CAMAS — Winning a state championship last season hasn’t quelled any chips on the shoulders of the Camas girls basketball team.
There’s always another mountain to climb, another opponent to conquer.
And when that opponent happens to be their top rival in the 4A Greater St. Helens League, the fast-rising Union Titans, the Papermakers brought their best.
Camas survived a furious second-half Union rally to claim a 71-69 win on Friday at home in a matchup of two top-10 ranked Class 4A teams.
Keirra Thompson scored a game-high 34 points, including the go-ahead basket to break a 59-59 tie with two-and-a-half minutes left, which kickstarted an 8-0 run.
The Papermakers never looked back. Haywood, who scored 19 of her 21 points in the second half, made three free throws to get Union within two inside 30 seconds, but Thompson made four free throws to ice the game.
“Going in, we knew they were a good team, we knew this was going to be a tough game and we knew we were going to have put everything we had into this game,” Thompson said. “And we did — defense and offense.”
For the Papermakers to win their ninth straight in the head-to-head series, the Titans made them earn every bit of it.
Union, which trailed by as many as 21 points in the first half, started its surge during a fast-paced third quarter when it outscored Camas 27-17 as the likes of Haywood, Janessa Chatman (19 points) and Jalise Chatman (13 points) found their rhythm.
The Titans twice tied the game in the fourth, first with a Haywood 3-pointer, followed by a Janessa Chatman basket inside three minutes.
In a tie game, a young Papermakers team played with veteran poise.
Thompson, a senior who eclipsed 1,000 career points in the game, scored on a layup. Sophomore Lauren Hood grabbed a steal on Union’s next possession, leading to a 3-pointer for junior Baylie Farra.
“The leadership is amazing,” said Farra, who added 18 points on six 3-pointers. “Our coaches, they teach us how to stay composed in those moments, and just having the veterans that have been in that moment really helps us stay calm and collected.”
Then, senior Sophie Buzzard cashed in another 3-pointer, giving the Papermakers a 67-59 with less than two minutes to play.
“Obviously the pressure is high, the atmosphere, you could barely hear, so keeping ourselves composed, staying together, listening to our teammates, that’s what helped us,” Hood said.
The atmosphere Hood spoke of, a near-capacity crowd at Camas’ home gym known as The Warehouse, was befitting of a rivalry game between two of the state’s best girls basketball programs.
There was one 30-second stretch in the third quarter when Camas and Union traded four 3-pointers on consecutive trips up the floor starting with Farra, Haywood, Thompson and another from Haywood to tie the game at 49-49. With each make seemingly bringing a higher decibel level in the crowd, players relished the electricity from the floor, too.
“That’s what you live for as a basketball player — those back and forth games, those close games — so it was great. Both teams played really hard,” Thompson said.
“Not only was it back and forth, it was against Union, which makes it 10 times better. The packed crowd, the student section, it was just so loud,” Farra said.
When the adrenaline died down after the game, the word “fun” repeatedly came to the Papermakers’ minds when describing it. Camas coach Scott Thompson agreed, telling his team in the locker room the game was among the most fun he’s coached in.
“The fact that it was an incredible game made it even better — it got louder and it got more fun to play in,” Scott Thompson said. “You see excellent players that are giving their best or having their best moments in this amazing atmosphere, that’s part of the reason these are two really elite teams in the state of Washington this year. A lot of teams might crumble to (pressure), and you saw two teams that loved it and wanted to be in it.”
Union and Camas will play twice more in the regular season, with the next meeting on the Titans’ home floor Jan. 22.
Friday’s game further reinforced Union’s status as a force to be reckoned with statewide. It also served as a reminder that a retooled Camas team isn’t going anywhere.
“Even though we got the win, we have to go back to drawing board, we have to get into the film room, we have to do all of the things that are going to extract growth from this game, and that’s the plan,” Scott Thompson said.
CAMAS 71, UNION 69
UNION — Carli Christensen 8, Myla Larry 8, Janessa Chatman 19, Leah Samuel 0, Taylor McCullough 0, Addy Eisfeldt 0, Brooklynn Haywood 21, Jalise Chatman 13. Totals 24 (11) 10-14 00.
CAMAS — De’Chaiya Gentle 4, Sophie Buzzard 8, Baylie Farra 18, Lauren Hood 7, Keirra Thompson 34, Eliana Gibson 0, Lila McCarthy 0. Totals 24 (14) 9-12 71.
