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SATURDAY, MARCH 7, 2020 THE OBSERVER — 7A SPORTS Timberwolves drop Joseph Union wins in quarterfinals boys in 1A state quarterfinals with second-half rally By Ronald Bond By Corey Kirk The Observer EO Media Group PENDLETON — For much of the fi rst half Thurs- day, the Union Bobcats appeared rattled, shaken by the pressure of being in the program’s fi rst state quar- terfi nal game since 2015. “I think we had those big-game jitters a little bit,” senior Taylar Daggett said. They looked like a much different team after the break. Daggett, Callie Glenn and Kylie Marriott each scored 12 points, and Union quickly erased a seven-point halftime defi cit and domi- nated after the break for a 45-35 win over Portland Christian at Pendleton High School. “It was bumpy,” head coach Rhondie Rickman-Jo- hansen said of the fi rst half. “We went in at halftime, made a few adjustments, asked them to do things differently.... Just talked to them, and told them that second half needed to be our game. We let their defense dictate our offense, and we needed to take control of the game. And you know, I got a team that responds. We were our team in the second half, and I couldn’t be more proud.” Union, which trailed 23-16 at the break, found its offensive touch after a fi rst half that saw it shoot just 23% and erased the defi cit in less than two minutes. “These girls have a real fi ght in them and a no-quit attitude,” Rickman-Johan- sen said. “It’s been a long time since we’ve been down in the third quarter by that many points. It was awe- some to see them react to that and come out fi ghting and just take control in the second (half).” Daggett, who had nine of her points in the third quarter, hit 3-pointers on consecutive possessions to help the Bobcats quickly cut the margin to 25-24, and two free throws from Glenn put the Bobcats up for good, 26-25, with 6:05 to play in the third. Marriott pointed to Daggett’s hot start in the third as a key component to the turnaround. “Taylar started us off, we fed off of her, and it kept going,” said Marriott, who added 10 rebounds to post a double-double. Marriott hit a short jumper to push the lead to three just over 90 seconds after Glenn put the Bobcats ahead, and a tough 3-point play by Audrey Wells on a left-handed drive to the rim with 3:23 to play gave the Bobcats a 31-26 lead. BAKER CITY — The Joseph Eagles boys basket- ball team had a tough night of shooting Thursday as they fell short to the Triad Timberwolves, 61-41, after landing close on only 29% of their shots the entire game. “It’s hard to come back from that,” Eagles head coach Olan Fulfer said. Led by seniors Ethan Roe and Michael Irvine, the Timberwolves started off hot and never looked back as they ended the fi rst quar- ter up by 11. Head Coach Jason Young was impressed with their efforts, especially with Irvine’s shot selection. “He was shooting the kind of shots that we like him to shoot,” Young said. “He’s a hard matchup.” Down on the post, Eagles senior Hadley Miller went toe-to-toe with 6-foot-5 Timberwolves senior Ethan Photo by Kathy Orr/EO Media Group Moritz. Fulfer wasn’t sur- prised to see Miller’s efforts, Joseph’s Hadley Miller drives to the basket Thursday as he has been playing that during the Eagles’ game against Triad in the 1A state quarterfi nals in Baker City. way all season. “He’ll go against bigger guys, that’s what Hadley Young said. “I kept telling ond half and got his three always done for us,” Fulfer them to play the way that ball going,” Fulfer said. said. “We are defi nitely go- they play.” Even as more shots fell ing to miss his size, tough- Though still down, the for the Eagles, the Tim- ness and mentality.” Eagles began to make more berwolves maintained the Going into the half, the of their shots in the second tempo, never letting their Timberwolves were up by half. Mason Ferre managed lead go lower than 16 points 16 points. Young encour- to improve, as he made as they walked out with the aged his guys to maintain three out of his fi ve shots in victory. the momentum and not be the third and led the Eagles Ferre was the only Eagle distracted by what the score in scoring with 13. in double fi gures as he fi n- was. “I was happy with it. I ished with 13 points. Miller “We can’t look at the wanted him to be a little scored nine, and Chase scoreboard, and we needed more of in attack mode, Murray scored eight points to keep being aggressive,” (and) he did that in the sec- and added nine rebounds. Joseph eliminated Friday after dropping 3OT classic By Ronald Bond The Observer