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10A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4, 2017 CONTACT US FOLLOW US facebook.com/ DailyAstorianSports Gary Henley | Sports Reporter ghenley@dailyastorian.com Titans outlast Lady Fishermen in OT By GARY HENLEY The Daily Astorian The Astoria Lady Fishermen are not backing down from the big non- league competition, as they prepare for the upcoming Cowapa League season. Astoria was outsized and outnum- bered against the visiting Union Titans of Camas, Wash., but the big Wash- ington school was lucky to leave with a win, in Astoria’s first game of the new year Tuesday night at the Brick House. The Titans connected on some long-range 3-pointers late in the game, as Union rallied in regulation play, then won in overtime, 54-47. Union freshman Alexis Raymore scored 10 points off the bench in the fourth quarter and overtime, while the Lady Fishermen lost a couple key players to fouls in the final three min- utes of regulation, then simply ran out of steam in the overtime session. “That was the best second half we’ve played all year,” said Astoria coach Mike Jacobson, whose team ral- lied from a large first half deficit. “But going into the overtime, we talked about having to keep the intensity up, and we didn’t. We just let up. We got back into it, and the kids were playing hard and doing some good things, but we just had too many turnovers in the overtime, and that killed us.” Union is a Washington 4A school, equivalent to a 6A Oregon school. Astoria trailed 15-4 midway through the first quarter, but the Titans quickly ran into foul trouble, and fin- ished the first period with eight team fouls. Alexis Wallace and Sam Hems- ley combined to make six straight free throws, helping Astoria rally to within 15-12, before Union scored a couple of baskets off turnovers late in the first half for a 23-16 halftime lead. But as they have all season, the Lady Fish picked up the intensity in the second half, as Wallace scored on a layup to spark a 9-2 run to start the third quarter. A 3-pointer from Wallace followed by a Titan turnover and a score for Astoria’s Brooklynn Hankwitz pulled the Fishermen into a 25-25 tie. Four more points for Wallace over the next five minutes, and Astoria had its first lead at 31-29 in the opening seconds of the fourth quarter. And a wild fourth period featured three ties and five lead changes, high- lighted by a three-point play from Hankwitz at the 5:50 mark that gave the Lady Fish a 34-33 lead; and two free throws from Wallace had Astoria in front with its largest lead at 38-34 with 2:52 left, before Union answered with a short jumper by Marina Morn- ingstar and a 3-point bomb from 6-foot-3 junior Courtney Cranston that gave the Titans a 39-38 lead with 2:05 remaining. Hemsley responded with a trey of her own to give Astoria a 41-39 advantage at the 1:50 mark, and Rylee DeMander scored on a drive to make it 43-39 with 1:22 left. But Raymore scored her first points of the night on a clutch 3-pointer with 1:06 remaining, and the Titans added a free throw with 20 seconds left for a 43-43 tie. Union had a final shot in regulation that missed, and the teams headed to overtime. Astoria had to play the final period without Hankwitz and Gracie Cum- mings, who both fouled out in the final SPORTS IN BRIEF SCOREBOARD PREP SCHEDULE Warriors fall to first-place Eagles The Daily Astorian PORTLAND — Last place almost knocked off first place Tuesday night, in a Lewis & Clark League boys basketball game. No. 8-ranked Catlin Gabel — undefeated in league play — was hosting Warrenton, and the War- riors almost scored the upset of the night in 3A basketball, before the Eagles were able to close out a 46-40 win. “We cut it to two late, but that’s as close as we got,” said Warrenton coach Nate McBride. “We strug- gled from the field a little, and just couldn’t make up the difference.” The Warriors finished 6-of-25 from the 3-point line, where they have struggled of late. On the other hand, they held Catlin Gabel’s Jacob Adler to just four points. “He’s been all-league the last two years, and he’s averaging over 20 points a game the last three years,” McBride said. “But Tyler (Whitaker) shut him down tonight, and that was big.” Christian Holt scored 17 points to lead the Warriors, with Whitaker adding 13. Takalo scores 27 in Knappa win The Daily Astorian KNAPPA — Dale Takalo scored 24 of his 27 points in the first half, and the Knappa Loggers cruised to another easy win over Neah-Kah-Nie Tuesday, 69-36, in Northwest League boys basketball action. The