Sports
ON THE SLATE
Saturday, Feb. 19
COLLEGE MEN’S
BASKETBALL
Eastern Oregon at Warner
Pacific, 5 p.m
A8
Saturday, February 19, 2022
Postseason push
COLLEGE WOMEN’S
BASKETBALL
Eastern Oregon at Warner
Pacific, 3 p.m.
COLLEGE MEN’S
WRESTLING
Eastern Oregon at Cascade
Collegiate Conference
Championships, Havre,
Montana, TBA
COLLEGE BASEBALL
Eastern Oregon at Western
Oregon, noon
Eastern Oregon at Western
Oregon, 3 p.m.
COLLEGE SOFTBALL
Eastern Oregon at Clackamas
Community College, 1 p.m.
Eastern Oregon at Clackamas
Community College, 3 p.m.
COLLEGE WOMEN’S
LACROSSE
WIllamette at Eastern Oregon,
1 p.m.
PREP BOYS BASKETBALL
Old Oregon League third-place
game, Baker High School,
10:30 a.m.
Old Oregon League
championship, Baker High
School, 2:30 p.m.
La Grande at Baker, 6:30 p.m.
PREP GIRLS BASKETBALL
Old Oregon League third-place
game, Baker High School, 9 a.m.
Old Oregon League
championship game, Baker
High School, 1 p.m.
Union vs. Stanfield/Enterprise,
Pendleton Convention Center,
7:45 p.m.
La Grande at Baker, 5 p.m.
PREP BOYS WRESTLING
Union, Elgin, Imbler, Joseph,
Enterprise at OSAA 2A/1A
Special District 4, Adrian High
School, TBA
PREP SWIMMING
La Grande, Cove at
4A/3A/2A/1A State
Championships, Tualatin, High
School, 4:30 p.m.
Sunday, Feb. 20
COLLEGE BASEBALL
Eastern Oregon at Western
Oregon, noon
Eastern Oregon at Western
Oregon, 3 p.m.
COLLEGE SOFTBALL
Eastern Oregon at Lewis & Clark
College, noon
Eastern Oregon at Lewis & Clark
College, 2 p.m.
COLLEGE WOMEN’S
LACROSSE
Linfield at Eastern Oregon,
1 p.m.
Thursday, Feb. 24
COLLEGE SOFTBALL
Eastern Oregon at Menlo
College, 10 a.m.
Eastern Oregon at Menlo
College, noon
PREP GIRLS WRESTLING
La Grande at OSAA/OnPoint
Girls State Championships,
Culver High School, TBA
Friday, Feb. 25
COLLEGE SOFTBALL
Eastern Oregon at William
Jessup, noon
Eastern Oregon vs. Hope
International, Rocklin, California
4 p.m.
Alex Wittwer/EO Media Group, File
Eastern Oregon’s Xavier Lovelace (3) drives to the basket during the second half of a home game against Montana Western on Saturday, Oct. 30, 2021, at Quinn
Coliseum, La Grande.
Eastern Oregon basketball teams head to conference championships with high hopes
By DAVIS CARBAUGH
The Observer
LA GRANDE — As winter’s end grad-
ually approaches, basketball season is
reaching its culmination.
The Eastern Oregon University men’s
basketball team has overcome a series of
obstacles under first-year interim head
coach Chris Kemp, while the women’s
team sparked a major run in the second
half of the season to finish near the top of
the Cascade Collegiate Conference.
“I think our guys are playing the best
basketball they’ve played all year,” Kemp
said. “I have high hopes that we’re peaking
at the right time.”
Overcoming adversity
The Eastern men’s season has been far
from predictable.
Just four games into the year, the pro-
gram’s all-time leading scorer, Max
McCullough, suffered a season-ending
injury. Experienced guard Paul Pennington
was injured early on as well, missing the
first half of the year. The injuries were a
recipe for disaster for a first-year coach,
but the Mountaineers buckled down and
found a way to succeed.
Transfers Phillip Malatare and Xavier
Lovelace have stepped up in a big way,
helping the Mountaineers clinch a spot in
the 2022 conference tournament.
Eastern will enter the tournament
anywhere from the fifth to eighth seed
depending on the outcome of the team’s
final two regular season matchups on Feb.
18-19.
Kemp noted that Malatare and Lovelace
have been the team’s two most solid con-
tributors this season, as expected when the
program signed the transfers. Malatare is
averaging 18.5 points and 5.1 rebounds per
game, while Lovelace is putting up 12.8
points and 8.4 rebounds per contest.
Kemp expressed that the team’s success
and mentality have been spawned from
much more than the team’s top scorers.
Rotation players including Preston Chan-
dler, Pennington, Justin Jeske, Cooper
Lumsden, Zane Wright and Ismael Valdez
also have contributed to the team’s success.
“A lot of those returners have stepped
into newer roles and really blossomed,”
he said. “That whole returning group has
been a huge plus for us, just how they’ve
played together and gelled as a group.”
