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About The Observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1968-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 18, 2019)
7A Wednesday, December 18, 2019 The Observer Williams inks spot with BMCC By Ronald Bond The Observer LA GRANDE — Kenzie Wil- liams has been an important, versatile piece of the La Grande volleyball team during her career. Blue Mountain Community College noticed that and offered the senior a position with its vol- leyball program. Williams signed her offi cial letter of intent at a ceremony Thursday. “I’m super proud of her,” LHS head coach Melinda Becker- Bisenius said. “It’s always exciting when your athletes decide to go on and play at the next level. Kenzie has put a lot of time and energy into volleyball. I’m really excited for her. I’m also excited for her mom (Cindy Williams) — she’s done a lot of stuff to help Kenzie get there. I think it’s a great thing.” The senior has shown an abil- ity to do a little bit of everything on the volleyball court, as she has played as a setter and an attacker, been a solid defender and a stronger server. In six Greater Oregon League matches this season, she had 62 assists, 26 kills and 40 digs and was a perfect 100% from the service line while playing a variety of positions — mainly setter and right side hitter. “When I was (at BMCC) prac- ticing I did work on all positions — digging, hitting, setting, and I think I can do well in all those, but obviously I can learn,” Wil- liams said, adding she believes she’ll be primarily setting for BMCC, “but we’ll see when the season starts.” Williams got in contact with the Timberwolves shortly after the Tigers’ season ended. She worked Tigers struggle, lose to Nyssa By Ronald Bond The Observer LA GRANDE — First- half turnovers, second-half shooting struggles and a lack of energy hurt La Grande Tuesday night. The Tigers scored just 11 points in the second half, one that saw them shoot just 17%, as they lost a halftime lead in a 50-35 home setback against the Nyssa Bulldogs. “The thing that jumped out to me was shot selection — one pass in and fi re isn’t the most productive,” head coach Mark Carollo said. “(And we had) 20-plus turn- overs. We didn’t have a lot of fi ght in us tonight. I thought we had one good quarter.” La Grande scored on its fi rst possession in the third quarter on a Justin Jenner layup to take a 26-20 lead, matching its largest advan- tage of the game. It was all Nyssa from there. Pedro Chaves tied the score with a pull-up 3-point- er then followed with a layup to put the Bulldogs ahead, 28-26, and a 3 later by Leonardo Barba gave Nyssa a 33-28 lead and capped a 13-2 run. Cristian Mendoza’s jumper pulled the Tigers within 33-31 late in the third, but Nyssa ran away from there, fi nish- ing the game on a 17-4 run and holding La Grande to just one fi eld goal — a Mendoza jumper — in the fourth. The team lost energy after halftime, and Carollo said seeing the Bulldogs’ run in the second half had an impact. “I’m still trying to fi gure these guys out a little bit. We have a tendency to have a couple plays not go our way and then get down on ourselves. In basketball you gotta have a mindset that ‘that play happened,’ and you gotta move on from it,” he said. “You could see body language down a little bit (when Nyssa rallied). You could see our demeanor sink into the chair instead of having a little fi ght back and want to go after it.” LA GRANDE — The East- ern Oregon University men’s wrestling team went 2-1 Sunday at the CCC/GPAC duals in Prescott, Arizona. The Mountaineers dropped a close 22-20 dual to Southeastern (Florida) but defeated Arizona Christian, 27-10, and Morningside (Iowa), 27-25. In the dual against South- eastern, the Mountaineers dropped six of the 10 match- NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE Brees breaks all- time TD passing record in win By Brett Martel The Associated Press Staff photo by Ronald Bond La Grande’s Justin Jenner puts in a reverse layup during the third quarter Tuesday against Nyssa. The Tigers lost to the Bulldogs, 50-35. PREP BOYS BASKETBALL The Tigers also settled for several 3-pointers in the second half and went 0-for- 14 from deep. They had been 4-for-10 in the fi rst half. The inconsistency is something Carollo said the team is struggling with in the early stages of the season. “There are signs that we can be competitive and play well, and then there are quarters or a couple minutes within each quarter that we have these big lapses. It’s really hard to come back from some of those lapses,” he said. “We’re still work- ing on working out some of these kinks. It’s still a fairly young team as far as varsity experience. We’re just trying to build some confi dence into the kids. They’re good play- ers, they’re good shooters. We just gotta make sure we are doing things the right way.” La Grande scored the game’s fi rst six points and the fi nal fi ve of the fi rst quarter to take a 14-9 lead on Mendoza’s 3-pointer. The Tigers led despite commit- ting nine fi rst-quarter turn- overs, largely due to shooting 63% in the fi rst. Consecutive 3s by Devin Bell gave La Grande a 17-11 and then a 20-14 lead in the second. Nick DuVernay’s late layup pushed the lead to six again before the Tigers took a 24-20 lead into the