BAKER BOYS BASKETBALL: Bulldogs roll past Cascade, 66-47, return to state title game
Published 6:19 pm Friday, March 14, 2025
Baker's Grant Gambleton dribbles against Cascade on March 14, 2025. (Lisa Britton/Baker Cityh Herald)
Jaxon Logsdon shoots against Cascade on March 14, 2025. Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald)
Baker's Isaiah Jones in action against Cascade on March 14, 2025. (Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald)
Baker's Palmer Chandler goes to the basket against Cascade on March 14, 2025. (Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald)
Baker's Isaiah Jones scores against Cascade on March 14, 2025. (Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald)
Baker's Isaiah Jones scores against Cascade on March 14, 2025. (Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald)
BakerBaker's Rasean Jones soars for a dunk against Cascade on March 14, 2025. (Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald)
Baker's Isaiah Jones scores against Cascade on March 14, 2025. (Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald)
Cascade owns the regular season but Baker dominates when a state championship is at stake.
For the second straight year, the Baker boys basketball team lost to Cascade in a regular-season game but rolled past the Cougars in a semifinal at the Class 4A state tournament.
In the second installment of this state tournament rivalry, Friday night, March 14, at Forest Grove High School, the Bulldogs scored the first 10 points and led by double digits most of the way en route to a win over the top-seeded Cougars.
Baker, the defending state champion, can make school history Saturday night by becoming the first Bulldog hoops team to win consecutive state titles.
Baker will play Marshfield in the championship game, which tips off at 8:30 p.m. Saturday.
On a night when Cascade’s duo of Kaiden Ford and Landon Knox struggled to get shots to fall — Ford was five for 22, Knox six for 20 — Baker had no such problem, especially from 3-point range.
The Bulldogs made six of 11 from long range in the first half, while Cascade missed all eight of its 3-point tries.
The Cougars made just 17% of their field goal attempts in the first half. Baker shot 44%.
Jaxon Logsdon and Isaiah Jones both scored 20 points. Eli Long scored all 14 of his points in the second half, including a pair of acrobatic layins.
Baker coach Jebron Jones said the Bulldogs have “ultimate respect” for Cascade and for Knox and Ford.
“That’s the best combo we play all year,” Jones said.
Long said Cascade presents a unique challenge with two players who account for a majority of the Cougars’ points.
“We play a completely different defense than we play against every other team,” Long said.
Coach Jones said the Bulldogs’ goal was to prevent Long and Knox from driving into the key, and instead forcing contested jump shots.
“You can’t play normal defense against great players,” he said. “We limited their open looks. They got into the lane a few times but that’s because they’re great players.”
With one more win separating Baker from making school history, Long said the Bulldogs just need to continue playing as a team.
“When we play as a team it’s a completely different game,” he said.
First quarter
Baker couldn’t have scripted a better first five minutes, as the Bulldogs raced to a 10-0 lead. Logsdon and Grant Gambleton each had 3-pointers.
With Logsdon defending Cascade’s dynamic point guard, Knox, and the Cougars’ other star, Ford, missing his first four shots, the Cougars didn’t score until Ford’s two free throws with 1:52 left.
Gambleton made a tough runner against two defenders, and after Ford’s rebound basket off his own miss, Logsdon made two of three free throws after Knox fouled him on a 3-point try.
Knox rattled in a 14-footer from the key just before the buzzer to cut Baker’s lead to 14-6.
Second quarter
Knox’s free throw pulled Cascade within 19-13 with 3:30 left, but Logsdon made two straight 3-pointers in less than a minute to give Baker its biggest lead, 25-13, and prompt a Cascade timeout with 1:51 left in the half.
Isaiah Jones then scored five straight, including a long 3-pointer from the top of the key, and Baker led 30-16.
Ford’s two free throws with 11.6 seconds left made it 30-18 at halftime. Knox and Ford combined to score 17 of the Cougars’ 18 points. Cascade made just 3 of 18 field goals, 17%. The Cougars scored 12 of their 17 points from the free throw line.
Baker, meanwhile, had a more balanced offense. Logsdon led the Bulldogs with 13 points, Isaiah Jones had 10 and Gambleton five. Baker shot 44% from the field, and even better, 55%, from 3-point range, on six for 11.
Cascade missed all eight of its attempts from 3-point range.
Third quarter
Logsdon scored the first four points of the second half, the second on a basket off a designed play following a timeout.
Isaiah Jones hit a 15-footer and Baker had doubled up the Cougars, 36-18.
After Knox made Cascade’s first 3-pointer, Long scored six straight points for Baker, the last on a spinning shot in the lane when he released the ball while facing away from the basket.
Isaiah Jones had an NBA range 3-pointer, and Logsdon another 3-pointer and Baker led 48-32 after three quarters.
Jayson has worked at the Baker City Herald since November 1992, starting as a reporter. He has been editor since December 2007. He graduated from the University of Oregon Journalism School in 1992 with a bachelor's degree in news-editorial journalism.
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