BAKER CITY — The Joseph Eagles were elimi- nated from the 1A state tournament Friday morning, but it took Prairie City three overtime periods and nearly two hours to pull off the win, which the Panthers fi nally secured, 51-46, to advance to Saturday’s fourth-place game and avenge a loss to Joseph in the season opener. “The team left it all out on the court. We just didn’t execute when we needed to,” Eagles’ head coach Olan Fulfer said. “We kept giving them offensive boards and putbacks.” Prairie City had to score late in regulation and in the fi rst overtime and the second overtime to stay alive, but the Panthers held the Eagles scoreless in the third OT. Cole Deiter, who had 16 points and 22 rebounds, broke the stalemate with just over a minute to play to put Prairie City ahead 48-46. The Eagles missed two sub- sequent looks at a 3-pointer that would have given them the lead, and Prairie City — which missed 20 free throws — was able to connect on three in the fi nal seconds to ice the victory. Joseph fell behind early in the second overtime period when Jojari Field scored in- side for a 44-42 Prairie City lead. A free throw by Mason Ferre pulled the Eagles within one, and Reece Nelson’s jump- er with just over a minute to play put the Eagles ahead by one. Another free throw by Ferre put the Eagles ahead 46-44, but Marcus Judd’s put- back knotted the score to force the third overtime session after a last-second full-court heave by Joseph bounced off the rim. The teams entered the fi rst overtime tied at 34-34, and Joseph on three occa- sions claimed the lead in the extra period, including at 42-38 on Chase Murray’s re- verse layup with 51 seconds remaining. But the Panthers came back to tie the score all three times, the last on Jayden Winegar’s fi eld goal in the fi nal seconds of the overtime session at 42-42. Prairie City controlled the action early, taking a 14-7 lead in the opening quarter and going up by as much as 16-8 in the second on a Lucas McKinley layup. “Both teams were fl at, both teams couldn’t hit anything,” Fulfer said. “Good defenses on both sides as well.” JOSEPH Continued from Page 6A 20 points, including a trio of acro- batic layins in which she avoided Riley, who had fi ve blocked shots. “It was a super fun game,” Albee said. “We both came to play.” Despite the disappointment of coming close to a monumental up- set, Albee said she’s confi dent the Eagles (22-7 overall) will be ready for the third-place game against Perrydale Saturday at 12:30 p.m. “We’ll refocus tonight, go to bed early and go get that third-place The Eagles got within 20- 17 at halftime on a jumper by Ferre and took their fi rst lead at 26-24 on Murray’s 3-pointer midway through the third quarter. Hayden Hite put the Eagles up 27-26 after three with a late layup. A free throw and layup by McKinley a minute apart put the Panthers up 29-28 at the 5:41 mark of the fourth. A jumper by Nelson and two Ferre free throws put the Eagles ahead, but Field’s jumper and a free throw by Deiter tied the score at 32-32 with just over a minute left in regulation. Murray gave the Eagles the lead with just under a minute to play, but Deiter tied it on the ensu- ing possession, and both teams missed a fi nal look at a potential win and sent the game into overtime. Murray led the Eagles, who saw their season end with a record of 22-9, with 15 points and 12 rebounds. Ferre scored 11 points and had nine boards, and Hadley Miller added eight points. “There’s a lot to be proud of, a lot of highlights and what we battled through to make it to the tournament,” Fulfer said. McKinley had 14 points for Prairie City and Judd had 10 points and 12 boards. trophy,” Albee said. “Sabrina’s good,” Homan said of the two-time Old Oregon League player of the year. “We put a lot of pressure on her because she can score so quickly. She’s fun to coach. She’s a gamer.” Albee scored the opening basket, and Brianna Micka had a rebound basket to give Joseph an early 4-0 lead. Crane missed its fi rst fi ve shots and didn’t score until Dani Clark’s putback with 4:10 left in the fi rst quarter. That started a 9-0 Mustangs run, Photo by Ben Lonergan/EO Media Group Union’s Audrey Wells (15) shoots in front of Portland Christian defender Carly Brunner Thursday during the second half of the Bobcats’ win in Pendleton. Daggett’s layup off an in- bounds pass from Brianna Kohr with 22.8 seconds to play gave Union its largest lead of the third at 34-26, and the Bobcats went into the fourth up by six. Portland Christian twice cut the margin to three in the early stages of the fourth on a pair of baskets