Loggers built a 39-20 half- time lead, as Knappa’s defense harassed the Pirates all night and finished with 18 steals. Colton Weirup and Eli Takalo added nine points apiece, while Jason Miller tossed in four points with eight rebounds, five assists and five steals. Max Halverson had 17 points to lead Neah-Kah-Nie. It was the first of four games in five days for Knappa, which returns to action today at Vernonia. Logger girls steal one from Pirates The Daily Astorian KNAPPA — The Knappa Lady Loggers spent the night taking the ball away from Neah-Kah-Nie, and converting their steals into points in a 40-23 win over the Pirates. Kaitlyn Landwehr had 17 points, nine rebounds and four steals to lead Knappa to the North- west League girls basketball win, helping the first-place Loggers improve to 3-0 in league play. Devin Vandergriff added seven points and two steals for Knappa, which led 32-22 after three quar- ters, then outscored the Pirates 8-1 in the final period. Paris Vanderburg chipped in six points, and Madelynn Weaver added five points and five steals for the Loggers. 2:55 of regulation. And that didn’t help the Fisher- men, who found themselves trailing 48-43 with two minutes left in the OT, following another 3-pointer from Raymore. The sparkplug freshman guard also made four straight free throws in the final 59 seconds, while Astoria fin- ished the overtime just 2-of-9 from the field, with four turnovers. Wallace led all scorers with 19 points, while Hemsley, Hankwitz and Anna Gimre scored seven apiece for Astoria. Cranston had 14 for Union. “They’re a good team,” Jacobson said of the Titans. “They were big, and they only outrebounded us by six for the game. “I was happy with our effort until we got to the overtime. Overall it was a good game. We just have to learn from it.” AP Photo/Scott Eklund Seattle Seahawks defensive end Cliff Avril has experienced the lows of an 0-16 season in Detroit and the highs of a Super Bowl title in Seattle. Coming off the best regular season of his career, Avril’s past and present clash this week with the Seahawks hosting the Lions in the NFC playoffs. Seahawks’ Avril to face former team Saturday By TIM BOOTH Associated Press R ENTON, Wash. — At this point, enough time has passed and enough turnover has taken place that most of the play- ers Cliff Avril knew in Detroit have moved on. That part of Avril’s career seems a lifetime ago. Back when he was on the other end of the spectrum from what he’s experienced in Seattle, going to the playoffs in each of his four seasons since land- ing with the Seahawks. “A lot of guys are spoiled here,” Avril said. “A lot of these guys have been every year they’ve been in the league. You may take it for granted from time to time. But I’ve been at the very bottom where you have no chance. You’re probably packed up and gone home already at this point. So I definitely appre- ciate it for sure.” Avril’s past and present will clash this week when the Sea- hawks host the Lions in the wild- card round of the NFC playoffs. It’s another chapter in a career during which Avril has experienced the lowest of lows — a 0-16 season as a rookie in 2008 with the Lions — and the ultimate success of win- ning a Super Bowl title in his first UP NEXT: SEAHAWKS • Detroit Lions (9-7) at Seattle Seahawks (10-5-1) • Saturday, 5:15 p.m. TV: NBC year after signing with the Sea- hawks in 2013. This meeting with his former team comes after the best regu- lar season of Avril’s career. He fin- ished with a career-best 11 ½ sacks, tied for sixth best in the NFL. He was selected for the Pro Bowl for the first time. He also discovered his philanthropic side. It’s been a year of growth for Avril that now gets connected to his past. “Detroit was a cool city to be in. I have nothing but love for the peo- ple of Detroit,” Avril said Tuesday. “But football-wise we were just never able to win anything. But I had a great (defensive) line coach and I attribute a lot of the stuff I’m doing to him, helping me get the foundation of being able to rush and understanding how to rush.” Since arriving in Seattle, Avril has steadily seen his play time, production and impact increase. During the 2015 season, Avril set a career high with 47 tackles in the regular season. This season it was the increase in sacks, teaming with Michael Bennett and Frank Clark as the Seahawks tied with Denver for the third-best pass rush in the NFL with 42 sacks. “I wish I had his speed,” Ben- nett said. “He’s super-fast. I wish I could do the things he could do around the edge and that’s pretty cool.” The