Banks managed to keep the game close, but close wasn’t good enough Friday night at Seaside, where the Gulls held off the Braves for a 49-40 win, in a Cowapa League boys basketball game.

Banks led 9-6 midway through the first quarter, but Seaside’s Ever Sibony went on a 7-0 run to give the Gulls a 13-9 lead to close out the quarter, and Seaside never trailed again.

The Braves managed to force a tie at 24-24, and were still within five to seven points the remainder of the game, but the Gulls closed out the win at the free throw line. Sibony led all scorers with 29 points, and the Gulls finished 18-for-28 at the line.

Cash Corder was only other player in double figures for Seaside, with 10 points. Banks junior Ben Mayo had four 3-pointers, on his way to a team-high 16 points.

Seaside’s next three league games are at home, with a nonleague contest Feb. 5 at West Linn.

The road to the 2A boys basketball state championship ends in Pendleton. But at some point, the challengers will likely have to go through the Knappa Loggers to get the blue trophy.

That’s because the Loggers took a big step over the weekend towards making themselves the official “Team to Beat” in 2A basketball, with a 58-52 win over the Seaside, the No. 5-ranked team at the 4A level.

Knappa tops Gulls

The ultimate Saturday afternoon Clatsop Clash at Knappa featured two teams that could very easily be playing for a state championship in March. Just not against each other.

The Loggers — who could probably make a good run at the 3A and 4A state titles if they had to — had to overcome an eight-point deficit midway through the third quarter to clip the Gulls for the first time in the recent rivalry, which, until Saturday, was owned by Seaside.

The Gulls won the previous three meetings by large margins in 2017 (78-54), 2019 (79-49) and 2021 (62-25).

With the loss, Seaside dropped to the No. 6 ranking, while the Loggers should move into the No. 1 spot in the 2A coaches poll, later this week.

The Loggers already had the most first-place votes (five) in the latest poll, where Knappa was ranked second behind Western Christian.

Last Saturday’s game wasn’t perfect: the contest included a combined 30 missed 3-point attempts, plus a multitude of fouls and turnovers.

Logan Morrill’s layup with 43 seconds left in the game was Knappa’s only field goal in the final 10 minutes of action, as the Loggers picked up most of their points at the free throw line, where they finished 19-for-25, to Seaside’s 4-of-7.

The “free throw line was big,” Isom said. “That discrepancy was obviously huge. But our guys do a really nice job of defending without fouling. It’s an emphasis, and the guys did a great job executing that today.”

A hot first half from Seaside’s Ever Sibony and Carson Kawasoe carried into the third quarter, where Kawasoe hit a pair of 3-pointers in the opening minutes. An offensive rebound basket by Cash Corder and a steal and layup for Sibony had the Gulls in front 35-27 early in the second half.

But Knappa’s Brandon Gale canned a 3-pointer to spark a 12-2 Logger run, highlighted by a steal and score from Shane McMahan, and a trey from Nicolai Ogier that gave Knappa a 41-39 lead at the 2:40 mark of the third quarter.

Corder answered with a 3-pointer to give Seaside what turned out to be its last lead at 42-41. A short jump shot by Morrill put the Loggers back in front, their only field goal over the next 10 minutes.

A basket from Kawasoe with 4:07 left tied the game at 49-49, but the Gulls went cold — from inside and outside — after that, with Seaside’s only made field goal of the final four minutes being a layup by Conner Langmo with 59 seconds left.

Knappa scored 13 of its final 15 points from the free throw line, which included a 6-for-6 effort from McMahan.

The game included a few defensive highlights as well. In one exchange, Sibony blocked a shot by the 6-foot-9 Morrill, and at the other end, Morrill swatted a shot by Seaside’s Izzy Jantes.

After a scoreless first quarter, Morrill led Knappa with 15 points, followed by Jackson and McMahan with 12 apiece. Seaside also had three players in double figures: Sibony with 15 (13 in the first half), Kawasoe (14) and Corder (13).

It was “just a very high level game that we were lucky enough to come out on top of,” Isom said. “Seaside is one heck of a team and will challenge for the 4A title. It was a good statement win for the guys, but still a lot of work to do.”

And in case fans are wondering, the last time two Clatsop County basketball teams won state titles in the same season was 1997-98, when Mike Goin’s Astoria team won the 3A championship, and Craig Cokley’s Loggers took the first of two straight 2A titles.