CAMAS — It was Senior Night. Not Share Night.
No way the Camas Papermakers wanted to share the Class 3A Greater St. Helens League’s boys basketball title with anybody. No way they wanted to give away their top seed to next week’s district tournament.
Instead, it was all Camas, all night.
The Papermakers won their first boys basketball league title in 49 years with a start-to-finish, 60-37 victory Friday night over the Mountain View Thunder.
“We’ve been looking at that for four years,” senior Marc Eppinger said, referring to the boys basketball banner highlighting the 1962 co-championship. “Every year, we said we had the talent to change that banner. It’s crazy. I don’t even know what to say.”
This is no co-title. This is Camas’ all the way.
The Papermakers (15-5, 9-3 GSHL) needed Friday’s win to keep the No. 1 seed. A Camas loss would have meant a three-way tie for first place, with Mountain View getting the top seed. Instead, the Thunder (11-9, 7-5) finished third behind Hudson’s Bay.
All three teams have already clinched berths to the bi-district tournament after next week’s district tournament.
Those games will be important, but for right now, the Papermakers just wanted to celebrate this rare title. They had a lot of company, too. The Camas gym was packed, standing room only on the balcony.
“All year long, we wanted to be league champs,” Eppinger said. “We dreamed about it. Then we made it a reality.”
Eppinger scored 21 points on 8-of-10 shooting, and he grabbed 10 rebounds in the rout.
Michael Neff added 10 points, Kevin Basilio scored nine points, including a dagger of a 3-pointer in the fourth quarter, and Addison Owen had eight points, six rebounds, and five assists.
Jacob Kaler, the team’s leading scorer, had an off-night on offense, but that did not dampen his enthusiasm.
“This is my most memorable moment of my basketball career,” Kaler said. “Fifty years. I just can’t over it right now. I’m just hugging everyone I can.”
So he rounded up. No penalty for being off a year.
That was the only thing “off” for Camas.
The Papermakers opened on an 8-0 spurt, and the Thunder never got closer than six points the rest of the night.
“We told ourselves they’re going to make a run,” Eppinger said. “How do you stop that? It’s on the defensive end of the floor. As long as we play defense, we knew we could stop the run.”
Yet, Camas was so solid all evening that there was no run to stop.
Camas coach Scott Preuninger said his team has come a long way on that all-important side of the court.
“We’ve always shown we can score, but sometimes we didn’t put the same effort on the defensive end,” Preuninger said. “We’re really coming around on defense.”
Mountain View scored six points in the first quarter and eight in the fourth quarter.
Ryan Johnson had seven of his team-high 11 points in the third quarter, keeping the Thunder within striking distance. But the deficit to was too big, and the Papermakers never got cold. Camas shot 52 percent from the floor.
Up 14 midway through the final quarter, the Papermakers found themselves up against an expiring shot clock when Basilio launched a 3-pointer just before the horn. Swish.
“When I shot that ball, it felt perfect,” Basilio said.
Basilio also scored the first two points of the game for the Papermakers, which was strange because he was not supposed to be starting. A mix-up with the official scorebook had him in the lineup. So he had to get on the court. Of course, he scored.
It was that kind of a night for Camas, a championship night for the Papermakers.