from Journie Conard — once on a coast-to-coast drive to the rim and once on a challeng- ing shot that made it 36-33 with 4:42 to go. Marriott and the Bobcats then put the game on ice. The junior corralled a loose ball and scored un- derneath to start a decisive 9-0 run, then two posses- sions later found Glenn for a drive and a basket for a 40-33 lead. She later added a putback and then scored off a feed from Glenn for the largest lead of the game, 45- 33, with about 95 seconds to play. “We just really came together as a team,” said Daggett, who hit all three of Union’s 3-pointers on the night. “We started working and gelling together. We got the ball inside and when the shot wasn’t there we would kick it out to our shoot- ers, and then our shooters started hitting.” The Bobcats also clamped down on defense, holding the Royals to 12 points on 5-of-24 shooting in the second half, and just 25% for the game. Neither team gained BOBCATS Continued from Page 6A their size. We tried to rebound, but just couldn’t pull it together.” The Bobcats managed a late rally in the fourth, topping the Dragons 11-5. Marriott posted fi ve points at the line to open the quarter, and senior Brianna Kohr capped off the streak with a 3-pointer at 2:48 to cut their defi cit to 16 at 40-24. Glenn would score two more points at the line, and Marriott one. “It was too little, too late,” Rickman-Jo- including a pair of layins off steals Crane forced with its swarming full-court press. Madelyn Nelson’s 3-pointer with 12 seconds left in the fi rst quarter cut Crane’s lead to 9-7. The teams traded a pair of baskets to start the second quarter, with Albee hitting a 3-pointer and a runner to get Joseph within 13-12. Crane sophomore Kelsie Siegner scored two straight baskets, the second off a steal, and Clark had another layin off a steal to push Crane’s lead to 19-12, its biggest of the game, with 3:29 left in the half. much advantage during a tight, tense fi rst 13 minutes that saw a two-point margin as the largest lead taken by either team. The last three minutes of the second quarter, though, belonged to Portland Chris- tian — and, in particular, to senior Madeline DeLucia. Her 3-pointer with 2:39 to play put the Royals ahead 19-16, which at the time was the largest lead of the game. She then found Leah Zallee for a layup that extended the lead to fi ve, and Conard had a fastbreak layup that put PC ahead at the break 23-16. DeLucia, who also took over on the glass late in the fi rst half, had 10 points and nine rebounds by the break. DeLucia fi nished with 11 points and 10 boards, and Conard led the Royals with 13 points. But PC was out- rebounded by Union 48-33, and 26-15 in the second half, largely due to the hustle on the boards by Marriott, who had nine of her 10 rebounds in the second half and fi ve on the offensive end. “I just knew we had to get second opportunities for our team and our shooters, that’s what we were going to do to win the game,” she said. Added Rickman-Johan- sen of Marriott: “She is not very tall, but she plays way over her head. She’s got the biggest passion and drive and heart, and she’s gonna get those boards.” hansen said. “If we had a few more minutes, we might have been able to come back.” Sutton fi nished with a game-high 17 points, and Lopez added 12 points and a team-high nine rebounds. May added 10 points to Monroe’s victory. Union was led by Glenn with 13 points, and Marriott eight. Sophomore Audrey Wells grabbed eight rebounds on the night. “The dream is to play a state champion- ship,” Rickman-Johansen said, “but I would coach these girls to the end of the world. I’m so proud to be their coach.” But Joseph scored six straight to get within 19-18 before Davis had her fi rst basket, on a putback. Then the Eagles scored the fi rst fi ve points of the second half — on Micka’s 3-pointer and Albee’s driv- ing layin — to take a 23-21 lead, the Eagles’ fi rst since early in the fi rst quarter. Crane scored fi ve in a row — including two baskets by Davis — but Albee again answered, this time with a 3-pointer to tie the game at 26 with 2:58 left in the third quarter. It was the last tie. The Mustangs scored the last four points of the quarter, and Taelor Hammack opened the fi nal period with a conventional 3-point play to boost Crane’s lead to 33-26. Joseph got within fi ve points twice — the second time on Albee’s reverse layin off her own missed shot — but no closer. Siegner led the Mustangs with 12 points. Shelie Doman and Ham- mack had nine each, and Clark had eight. Albee was the only Eagle in double fi gures. Micka added seven points.
