The Columbia River Chieftains faced two battles Thursday night: the R.A. Long Lumberjacks and unforeseen travel plans.
A landslide near Woodland caused Interstate 5 northbound to shut down for hours late Thursday afternoon, forcing the Chieftains to alter their plans last-minute to Longview.
Their route was a three-hour bus ride along Oregon’s Highway 30, and members of the R.A. Long even crowd applauded the Chieftains when they finally walked onto the Ted M. Natt Court 90 minutes after the scheduled 7 p.m. tip-off.
“That was the last time they cheered for us tonight,” River coach David Long said.
The lengthy delay and detour didn’t faze the Chieftains, as they held the Jacks to without a fourth-quarter field goal and rallied to win, 40-38, to stay alive in the 2A Southwest District IV boys basketball tournament.
Said Long: “It was worth the struggle to get up there.”
Columbia River (15-9) is now one victory away from regionals, but also a loss away from its season being over. It faces Centralia, a 57-52 winner over 2A Evergreen Conference champion Tumwater on Thursday, at Saturday at Centralia College with the winner advancing to the Class 2A regionals.
While no game time for Saturday was announced as of Thursday night, the game is tentatively scheduled to be played at Centralia College.
Jacob Hjort had 16 points and Spencer Long added 13, including a clutch 3-pointer late in the fourth, to lead River, which trailed 37-31 going into the fourth quarter.
Jacob Childers’ free throw with 1 minute, 26 seconds left in the game broke River’s 9-0 scoring run.
COLUMBIA RIVER 40, R.A. LONG 38
R.A. LONG — Marcus Maryott, Coby Rothwell 12, Tyrick Lewis-Clark 6, Jacob Thompson 2, Nolan Plank, Jerrod Strong, Conner Wallace 4, Cole Kotera 0, Jacob Childers 6, KeAndre Grimes, Tanner Rybnikar, Keoni Mawae 8. Totals 12 (3) 11-15 40.
COLUMBIA RIVER — Caden Dezort 6, Conner Wells, Mason Waite, Jacob Hjort 15, Evan Dirksen 0, Nathan Hockhalter 0, Nasseen Gutierrez 0, Spencer Long 13, Jack Armstrong 2, Kyle Gomez, Spencer Black 4. Totals 14 (7) 5-5 38.
R.A. Long 7 14 16 1–38
Col. River 10 8 13 9–40
