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.