One down, one to go.
After racing past Roseburg 77-57 at home on Tuesday, Feb. 27, Grant High School inched one step closer to reaching the 6A boys basketball state championships at the University of Portland’s Chiles Center. Junior wing Mekhi Muhammad led the Generals with a game-high 21 points in the victory, including three 3-pointers in the second half.
“I missed my first two 3s,” Muhammad said with a laugh after the game, “but I just came out on fire in the second half and started making them. I knew I had to come out and hit some shots.”
While Muhammad’s big second half helped put the game away, just about everybody got into the action on Tuesday night.
Senior guard Vashon Hardges also scored in double figures with 11, while junior guard Quincy Scott added 10. Meanwhile, senior forward Charlie Kapranos, junior guard Zhalei Van and sophomore wing Keion James each finished with nine points in the win. Freshman guard Varryk Hardges also knocked down a pair of 3-pointers as part of Grant’s nine makes from beyond the arc.
That balanced scoring attack started early in the game. All five Grant starters enter the scorers’ sheet during the first quarter as the Generals built a 17-6 lead they would never surrender. In addition to the teamwide effort on offense, Grant’s defensive commitment was on display early.
“In practice, we really focused on defense, defense, defense,” Muhammad explained, noting the Generals had scouting reports ready for Roseburg’s top players. “On offense, we just had to drive and kick it, and we could take shots and get strong drives to the basket.”
By halftime, the margin had swelled to 20 points as Grant took a 37-17 advantage into the locker room. Even with a comfortable lead, the Generals kept their foot on the gas in the third quarter. They stretched the deficit out to 30 points before eventually letting off in the fourth as the bench played out the final few minutes.
All in all, it was a satisfying home win in what would be the final home game for the Grant seniors.
In the case of Vashon Hardges, he knew entering the day that this might be his last high school game, as well as his last in front of the home crowd at Grant High.
“I was thinking about since yesterday in practice. You never know if this is going to be my last game,” Hardges said. “I believed in all my teammates and myself that we’d win this game and work hard. All day I was thinking about this. I just wanted to go all-out this first game.”
Thanks to Grant’s all-out effort, the 11th-seeded Generals will now travel to face No. 6 Liberty — which needed a fourth-quarter comeback to stave off No. 27 Lakeridge’s upset bid in other Tuesday action — in the second round on Friday, March 1, in Hillsboro.
“We haven’t discussed them at all yet,” Hardges said of his team’s next opponent. “We just wanted to focus one game at a time, so we didn’t want to look ahead. We just want to play our game and be the most physical team in the state of Oregon.”
Muhammad echoed those sentiments.
“We’ve just got to come out and handle business,” the junior said. “I think we can make it to the Chiles Center and make it to the championship if we just play the way we’re supposed to play.”
For Hardges, playing at the final site of the state tournament is a dream four years in the making.
“That’s what our goal is, to go and make the Chiles Center and try to get a ring. I’ve never been to the Chiles Center … I know this is my last year — I wish I had another year — but to play on a college court and have a big crowd there, that’s one of my goals in my high school career.”
And after Tuesday’s win over Roseburg, Hardges and his teammates are just one win away from making that dream trip to North Portland.
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