6A
Monday, January 13, 2020
The Observer
EOU women get
two road victories
Observer staff
Staff photo by Ronald Bond
La Grande’s Zach Wiggins (5) blocks a shot by Baker’s Gabe Gambleton Friday night in Greater Oregon League
action. Wiggins was called for a foul on the play. La Grande won the GOL contest, 56-52.
A new start for Tigers
Prep boys hoops
By Ronald Bond
The Observer
LA GRANDE — La Grande sopho-
more guard Devin Bell said the Tigers
are essentially beginning a new season
as it looks to right the ship.
They certainly started it the right
way Friday — even if the outcome was
in doubt in the final moments.
“We were 1-10, and then we come out
and start league off with a win, and I
think it’s just a start to a new season.
I think it’s going to be a great season,”
Bell said.
Bell led the Tigers with 17 points
Friday, and La Grande opened Greater
Oregon League play with a 56-52 home
win over Baker in a game that saw the
Bulldogs rally from 18 points down in
the fourth quarter.
The Tigers were the aggressors much
of the night, and for the first three quar-
ters played their best basketball of the
season. Bell led a barrage from 3-point
range with five triples as La Grande
connected on eight 3s on the night. The
Tigers, who never trailed, took their
largest lead just 20 seconds into the
fourth quarter at 47-29 on a layup by
Brady Hutchins. They also had just
three turnovers through the first three
quarters.
“Obviously against your rival you
want to come out and play your best
basketball, (and) tonight we did for the
first three quarters,” LHS head coach
Mark Carollo said. “We were really on,
we shot the ball well, defensively we
kept guys in front of us, (and) we took
care of the ball.”
Then what seemed like a certain vic-
tory nearly got away from the Tigers.
The Bulldogs scored seven points in
less than a minute, getting within 47-36
on a field goal by Gabe Gambleton. The
Tigers briefly restored order to push the
lead back to 15 on Cristian Mendoza’s
floater, but another Gambleton jumper
and a 3-point play by Caden Long cut
the margin to 51-41 with 4:30 to play.
Gambleton’s pullup jumper made it
a six-point game with 2:57 to go, and
Baker was down only three points, at
53-50, on a Riley Flanagan layup with
57 seconds remaining.
“I just told the kids that we need to
play a little bit harder,” Baker head
coach Jebron Jones said of the message
to his team to get the Bulldogs back
in the game. “I think they stepped up
to the challenge in the fourth quarter,
but basketball is four quarters, and we
didn’t do our job the first three.”
See Boys / Page 8A
La Grande comes up short against Dawgs
By Ronald Bond
The Observer
LA GRANDE — The La
Grande Tigers put them-
selves in position in the
fourth quarter Friday at
home to finally put an end
to a long losing streak to the
rival Baker Bulldogs.
But a rash of turnovers
late by the Tigers and the
big-game experience by the
defending state champions
proved to be the difference,
as Baker held off every push
by the Tigers to earn a 42-35
win in the Greater Oregon
League opener for both
teams and run their winning
streak over La Grande to 11
straight games.
“I think they were a little
more relaxed in a big-game
atmosphere,” LHS head
coach Brian Wright said of
the Bulldogs. “Some of our
kids were obviously bothered
by nerves.”
La Grande fell behind by as
much as nine points on two oc-
casions in the second quarter,
but the Tigers whittled away
at the deficit and got within
one on three separate occa-
sions in the second half — at
25-24 on a pair of Ella Dunlap
free throws in the third, at
28-27 on a McKaylee Orton
3-pointer with three minutes
to play in the third, and at
33-32 on a Dunlap layup early
in the fourth.
But the Bulldogs had a
response every time. Hailey
Zikmund countered Dunlap’s
third-quarter free throws
with a 3-pointer that ended
an 8-0 La Grande run. Lau-
Staff photo by Ronald Bond
La Grande’s Grace Neer (22) reaches out for a loose ball Friday during the Tigers’
game against Baker. The Tigers dropped the Greater Oregon League contest, 42-35.
Prep girls hoops
ren Benson had a 3-point
play that helped keep Baker
ahead by four after Orton’s
triple. And the Bulldogs held
La Grande to just three free
throws in the final seven
minutes of the game while
forcing seven turnovers in
the fourth quarter — most of
them in the closing minutes.
“We always start with
defense, so we knew that we
wanted to put ball pressure
on them and see what they
did with it,” Baker head
coach Mat Sand said.
The defensive pressure
resulted in the Bulldogs
collecting 20 steals and forc-
ing La Grande to commit 26
turnovers.
The Bulldogs held La
Grande scoreless for more
than four minutes in the
fourth quarter as they
pushed the slim margin to
39-33 on a pair of Sydney
Younger free throws with
1:18 to play. Camryn Coll-
man countered with two free
throws for La Grande to cut
the margin back to four, and
the Tigers had opportunities
to get closer, but a steal and a
pair of free throws by Sydney
Keller with 36.8 seconds to
go made it a six-point game,
and La Grande got no closer.
