By Nicholas Hull, West Linn High School
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February 6, 2026
Nicholas Hull
Carson Smiley, junior, shoots a contested layup as the Lions rally in the third quarter.
Tip off. The whistle blows as Jack Tycast, senior, jumps for the ball to begin the game. Tualatin won the tipoff, starting the game hot with a 6—0 run. West Linn’s gameplan was to limit the influence Pat Vialva Jr, junior and former West Linn player, and Jemai Lake, senior at Tualatin High School, had on the game. “We had to contain the two guards, [Lake] and [Vialva],” Tycast said. “Otherwise, [we had to] fight hard and play our game.” (Nicholas Hull)Through the chest. West Linn began the game attacking the rim, with players like Blake Lampert, junior, making frequent trips to the paint and shooting through contact. Lampert was the team’s leading scorer for the night. “I feel like I played well, but our team played well,” Lampert said. “We definitely hit shots, but down the stretch, we fell apart a little bit.” (Nicholas Hull)Floating it in. West Linn continued to be aggressive in the paint with Markuss Kagis, senior, shooting a tear drop in the lane to chip into Tualatin’s lead. (Nicholas Hull)And one. Lampert makes a drive to the hoop and gets fouled, opening the opportunity for a three-point play. Lampert continued to make plays for West Linn throughout the night despite the loss. “I definitely think we could have done better,” Lampert said. “I think we could have pinched them off and stayed a little bit more glued to them, but other than that, I feel like we did pretty good.” (Nicholas Hull)Get up. Kagis elevates as he attempts to block Lake’s layup. Lake and Vialva proved to be problems for West Linn’s defense, scoring important buckets for Tualatin down the stretch. “They can do a lot of things that even if you guard them correctly, they still do a good job,” Myers said. “We knew we had to limit those guys as best we could, and I thought those two players did a good job against us.” (Nicholas Hull)Inbound. After West Linn forced a Tualatin turnover, Jake Hamper, sophomore, inbounds the ball to his teammates in hope of a quick score. Travis Myers, West Linn’s head coach, believed the Lions’ defensive efforts were sufficient. “We worked our rear ends off defensively,” Myers said. “I think we did everything we could; they [just] made more plays than we did this game.” (Nicholas Hull)Roaring back. Carson Smiley, junior, shoots a contested layup as the Lions rally in the third quarter. (Nicholas Hull)
Swatting shots. Tycast attempts to block Vialva’s shot as the first half comes to a close. “We competed, [but] we just got beat in the last two minutes,” Tycast said. “We kind of got stuck in a hole in the first half, but we came back and got ourselves out.” (Nicholas Hull)Make it happen. Sloan Baker, junior, leads the offense as West Linn continues to claw their way back into the lead. The Lions got the score within two points, but ultimately faded away later in the game. “I worry about the next game first,” Myers said. “We get to play McNary [on] Thursday, so that’s my only matchup I’m worried about right now. We get to watch the tape on them and see where we match up against them, and see what we got to do to get better.” (Nicholas Hull)One last chance. Down by single digits with less than three minutes left, Myers draws up a play in the huddle after calling a timeout. Following the timeout, Tualatin pulled away, the final score being 83—69. “I thought we got a lot of really good shots late and [they] just didn’t fall,” Myers said. (Nicholas Hull)
This story was originally published on wlhsNOW on February 4, 2026.
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