The Redmond-Ridgeview rivalry game, the Hometown Showdown as it is called, has a new layer of intrigue this season.

For one, for the first time in five seasons, both boys basketball teams appear to be on equal footing as evidenced by Tuesday night’s 66-63 home win for the Panthers, during which the Ravens had two shots in the closing seconds to tie the game.

Also, the coaches leading the Redmond and Ridgeview programs have a friendship going back to when they were teenagers that is still strong today.

“We’ve basically known each other our whole lives,” said Redmond coach Reagan Gilbertson. “We are good friends, we still talk to each other all the time. He’s doing a good job with that program.”

Tuesday night was the first time that the teams of the two friends squared off against each other. For Ridgeview coach Maarty Leunen, it was the first time as an opposing coaching back in the gym where he became a Redmond High legend and was an assistant coach before taking the Ridgeview job this season.

“It was awesome for me to be back in the gym,” said Leunen, the former University of Oregon standout whose No. 11 Redmond jersey is retired with a replica displayed on a wall in the Panthers’ gym. “Highly emotional. I played a lot of basketball there.”

Reagan Gilbertson, who has coached at Redmond since 2017, starred for Redmond in the late ’90s, when the Panthers were routinely winning 20 games a season under coach Kelly Bokn.

“I grew up watching Reagan as a middle-schooler going to his games,” Leunen said. “Like the younger generations now idolize the high school players, I idolized Reagan.”

Gilbertson was well aware of the middle school hooper, but back then, he could not have foreseen the type of player Leunen would turn into.

“He didn’t grow yet,” Gilbertson said, recalling the younger Leunen. “I just thought he was a decent-sized guard. And then he grew to his current size.”

The 6-foot-9-inch Leunen led Redmond to the big-school state title in 2003 and a second-place state finish in 2004.

At UO he played on two NCAA tournament teams, including the Duck squad that advanced to the Elite Eight in 2007. He received Pac-10 postseason honors in his junior and senior seasons. Leunen was selected in the second round of the NBA draft by the Houston Rockets. Although he never made an NBA roster, he had a long playing career overseas, mostly in Italy.

Gilbertson, now 42, had graduated by the time Leunen had entered high school, so they never played together on the same team. But the two remained friends and kept in touch throughout the years.

While Leunen was playing overseas, Gilbertson — who played at Eastern Oregon University — was getting into coaching, taking over at Redmond High in 2017.

Leunen, now 38, retired from playing in 2021 and in 2022 he joined Gilbertson’s staff as an assistant coach.

Now the two kids from Redmond are leading the town’s two high school basketball teams.

“It is really fun to see a couple Redmond grads take a lot of pride in their programs,” Gilbertson said.

But there was more to Tuesday night than a reunion of sorts between former Redmond greats who were facing each other for the first time as coaches.

There was an important Intermountain Conference game played as well — and it came down to the final seconds.

Both the Panthers and Ravens are in the midst of a competitive IMC schedule and are battling for one of the three automatic playoff bids. The postseason is still several weeks away, but with standing-room only at the Redmond High gym on Tuesday, it felt like it had already started.

“It was a great high school basketball game with a great atmosphere, and the fans showed up,” Gilbertson said. “This was a lifelong memory for our players.”

Redmond (9-5, 2-2 IMC) escaped with a three-point victory over Ridgeview (8-6, 1-3) in a game that featured two major scoring runs and was tightly contested the whole way.

The Ravens came out swinging early.

Junior Logan Nakamura scored 10 of his 17 points in the first quarter to help Ridgeview build a 18-10 lead in the first eight minutes. The Ravens’ lead swelled to as much as 15 early in the second quarter as junior Brady Muilenburg hit his third 3-pointer of the first half.

“They were shooting the ball well early; we made some defensive adjustments,” Gilbertson said. “That is a good basketball team. We are fortunate that we came out on top.”

Meanwhile, Redmond was having a tough time gaining traction offensively.

It looked as though Ridgeview was going to improve on its 1-10 record against its crosstown rival over the past five seasons.

But then the Panthers began to make their move.

“One of our mottos is to keep pounding the stone,” Gilbertson said. “Because eventually good things will happen. We just had to keep playing.”

Good things eventually began to happen for Redmond, especially when junior point guard Ian Pearson had the ball in his hands.

Pearson had a nine-point scoring run late in the second quarter to shrink Ridgeview’s double-digit lead down to 33-32 going into halftime.

“I just have so much fun playing Ridgeview,” Pearson said. “We want to win so badly and do whatever it takes to beat them. We got down early, we knew we could beat them, we just had to keep battling back. And we did.”

And Pearson — one of the smallest players on the court — did a lot of everything to put the Panthers in position to win the game. He finished with a game-high 31 points, grabbed nine rebounds and dished out seven assists.

“He put us on his shoulders and carried us to victory,” Gilbertson said. “He brings leadership. We know when we have him on the floor that we are going to be OK. He is a true point guard. If he needs to score he can score, if he needs to get people involved, he can get people involved.”

Even with one of Pearson’s best games of the season, 12 points on four made 3s by senior Ryker Altizer and 10 points from sophomore Wyatt Horner, the whole second half was played on a one- or t-o basket margin.

After three quarters, the Ravens carried a 49-48 lead into the final eight minutes. Muilenburg scored eight points in the quarter and led the Ravens with 23 points. But the Ravens got big baskets from Nakamura, Ryan Lee and Gavin Leunen (Maarty’s freshman son) to keep their lead.

“We have some competitors,” Maarty Leunen said. “We might not have the most size and strength. We have guys who are out there competing. We play great team basketball and get everyone involved.”

Well into the fourth quarter the game still hung in the balance. When Parson hit a 3 to beat the shot clock to give Redmond a six-point lead, the Ravens quickly responded with four points from senior guard Zack Asplund (who finished with eight points) and a basket from Nakamura to tie it 62-62 with under two minutes remaining.

But the Ravens only added one more point the rest of the game.

Clinging to a two-point lead with under 40 seconds left, Pearson drained a deep 2-pointer from the top of the key to give the Panthers a four-point lead they would not relinquish.

“Unfortunately we didn’t make the plays down the stretch,” Leunen said. “We’ve got to clean up some of those fine details that determine if you win or lose in those clutch moments of the game.”

The Ravens will wrap up the first round of IMC play Friday night at home against Mountain View, while Redmond will travel to face Bend.