“I guessed (we had) about
25 (turnovers), and you just
can’t turn the ball over 25
times, and especially on our
last four or five possessions
there when we had oppor-
tunities,” Wright said. “We
were within one or two or
three, and then (committed)
some turnovers in transi-
tion that if we’d have scored
totally would have changed
the game.”
Sand said the value of hav-
ing several players with ex-
perience from his team’s title
run a year ago also played a
role in his team being able
to hold off what he called a
“great” La Grande squad.
“You just can’t replace
that, and you can’t teach
See Girls / Page 8A
The Eastern Oregon Uni-
versity women’s basketball
team got back on track after
a three-game losing streak,
routing Evergreen State
College Friday, 88-63, then
surviving a scare Saturday
from Northwest University
before holding on for an
85-80 win.
The Mountaineers scored
just eight seconds into the
game in Friday’s win and
never trailed, opening on
a 10-2 run and closing out
the first quarter on an 11-0
run to take a 23-10 lead.
Eastern never led by fewer
than 11 points the rest of the
way and had as much as a
36-point margin.
Megan Still led five play-
ers in double figures with
22 points. Taylor Stricklin
added 14 points, Whitney
Meier and Rachel Fielder
each scored 13 points, and
Kylie Smith added 10 points.
EOU was also improved
from 3-point range, going
12-for-30 and getting three
treys apiece from Stricklin,
Meier and Jane Nelson.
EOU also got a record-ty-
ing effort from guard Emma
Logan, who had 14 assists to
tie the program mark set by
Whitney Leman in Decem-
ber of 2006.
The Mountaineers had to
work much harder Saturday,
scratching out a win against
the Eagles in the final mo-
ments.
EOU used an 8-0 run to
take a 70-61 lead with 5:42
to play on a field goal by
Fielder. Northwest scored
the next 11 points to go
ahead 72-70 on Shelaine
Lorenz’s field goal with
3:18 remaining. The teams
traded the lead back and
forth before Fielder scored to
put EOU ahead 77-76 with
1:15 to go, and Nelson hit a
clutch 3-pointer with 35 sec-
onds to play for a four-point
See Eastern / Page 7A
Joseph boys post
their highest point
total since 2005
Observer staff
The Joseph Eagles scored
early and often — very
often — as they opened Old
Oregon League play Friday
with a dominant 88-29
home win over Griswold in
their highest-scoring game
in nearly 15 years.
Joseph eclipsed the
80-point mark for the first
time since an 81-39 win
over Pine Eagle Feb. 16,
2012, and scored its most
points since a 92-56 win
over Pine Eagle Jan. 21,
2005, according to archives
on oregonprepsports.net.
Mason Ferre scored 24
points and Carson Littlep-
age had 20 as the Eagles
sprinted out to a 30-8
first-quarter lead and never
let up. Chase Murray also
reached double figures with
13 points.
Joseph (10-3 overall, 1-0
OOL) visits Elgin Friday.
Elgin 57, Wallowa 33:
Kaden McClure led four
players in double figures
Friday with 13 points as the
Huskies opened Old Oregon
League play with a blowout
win at home.
Tristan Simpson added
12 points, Ian Adams had
11 and Gage McKay had 10
for Elgin, which broke open
a 30-18 game at halftime
with an 18-4 third-quarter
run to go ahead 48-22.
Tristin Bales had a
game-high 16 points for the
Prep hoops roundup
Cougars, while Quinten Til-
lery added six points.
Elgin (6-5 overall, 1-0
OOL) visits Griswold Tues-
day, while Wallowa (4-8, 0-1)
hosts Powder Valley Friday.
Imbler 45, Pine Eagle
40: The Panthers rallied
from an early 16-4 deficit
Friday to earn a hard-
fought road win to open Old
Oregon League play.
Imbler cut the margin to
24-22 by halftime, then took
over the lead, 36-30, after
three quarters and held on.
Wyatt Frost and Jayce
Burnette had 12 points
apiece to lead the Panthers,
and Chance Goodman
added nine points.
Imbler (3-7 overall, 1-0
OOL) travels to Powder Val-
ley Tuesday.
Canceled: Union’s road
contest against Pilot Rock,
Enterprise’s home game
against Weston-McEwen and
Powder Valley’s home match-
up with Nixyaawii were all
canceled due to weather and
road conditions.
Enterprise’s game has
been rescheduled for Jan. 21.
New dates for the other con-
tests have not yet been set.
SATURDAY
Powder Valley 95,
Cove 32: The Badgers fell
just short of the century
mark Saturday as they
See Roundup / Page 8A
Observer file photo
Joseph’s Mason Ferre scored 24 points to help the
Eagles to their highest-scoring game since 2005.