Panthers hold off Ridgefield to stay in top 4 in league

WASHOUGAL — Clutch plays have been a calling card of the Washougal boys basketball team in multiple wins of late.

Many of those moments involve junior guard Coleman Multanen.

The latest instance came last Thursday when Multanen drilled a go-ahead, mid-range jumper with 1 minute, 20 seconds left, and the Panthers got a defensive stop to hold on for a 51-50 win over Ridgefield in a 2A Greater St. Helens League game at home.

“I like it,” Multanen said of having the ball in the clutch. “The play got blown up, (but) it was open so I shot it.”

Multanen, who finished with 26 points, played a similar role in the teams’ first meeting of the season on Jan. 7 when he picked off a Ridgefield pass and raced for a game-winning layup as time expired to stun the Spudders.

“It’s great, because the first win, it was like, all right, we beat them on the road then we come see them at home, let’s get the second one,” Multanen said. “We won by two points in the first one, so we knew it was gonna be a battle.”

The Panthers rallied back from 10 points down in the third quarter with a strong defensive turnaround that carried through to the end.

The Spudders missed two free throws with 28 seconds left, but grabbed an offensive rebound and called three separate timeouts to set up a final look, a close-range shot that fell off the mark as time expired.

“Coach (AJ Labree) was just talking about … everything starts at (defense),” senior Royce Jones said. “As soon as we started getting stops and fastbreaks, that’s when we started getting up and that sealed the game right there.”

Jones, a standout running back and cornerback on Washougal’s football team last fall that captured a league title, got the defensive assignment on Ridgefield senior Jamison McCann, one of the area’s top scorers.

“It’s different than a normal man,” Jones said. “It’s fun, but it’s kind of like football … man-to-man coverage. So it’s kind of back to my roots.”

McCann scored a team-high 17 points, 11 coming in the first half as the Spudders built a 28-20 halftime lead.

But Jones and the Panthers tightened up during a decisive third quarter, which ended on a 10-0 run in the final 2:30, all coming from Jones and Multanen.

Multanen converted a three-point play to give Washougal a 41-39 lead entering the fourth. Dylan Gibson added 14 points for the Panthers.

After Tyler Thompson scored on a layup to give Ridgefield a 50-47 lead, the Panthers held the Spudders scoreless over the final 2:47.

That included the final possession when the Panthers and their home crowd held their breaths until seeing the shot bounce off the rim.

“I was hoping no foul, that’s what I was thinking,” Multanen said.

Though both teams had already clinched spots in the District 4 playoffs entering Thursday, the win moved Washougal (10-7, 7-5) into sole possession of fourth place in the 2A GSHL.

Ridgefield (10-8, 6-6) trails the Panthers by one game with two regular-season games left, after losing four of five games.

If current positions hold, Washougal would earn a top-four finish in the 2A GSHL for the first time since the 2019-20 season.

“Big win,” Multanen said. “We’ve been coming off a little rough stretch with some losses, go (we’re) just getting back in the win column.”