazing, our school’s been through a lot of change recently with the split between Nelson and Clackamas,” Landolt said. “Everybody coming back from COVID and into this new space, it’s just been really cool to bring this to our students and see our students up there figuring out how to have such a good experience and time. I just love that we could influence that for our community.
“I love being a Cav, so it’s pretty great.”