Oregon City’s boys basketball team is preparing for a significant opportunity in the OSAA/OnPoint Community Credit Union 6A tournament at the Chiles Center, holding the No. 3 seed and a 24-2 record, according to a March 10 report. The Pioneers have not won a state championship in their century-old history of boys basketball, but this season they are considered strong contenders.
The significance of this tournament run is heightened by Oregon City’s past successes in girls basketball and rare opportunities for the boys’ program to reach the finals. The last time the boys reached the championship game was in 2008 under coach Mike Doherty, finishing as runners-up.
Junior wing Eli Hopkins said, “I think we have the best chance of anyone else. I’m super excited. Winning 24 games is something special, and we had a special team to do it with. Everyone’s been working so hard. We’re ready to play.” Coach Aaron Newkirk added, “Do we have an opportunity? Yes. Is it going to be very difficult? Yes. There’s a reason why you’ve played 100 years of basketball and never won one. You have to be playing well at the right time and you have to be a little lucky.”
This season marks Oregon City’s first league title since 2018 and its first state tournament berth since 2019. The team has four players averaging double figures: Hopkins, Alijah Scott, Alarion Scott, and Connor Lemmon. Newkirk said, “Teams just can’t focus on one player… We can play fast with teams and we can slow it down… We have that flexibility.”
Oregon City will face Jesuit (20-7) in a quarterfinal matchup on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m., having beaten them twice earlier in December. Hopkins reflected on those games: “Both times we played them we were down and had to scrap through to get the win.” Newkirk noted about Jesuit: “Nobody has more respect for them than we do… Both times we played them it could’ve gone either way.”
The broader impact of this tournament includes several other strong teams competing for titles in both boys’ and girls’ brackets, with notable performances from schools such as Benson, Clackamas, Tualatin, Sherwood, South Medford, West Linn, Nelson, Grant, Central Catholic, West Salem, and others.
As Oregon City seeks its first-ever boys state championship title this week at Chiles Center, anticipation remains high among players and coaches alike.
