While Dayton struggled to put the ball in the hole in the first half, the Hawks when a three point shooting frenzy. Senior post Andrew Batiuk opened the second quarter with a straight away three, then later sophomore Wyatt Houston fired away from the wing and Horizon Christian had built a double digit lead at 21-8.
The run extended to 13-1 when Batiuk knocked a long range two point shot to boost the score to 23-9. But the run came to an end when Dayton senior Travis Bernards hit a three to trim the lead to 11. But the Hawks answered the call and kept the edge to halftime.
Late in the second quarter, reserve guard Forrest Garcia spotted up on the left wing, wide open, and drilled the three pointer, which seemingly would give the Pirates a lift headed to the locker room down just 12. But Tebbutt wasn't about to let that happen, driving the other way with time winding down and shooting the ball up and in as the horn sounded for the close of the first half, with the Hawks leading by 15 at 32-17.
When the third quarter started, so did the Pirates. Dayton used an 10-0 run to start the second half to pull with in nine points at 34-25. But that was a close as they would get, as moments later, Batiuk dropped in another three to put Horizon Christian back up by double digits to stay. He finished with nine points for the Hawks.
The lead swelled to 19 points early in the fourth quarter when Houston dropped in three of his 13 points to go along with five rebound, and the Hawks leading 47-28 on the scoreboard. Then, as if the Hawk Nation wasn't already having a good time, Tebbutt gave them a reason to celebrate more when he got loose on a Horizon Christian fast break, as called by David Walker on the OSAA Radio Network.
"Bringing down the House, Jordan Tebbutt with the jam".
That made it 49-30 Hawks, but Dayton would close the gap a bit as Travis Bernards and junior AJ Hedgecock started knocking down three point shots. It wasn't enough, though, to make a serious dent in Horizon Christian's plans of repeating. Which is exactly what the Hawks closing out the Pirates for third win in four meetings this season. It's also the fifth win in eight meetings between the two schools in the last two years. Just like in 2010, the Hawks win the 3A State Championship with Dayton as the opponent.
Tebbutt, was named the MVP of the tournament, and the Hawks, not only take the State Championship trophy back to their Tualatin campus at Horizon Community Church, but will also add the Best Sportsmanship trophy to its mantle as well.
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Jonathan Smith has covered Oregon high school sports as both a radio play-by-play announcer and sideline reporter since 1994 both in the Eugene and Portland markets. He received his formal training in broadcasting from Lane Community College in Eugene and the Art Institute of Seattle majoring in video production. Besides spending 10 years in radio, Jonathan has interned in at KVAL-TV in Eugene, and worked briefly at Fox Sports Northwest. He is proud to continue covering Oregon high school athletics for the La Salle Falcons and Horizon Christian Hawks on Examiner.com.