In the wake of early-season injuries and
the COVID-19 pandemic playing a big
role in player availability, the Mountain-
Alex Wittwer/EO Media Group, File
EOU freshman Adyson Harris (25) breaks away at Quinn Coliseum, La Grande, during the Mountaineers’
79-75 win over Oregon Institute of Technology on Friday, Jan. 21, 2022.
eers managed to secure a winning record.
As the postseason approaches rapidly, the
team is as healthy as it can be and has its
eyes set on a playoff push.
“I think that we grew a lot in our mental
toughness,” Kemp said. “There have been
some huge hurdles, but we’ve learned a ton
and I think we’ll be able to draw on that as
we move forward.”
The two most likely matchups for the
Mountaineers are on the road at either
Corban or Southern Oregon — Eastern
went 1-1 against both schools this year.
Kemp noted that they are aware of who the
potential opponent could be, but the Moun-
taineers are looking to stay focused regard-
less of where they will travel.
“The guys have a mentality of just
being road dogs, which is what we call it,”
Kemp said. “We have to go be the same
team on the road as we are here.”
Women’s team among
conference elites
The Mountaineers women’s team did
not get off to an ideal start, but conference
play presented Eastern with a chance to
rise to the top.
The team began the year 2-5, but ral-
lied to a 19-9 record heading into the
final weekend of the season. Eastern has
remained among the top three in the Cas-
cade Collegiate Conference, alongside
Lewis-Clark State and Southern Oregon.
Eastern’s final road series against Mult-
nomah and Warner Pacific will determine
the team’s final placement heading into the
Cascade Collegiate Tournament. Either
way, the Mountaineers have clinched
home-court advantage in the quarterfinal
round by finishing in the top four of the
conference.
For some teams, home and away makes
little difference. For Eastern, Quinn Col-
iseum has been a nightmare for opposing
women’s basketball teams coming in to
play the Mountaineers. Eastern compiled a
10-1 record at home this year, while going
7-4 on the road.
The Mountaineers have relied on a
three-pronged scoring attack this year.
Junior Sailor Liefke has led Eastern
with 16 points and 3.5 assists per game,
while senior Taylor Stricklin is aver-
aging 13.2 points and 8.4 rebounds per
game. Freshman Adyson Harris has been
a pleasant addition to Eastern’s rotation,
averaging 12.2 points and 4.6 rebounds per
contest.
As Cascade Collegiate Conference
teams battle out the final weekend to
decide tournament seedings, Eastern has
four likely opponents. The Mountaineers
could face Oregon Tech, Warner Pacific,
Northwest or the College of Idaho. Regard-
less, Eastern has clinched home court
advantage in the first round — tip-off of
the conference quarterfinal matchup at
Quinn Coliseum is scheduled for 7 p.m. on
Feb. 22.
High school playoff basketball is finally back
DAVIS
CARBAUGH
CARBAUGH’S CORNER
t’s not March, but there’s mad-
ness in the air for prep basket-
ball fans.
Local basketball teams are
fighting for state playoff con-
tention at district tournaments
this weekend, giving one final
push to keep their seasons alive.
While the COVID-19 pandemic
has played a role in the past two
postseasons, fans are back in the
I
stands in full effect this year to
create an exciting environment for
playoff hoops.
In the opening rounds of the
1A Old Oregon League tourna-
ment, fans and students alike
poured into Baker High School
to support their athletes. Six dif-
ferent schools competed in the
quarterfinal rounds across the
boys and girls brackets, drawing
large crowds for each contest.
Playoff basketball truly proves the
idea that every team enters the
postseason with a 0-0 record, as
Cove and Pine Eagle battled out a
late-game thriller on the boys side
and Elgin and Wallowa competed
in a defensive showdown.
Playoff seedings and brag-
ging rights are on the line in the
championship games at 1 p.m.
and 2:30 p.m. on Feb. 19 in Baker
City. Third-place matchups,
which are scheduled to start at
9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., will be
make-or-break for Old Oregon
League teams looking to clinch a
state playoff spot.
Union heads to the 2A Blue
Mountain Conference Tournament
as a top seed on the girls side and
a promising three-seed on the
boys side. The Pendleton Conven-
tion Center is sure to be packed on
the final day of tournament action
as 2A schools compete for berths
into the state tournament.
La Grande is set to square
off with Baker on both the boys
and girls sides on Feb. 19. The
boys’ matchups against the rival
Bulldogs have been a bit of an
anomaly this year. The Tigers
were run out of their own gym by
Baker on Jan. 28, losing 67-41.
Less than two weeks later, La
Grande bounced back with a
resounding 55-28 win in Baker
City. The third matchup of the
season on Feb. 19 will deter-
mine who takes home the Greater
Oregon League crown.
With games on consecutive
days and little time to prepare
in between matchups, district
tournament contention is not for
the faint of heart. As regular-
season records are thrown out the
window, local district tournaments
present the opportunity for teams
to determine their own postseason
fate.
———
Davis Carbaugh covers news
and sports for The Observer. He
can be contacted at dcarbaugh@
lagrandeobserver.com.