philanthropic part of Avril’s career season came with the deci- sion to build a house in Haiti for every sack he made in the wake of Hurricane Matthew, which blew through the island country in the early fall. Avril, whose family is of Haitian decent, had previously given back by helping to rebuild an elementary school through his charity. He added the housing proj- ect — roughly $6,000 to $6,500 per house — after being contacted by Baltimore’s Elvis Dumer- vil, another player with Haitian heritage. “They’re mostly built and made to be able to be shelter for a hur- ricane, and earthquakes as well,” Avril said. “The process of build- ing it actually is local workers and basically kind of stimulates the economy a little bit as well, by doing it that way. ... It’s a pretty cool little process. I can’t wait to go out there next offseason to see the progression.” Little tosses in 19, Warriors beat Catlin The Daily Astorian PORTLAND — The Warren- ton girls basketball team has already equaled last year’s win total in league play, following a 60-38 win for the Lady Warriors, Tuesday night at Cat- lin Gabel. Just 2-14 in the Lewis & Clark League last season, Warrenton improved to 2-2 this year with its vic- tory over the Eagles. After a close first quarter, the War- riors outscored Cat- lin Gabel 16-4 in the second. Warrenton coach Robert Hoepfl called Tyla Little it his team’s best offensive effort of the season, while the defense blocked seven shots. The Warriors’ Tyla Little poured in 19 points to lead all scorers, followed by Katelynn Blodgett with nine, and Rachel Dyer and Landree Miethe with eight points apiece. “The starters played real solid defense, and along with Tyla we exe- cuted real well and ran everything we wanted to offensively,” Hoepfl said. “Rachel Dyer hit a couple big shots for us, and (Fernanda) Alvarez and Sagi Diego combined for another 10 to 15 rebounds.” The Warriors made six 3-pointers. TODAY Girls Basketball — Knappa at Verno- nia, 6 p.m. Boys Basketball — Knappa at Verno- nia, 7:45 p.m. THURSDAY Girls Basketball — Newport at Sea- side, 6 p.m.; Warrenton at OES, 7:30 p.m.; Perrydale at Jewell, 5:30 p.m.; NW Christian at Ilwaco, 7 p.m. Boys Basketball — Newport at Sea- side, 7:45 p.m.; Warrenton at OES, 6 p.m.; Perrydale at Jewell, 7 p.m.; NW Christian at Ilwaco, 7 p.m. Swimming — Tillamook at Astoria, 4 p.m.; Gladstone at Seaside, 4 p.m. FRIDAY Girls Basketball — Astoria at Corbett, 7 p.m.; Knappa at Faith Bible, 6 p.m.; Il- waco at South Bend, 7 p.m. Boys Basketball — Corbett at Asto- ria, 7 p.m.; Knappa at Faith Bible, 8 p.m. Wrestling — Seaside Pac Rim Invita- tional, 4 p.m. SATURDAY Girls Basketball — Riverdale at War- renton, 5:30 p.m.; Knappa at Regis, 4 p.m. Boys Basketball — Riverdale at War- renton, 4 p.m.; Knappa at Regis, 5:45 p.m.; South Bend at Ilwaco, 7 p.m. Swimming — Seaside at The Dalles Invitational, 10 a.m. Wrestling — Seaside Pac Rim Invita- tional, 10 a.m. GIRLS BASKETBALL Union 54, Astoria 47 UNI (54): Courtney Cranston 14, Ray- more 10, Barney 9, Takayoshi 8, Lewis 7, Gladkov 2. AST (47): Alexis Wallace 19, Hemsley 7, Hankwitz 7, Gimre 7, Cummings 3, Dalton 2, DeMander 2, Rogers, Burnett, O’Brien. Union 15 8 6 14 11—54 Astoria 10 6 13 14 4—47 Field goals: Union 20-52; Astoria 13-37. 3-Point goals: Union 4-13 (Ray- more 2, Lewis, Cranston); Astoria 2-12 (Hemsley, Wallace). Free throws: Union 10-16; Astoria 11-17. Fouls: Union 21, Astoria 18. Turnovers: Union 23, Asto- ria 28. Warrenton 60, Catlin Gabel 38 WAR (60): Tyla Little 19, K.Blodgett 9, Dyer 8, Miethe 8, Bussert 6, Alvarez 6, Morrill 2, Diego 2, M.Blodgett, Heyen. CG (38): Sophie Adler 15, McGautha 13, Stevens 6, Sneed 2, Mahmoud 2. Warrenton 13 16 15 16—60 Catlin Gabel 11 4 13 10—38 Knappa 40, Neah-Kah-Nie 23 NKN (23): Maddie Lambert 16, Clifford 2, Ramirez 2, Longmire 2, Woodward 1. KNA (40): Kaitlyn Landwehr 17, Van- dergriff 7, Vanderburg 6, Weaver 5, Mill- er 3, Inman 2, Carlson, Taggart, Tischer, Strain. Neah-Kah-Nie 5 9 8 1—23 Knappa 11 11 10 8—40 BOYS BASKETBALL Catlin Gabel 46, Warrenton 40 WAR (40): Christian Holt 17, Whitaker 13, Knight 8, Fisher 2, Fowler, Kapua, Jackson, Alcobendas. CG (46): Jake Girard 14, Agapiev 9, Williamson 6, Hoffman 5, Adler 4, Dean 4, Park 2, Nallakrishnan 2. Warrenton 8 4 14 14—40 Catlin Gabel 12 7 17 10—46 Knappa 69, Neah-Kah-Nie 36 NKN (36): Leading scorer: Max Halv- erson 17. KNA (69): Dale Takalo 27, Weirup 9, E.Takalo 9, Rubus 6, J.Miller 4, Engb- lom 4, K.Miller 4, Geisler 2, Eltagonde 2, Ramvick 1, Vanderburg 1. Neah-Kah-Nie 13 7 6 10—36 Knappa 24 15 14 16—69