locker room. La Grande struggled from the fl oor overall, shooting just 27%. Kaleb Myer was the leading scorer with 10 points, and both Mendoza and Bell added seven. The area in which the Tigers were most effective was on the glass, owning a sizable 36-20 rebounding margin, with Zach Wiggins grabbing eight and both Myer and Mason Mellinger collecting six. Barba and Chaves had 18 points apiece to lead Nyssa. La Grande (1-3 overall) faces Skyview, Idaho, Thurs- day at the Today’s Dentistry Elite Eight in Nampa. Mountaineers win two at CCC/GPAC Observer staff Staff photo by Ronald Bond La Grande volleyball player Kenzie Williams, center, signs her letter of intent Thursday to play with Blue Mountain Community College. Williams See Williams / Page 8A is fl anked by her parents, Clint and Cindy. es, but half of their wins came by fall to keep EOU close. Blake McNall (141 pounds) scored a pin against Jaquan English, and Ryan Redford took down Jesse Pryor at 197 pounds. EOU also earned wins from Josh Pine (165), in a 15-0 technical fall, and Keegan Mulhill (174), who earned a 6-0 decision. In the win against Arizona Christian, Eastern Oregon took seven of the 10 matches and won at each weight from 157 pounds and up. Pine earned a pin at 165 against Collin Nicholson, and Marco Retano (184) scored a 20-0 technical fall. Mulhill added a 16-3 major decision at 174, and Monte Zufelt (2-0 decision at 133), John Bittinger (7-5 decision at 157), Redford (6-4 decision at 197) and Cade Woodword (4-2 sudden victory at 285) added victories. In the fi nal dual against Morningside, Pine and Retano pinned Alexander Thompson and Tucker Bassinger, respectively. Mul- hill had a 16-0 technical fall, and McNall posted a 16-8 major decision. Eastern also had six wres- tlers — three unattached — compete over the weekend at the Reno Tournament of Champions, but all six went two-and-out. The Mountaineers are next in action Jan. 11 at home against Big Bend Community College. NEW ORLEANS — Drew Brees trotted along the sideline holding his helmet and a Hall of Fame- bound ball in his left hand while using his right hand to wave and blow kisses to an adoring Superdome crowd. Another milestone, another memory, for an undersized and once underestimated player who has broken just about every signifi cant record a quar- terback can break — and doesn’t look anywhere near done at age 40. Brees became the NFL’s all-time leader in touch- down passes, throwing for four scores to lead the New Orleans Saints to a 34-7 victory over the Indianapolis Colts on Monday night. “It was special, every- thing about the night,” Brees said. “It just kind of makes your whole life and career fl ash before your eyes, because I never thought I’d have a chance to be part of something like this.” The scoring strike that broke Peyton Manning’s record of 539 career touch- down passes came in the third quarter, when Brees hit tight end Josh Hill for a 5-yard score. Brees’ next pass in the game was the 541st scoring toss of his career, a 28-yarder to re- serve QB and utility player Taysom Hill that put the Saints up 34-0. “He’s done that to a lot of defenses,” Colts coach Frank Reich said. “When he gets like that. I don’t know that anybody can stop him.” Now in his 19th season, the 6-foot Brees — a 2001 second-round draft choice — came into the game al- ready holding NFL records for completions with 6,792 and yards passing with 72,577. He built on those numbers while also setting a record for completion percentage in a game. He completed 29 of 30 passes — 96.7% — for 307 yards before being relieved by Teddy Bridgewater in the fourth quarter. That broke the mark Philip Rivers had held since completing 28 of 29 (96.6%) against Arizona last season. “He had a hot hand, obvi- ously,” Saints coach Sean Payton said. “Guys were making plays, but that’s awfully diffi cult to do.” The victory kept the Saints (11-3), who’d already won the NFC South, in the running with Seattle (11-3), San Francisco (11-3) and Green Bay (11-3) for one of the top two seeds in the NFC playoffs. See Brees / Page 8A PREP GIRLS ROUNDUP Outlaws send Elgin to first loss Observer staff Ashlyn Gray led the way with 11 points Monday as the Enterprise Outlaws ran their winning streak to four games in a row with a 48-28 victory in Elgin, end- ing the Huskies’ four-game winning streak to start the season. Rilyn Kirkland added seven points and Claire Farwell had six for the Outlaws, who built a 22-10 lead at the half and pushed the lead to 21 after three quarters. “We are headed in the right direction (and) getting better every day,” head coach Mike Crawford said. Tymra Anderson scored 15 points in the loss to lead the Huskies. Enterprise (5-1 overall) visits Imbler Thursday, while Elgin (4-1) faces Jordan Valley at the Union Christmas Classic. WALLOWA GETS SECOND WIN Shanna Rae Tillery scored 13 points Monday night, and the Wallowa Cougars built a double-digit fi rst-half lead en route to a 27-21 road win over the La Grande junior varsity. The Cougars took control early and had a 19-7 lead at the break, then held on for the win despite scoring just eight points in the second half. “(We) played really good defense for the entire game but forgot to come out for the second half,” head coach David Howe said. The Cougars (2-4 overall) visit Condon/Wheeler Friday.
