7A
Friday, October 18, 2019
The Observer
Tigers lock up
GOL title again
By Gerry Steele
EO Media Group
Ronald Bond/The Observer
Jamal Heckard, left, is one of nine newcomers for the Eastern Oregon men’s basketball team, while Max McCullough,
right, is back after missing last season with ankle surgery.
New-look EOU ready to run
By Ronald Bond
The Observer
Eastern Oregon men’s basketball
head coach Carlito Labarda Jr. set out
to add players to the roster this fall who
have a team-fi rst mentality.
And as the 2019-20 season approach-
es, the third-year head coach likes what
he is seeing from his squad, one that
features nine new players.
“I’m happy to say all of them are
team driven,” Labarda said. “I really
couldn’t say that about last year’s team,
to be honest. These guys just want to
win, they have great attitudes (and)
they’re very, very, very coachable. I
haven’t had any problems with them.
They like each other, and I don’t think
anyone has any hidden agendas.”
Labarda said he went through a
much more thorough vetting process in
looking to add players to come along-
side the eight returners he does have
from last year’s team that fi nished
15-15, lost two seniors and had four
additional players elect to not return.
The list includes players like Jamal
Heckard, who Labarda said showed at
the junior college level the capability to
score 20-plus points a game, but later
took a role on a different team scoring
fewer points in order to win.
“He doesn’t care about scoring. All he
cares about is winning,” Labarda said.
“You could say that for Josh Brown,
David Mixon, Preston Chandler (and)
all these guys who are coming in.”
Brown’s answer to the question of his
individuals goals for the season, in fact,
give a picture into the type of players
Labarda added.
“Be a part of a 20-plus win team,”
Brown said.
The Mountaineers return two of their
top three scorers from a year ago in
7-foot center Jarek Schetzle and fellow
senior Landon Jones, who averaged 12
and 11.7 points per game a year ago, re-
spectively. The two were also EOU’s top
rebounders, combining for 13.9 boards
per contest.
Schetzle said the coach is trying to
bring in “winners,” and the senior is
EOU women’s XC
returns to top 25
Observer staff
Ronald Bond/The Observer
EOU works on its defensive stance during practice on Wednesday.
excited about who has been added.
“It’s people who want to come to prac-
tice every day and work hard,” he said.
“Just looking for people who want to
win, not people who just want to come
and play basketball.”
Having a 7-footer in the middle like
Schetzle and a sharpshooter like Max
McCullough, a career 41% 3-point
shooter, were part of the draw for
Brown to join EOU.
“Looked him up (and saw) that he
was a high quality basketball player,”
Brown said of McCullough. “That inter-
ested me because obviously I’m trying
to make him better, and he’s for sure
going to make me better.”
EOU did lose leading scorer Jordan
May, who transferred, but does have
back its leading scorer from two years
ago in McCullough. The guard, who
averaged 22.2 points per game in 2017-
18, missed all of last year after having
surgery on both ankles.
“It’s been a long process, and even
the beginning of the season it’s taken a
little bit to get back into, but every day,
it’s getting stronger. I’m seeing prog-
ress,” the redshirt junior said.
He’ll need to be ready, too, as Labarda
plans to emphasize speed and free-
fl owing basketball on the offensive end
this season, which he says he can do
given the basketball IQ of the players
on the team.
“I got a good mixture of shooters, ath-
leticism, speed, quickness, slashers, and
I got the big guy, who is going to play a
big part,” Labarda said.
The team, Labarda said, will look to
get out and go in the fast break, and
even push the pace off made baskets.
And offensively, he’s going to allow the
team to create more, and aim to call
fewer set plays.
“I’m going to let them loose a little,
because I think they can coach them-
selves. What I mean by that is they
know what a good shot is and what a
bad shot is,” Labarda said.
Schetzle will be a key piece even with
the speed emphasis, as the center said
he’s much more fi t this fall.
“We want to be really fast. (We’re) con-
ditioning a lot now. We’re trying to get
up and down the court as quickly as we
can and not have to set up a play every
(time), and keep the game going.”
Brown said the inside game with
Schetzle, in fact, could be one of the
team’s biggest strengths.
“We have a 7-footer at the end of the
day. Nobody else is honing that type of
Mountaineers sweep Yotes
Observer staff
The No. 5 Eastern Oregon
Mountaineers rallied to win
the fi rst set, and rode the mo-
mentum to a sweep of No. 23
College of Idaho on the road
Thursday, 25-23, 25-19, 25-18.
EOU was staring at a fi rst-
set loss when a block by C of
I’s Jade Warren put the Yotes
ahead 23-21. The Mountain-
eers pulled even and took the
lead after three straight C of
I errors, and took the set on a
block by Taylor Tibbetts and
Jet Taylor.
A 4-1 mini run put East-
ern up 18-14 in the second
The La Grande Tigers
defended their Greater
Oregon League volleyball
title Thursday by defeating
Baker 25-16, 25-16, 25-20 in
the Baker gym.
The Tigers stand 5-0 in
league play, and Baker, 3-2,
is in second place.
La Grande had little
trouble with the Bulldogs,
unlike when Baker visited
La Grande earlier in the
season. In that match, La
Grande topped Baker 3-1.
“When they came to our
place we didn’t start out
strong,” said La Grande
coach Melinda Becker-
Bisenius. “Since then we’ve
worked a lot to speed up our
offense and tried to fi nd the
holes in their defense.”
The La Grande coach also
noted that her team missed
just one serve Thursday.
