Appeal Tribune
❚ WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2018 ❚ 1B
Sports
HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS BASKETBALL
Kennedy clinches Tri-River title
Left: Kennedy's Kaylin Cantu drives the lane against Regis on Jan. 31. Right: Kennedy's Hannah Arritola drives the ball against Regis.
PHOTOS BY BILL POEHLER/STATESMAN JOURNAL
Bill Poehler Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
MT. ANGEL – Winning the Tri-River
Conference championship in girls bas-
ketball brings with it an expectation.
The Tri-River champion has been in
the OSAA Class 2A state championship
game every year since 2011 and won five
state titles.
“Who’s next from the Tri-River?”
Kennedy co-head coach Peter Hall said.
“When we get there, I don’t want to be
the Tri-River team that fails. I want to be
the Tri-River team that succeeds.”
Kennedy clinched the Tri-River
championship with a 62-33 home win
Jan. 31 against Regis.
It’s no surprise that the Trojans are
the favorite to win the state title.
Kennedy is 10-0 in the Tri-River, 22-1
overall – the only loss was to 3A Dayton
– and is No. 1 in the OSAA’s power rank-
ings.
“You kind of get it in your head like we
are good and we can do this,” said Ken-
nedy senior Hannah Arritola. “It gives
“You kind of get it in your head like we are good and we can
do this. It gives you more motivation.”
Hannah Arritola,
Kennedy senior, on her team going on to try and win the state championship
you more motivation.”
Ten times since 2007 the Tri-River
Conference champion has been in the
2A state championship game and seven
times in that span the Tri-River champi-
on has won the 2A state championship
including Kennedy, Western Menno-
nite, Regis, Santiam and Salem Acad-
emy. (Tri-River champion Scio lost to
league runner-up Regis in the 2012 state
title game.)
“If you’re one of the top teams in our
league, statistically, you’re going to do
well,” said Regis coach Tony Miller, who
also coached Scio to a Tri-River champi-
onship in 2012 and state runner-up fin-
ishes in 2011 and 2012.
“You’ve been tested.”
The teams in the Tri-River play sig-
nificantly different styles of basketball.
There are teams, like Kennedy, who
full-court press and play up-tempo bas-
ketball. There are teams that play strict-
ly half-court offenses with a focus on
tall post players. And there’s everything
in between.
If a team can win the Tri-River cham-
pionship, they have faced and beaten
every style of the game they might see at
the state tournament.
“It does because you’re ready for ev-
erything,” Kennedy co-head coach Ker-
ry Hall said. “We see a lot of 2-3 zone, we
do see some man. Definitely everything
we see every night does help us for
state.”
When Kennedy last won the Tri-Riv-
er, in 2016, the team won the state
championship.
By clinching the league champion-
ship this season, the Trojans have put a
target on their backs.
“All the teams in the Tri-River, we’ve
always had really good basketball pro-
grams and every night it’s always been a
dogfight and everyone plays really
physical,” said junior post Kalyssa
Kleinschmit.
“You have to show up to play every
game or else they could take it from un-
der you.”
If Kennedy wanted to, the team could
build an offense around the post tan-
dem of Sophia Carley, a 6-foot sopho-
more, and Kleinschmit, and win a lot of
games.
Instead, the team regularly goes deep
onto the bench – 11 players regularly get
playing time – without falling off.
“Their starting five, six girls are
heads and tails above everybody else,
but their next five or six girls are right
here with them,” Miller said.
“They could split into two teams and
both teams could do really well in this
league this year. And that’s impressive.”
There are nights when a different
See TITLE, Page 2B
ATHLETE OF THE WEEK
Silverton’s Gonzales
a force to watch for
Bill Poehler Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
David Gonzales has emerged as an
offensive weapon on Silverton High
School’s boys basketball team. The 5-
foot-10 sophomore wing scored 23
points in Tuesday’s 69-42 win against
South Albany and has helped the Foxes
to a 15-1 record and a No. 1 OSAA’s power
ranking.
Gonzales was voted the athlete of the
week by a poll of readers. He will be the
subject of a future Two-Minute Drill
video and will be honored at the June 4
Mid-Valley Sports Awards at the Salem
Convention Center.
Last week’s nominees:
Andrew DeJager, Crosshill Chris-
tian basketball: The senior wing scored
26 points in Friday’s 60-47 win against
Perrydale and 13 in Wednesday’s 60-55
win against Livingstone Adventist
Academy.
Alexys Zepeda, Gervais wrestling:
The freshman won the 117-pound weight
class at the Oregon Girls High School
Girls Wrestling State Qualifier at Thur-
ston Saturday by recording three tech-
nical falls and two pins, including one in
the championship match.
Emorej Lynk, Kennedy basketball:
The sophomore guard scored 21 points
in Monday’s 57-40 win against St. Paul.
David Gonzales was voted Athlete of the Week by readers. PHOTO BY BILL POEHLER