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Carlisle, Mills go out with big games at Roundball Shootout

Seniors on display at all-star games

By Meg Wochnick, Columbian staff writer

Published: March 25, 2018, 9:47pm

The Roundball Classic boys all-stars, pictured postgame at the Clark College O’Connell Center on Sunday, March 25, 2018. (Meg Wochnick/The Columbian)

Tre Carlisle is now in the midst of his first season sprinting and jumping for Camas’ track and field team, but still time for shootarounds in a gym post-track practice.

The high school basketball season might’ve ended for Carlisle and the Papermakers back on Feb. 1 in a 4A Greater St. Helens League tiebreaker defeat to Battle Ground, but Carlisle never imagined his final game representing Camas at the 23rd annual Les Schwab Roundball Shootout would end as so: His first 20-point game and winning an MVP honor in the game featuring some of the area’s top senior boys and girls basketball players.

“This is the first time I’ve won a big award like this,” Carlisle said. “It doesn’t seem real.”

Carlisle’s 20 points, eight rebounds and two blocks highlighted the Black team’s 87-56 victory Sunday night at Clark College. La Center’s Taylor Mills, a Clark College commit, earned the girls game MVP honor with her game-high 24 points.

For Carlisle said one of his personal goals for his senior season included increasing his scoring load. It didn’t happen like he hoped, but it did Sunday with his first-ever 20-point performance. Having fun became the sole focus.

“Play for yourself and play for the other guys,” he said. “That’s what led me to this.”

Mills was one of four La Center players on the six-member girls Black squad that won 58-51 and she said playing together with Molly Edwards, Bethany Whitten and Whitley Seter, along with head coach Herm VanWeerdheuzen on the bench, made their final game together more memorable.

Mills gave the Black team the lead for good at 48-47 and Mills and Edwards alone led an 8-0 run that eventually pushed their team’s lead to 58-47 with 2:25 to play.

“I think it helped us work even better together knowing this is an all-star game and it’s our last game together,” Mills said. “We wanted to play well.”

Hockinson’s Payton Wangler, also a Clark commit, had 16 points to lead the Red team, but La Center’s seniors combined for 50 of the Black team’s 58 points. Edwards added 20 points and also won the high school girls 3-point contest held in-between the high school girls and boys games. Prairie’s Dante Heitschmidt won the high school boys 3-point contest.

No dunk contest was contested this year, but Evergreen’s Jeremy Harju provided a highlight-worthy slam of winning the award.

If you didn’t see his right-hand slam with 3:21 left in the boys game that made it a 76-52 game, you definitely heard it by the reaction from the crowd, or the sound of the rim.

Harju even flashed a friendly smile up the floor and pointed back at Brock Schoene (17 points), his teammate at Evergreen but on opposing teams Sunday.

“We are friends,” said Harju, who had 10 points for the Red team, “and we have fun when we’re playing basketball.”

Harju called that dunk the best of his high school career and beat out all three fastbreak dunks he had this winter.

“None were like that (Sunday),” Harju said.

Carlisle even tipped his cap to the 6-foot-2 Harju.

“That was insane, I’ll give it to him,” Carlisle said. “I didn’t know he could do that.

“That was amazing.”

GIRLS GAME

BLACK TEAM 58, RED TEAM 51

BLACK — Whitley Seter 4, Molly Edwards 20, Taylor Mills 24, Emeline Akengue 4, Bethany Whitten 2, Courtney Cranston 4,

RED — Payton Wangler 16, Dana Glovick 10, Jordyn Wilds 4, Sally Hauk 11, Nicole Christiansen 4, Courtney Clemmer 5.

BOYS GAME

BLACK TEAM 87, RED TEAM 56

BLACK — Mason Waite 9, Brock Schoene 17, Quadrese Teague 7, Tre Carlisle 20, Moses McEwen 4, Been Cooke 15, Tyler Combs 7, Kade Ramey 8.

RED — Nasseen Gutierrez 13, Jeremy Harju 11, De’Mareya Gipson 5, Dante Hetischmidt 8, Jacob Hjort 13, Jason Frankin, Jr. 0, Eric Ryapolov 6.

GIRLS GAME

BOYS GAME

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