In the fi rst set, La
Grande broke a 4-4 tie
behind the serving of
Jayce Seavert to take an
8-5 edge.
La Grande then contin-
ued to add to the margin
the rest of the game.
Set 2 was much the same
with La Grande pulling
away from a 4-4 tie and
expanding its lead.
Set 3 was much closer as
the teams played through
nine ties before Baker took
a 3-point lead.
La Grande stayed in
range, fi nally catching the
Bulldogs with Presley Jus-
tice serving.
When Justice got the
serve Baker was leading
20-19. Justice then served
the fi nal six points for the
match.
Seavert led the Tigers
in the win with 16 kills, 15
blocks and added three digs.
Kenzie Williams added 15
assists and three blocks,
Jacie Howton had 12 as-
sists and Felicity Houston
grabbed 12 digs. Grace
Neer added four blocks and
Justice had seven kills.
La Grande (18-5 overall,
5-0 GOL) ends its regular
season Tuesday in Ontario.
set on an ace by Kaci Cox,
and a 5-0 run that featured
two Aspen Christiansen aces
and two of Megan Bunn’s 11
kills made it 24-17. Cambree
Scott, who also had 11 kills,
fi nished the set with a kill
for a 2-0 lead.
A 6-2 run in the third —
one started by a Tibbetts
kill and ended with a Bunn
kill — gave Eastern the
lead for good at 13-10. The
lead reached six on three
occasions before Taylor and
Madison Pilon capped the
match with a block.
Bunn and Scott, in addition
to leading the team in kills,
each added four block assists.
Taylor added seven kills and
six block assists, and both
Tibbetts and Breanna Shaf-
fer had six kills. Three players
— Kiley McMurtrey (16),
Bunn (11) and Christiansen
(10) reached double fi gures
in digs, and Pilon recorded 38
assists. Eastern posted a .263
attack percentage — its third
best of the season.
The Mountaineers (22-1
overall, 12-1 CCC) who
maintained the top spot in
the CCC with the win, host
Walla Walla Saturday.
See Hoops / Page 8A
EOU hosts camp
The “Mountie Made:
Kids Camp” for
volleyball takes place
Saturday at Quinn
Coliseum.
The camp, for boys and
girls ages 5-12, takes
place from 10 a.m. to
noon, and costs $20.
Participants will get to
learn the fundamentals
of the game and meet
the members of the fi fth-
ranked EOU volleyball
team. They will also get a
T-shirt and a ticket to the
Mountaineers’ match
against Walla Walla that
night.
For the fi rst time in
seven years, the Eastern
Oregon women’s cross
country team is ranked.
The Mountaineers, who
have been on the cusp of
breaking into the top 25
in the coaches’ poll, did so
Thursday, climbing to No.
23 in the nation.
Eastern, which had 169
points in the poll, is ranked
for the fi rst time since
2012. That season EOU
moved into the ranks for
the fi rst time late in the
year — coincidentally, also
on Oct. 17 — at No. 21, and
reached as high as 11th
before wrapping the season
in 13th.
The Mountaineers are
one of four Cascade Col-
legiate Conference teams
in the poll, along with No.
3 College of Idaho, No. 10
Oregon Tech, and No. 11
Southern Oregon.
The EOU men, mean-
while, maintained their
spot in the top 20, though
they slipped one position
to No. 19 in the latest poll
Thursday, trading spots
in the poll with Montreat,
North Carolina.
The CCC continues to
have three teams in the
poll on the men’s side, with
College of Idaho holding
at second and Southern
Oregon dropping two spots
to eighth.
The Eastern Oregon
women’s soccer team
dropped out of the top 10
following its fi rst loss of the
season, slipping fi ve spots
to No. 11 in the latest poll
on Wednesday.
Eastern’s 3-1 setback on
the road at Oregon Tech
Friday ended a nine-match
unbeaten streak to open
the season. But the Moun-
taineers rebounded for a
1-0 win at Southern Oregon
to prevent a further slide.
The Mountaineers,
despite currently being
third in the CCC, are the
only conference team in the
top 25.
Wallowa County
takes first, third
Observer staff
Ellyse Tingelstad fell
short in a race to the fi n-
ish line but took second
overall and led the Wallowa
County girls cross country
team to a victory at the
Kyle Burnside Wildhorse
Invitational Thursday in
Pendleton.
Tingelstad turned in a
time of 19:39.9, just 0.6
seconds behind Baker’s
Sydney Keller, who won
the race. La Grande’s Jacki
Martini followed in third in
19:47.2, and Union/Cove’s
Jaimee Baxter placed
fourth in 19:54.4.
Wallowa County fi nished
with 88 points and edged
The Dalles, which followed
with 94.
Union/Cove (140) was
sixth, and La Grande (159)
placed seventh.
Wallowa County had two
other runners in the top
20, with Kyla Hook placing
12th (21:02.9), and Mary
Catherine Matthews in
16th (21:15.4).
Baxter was the only
Bobcat runner in the top
30, though two fi nished to-
gether in 36th and 37th as
Kaitlin Martens (22:11.1)
edged out Danielle O’Reilly
(22:12.2).
Corbyn Sexton (21:24.2)
and Maia Vandervlugt
(21:27.0) followed Martini
in 20th and 21st for La
Grande.
Elgin’s two runners, Joc-
elyn Palmer (21:59.4) and
Anika McDonald (22:00.9)
fi nished in 30th and 31st.
For the Wallowa County
boys, Henry Coughlan
broke the 16-minute mark,
See Harriers / Page 8A