Sports
A8
Tuesday, February 22, 2022
ON THE SLATE
Tuesday, Feb. 22
COLLEGE WOMEN’S
BASKETBALL
Eastern Oregon vs. TBA,
Cascade Collegiate Conference
Tournament, Quinn Coliseum,
7 p.m.
Wednesday, Feb. 23
COLLEGE MEN’S
BASKETBALL
Eastern Oregon at TBA,
Cascade Collegiate Conference
Tournament, 7 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.
Saturday, Feb. 26
COLLEGE BASEBALL
Eastern Oregon at Lewis-Clark
State, noon
Eastern Oregon at Lewis-Clark
State, 3 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.
COLLEGE WOMEN’S
LACROSSE
Postseason push
Eastern Oregon at Whitman,
10 a.m.
Eastern Oregon basketball teams head to conference championships with high hopes
PREP BOYS WRESTLING
By DAVIS CARBAUGH
Union, Elgin, Imbler, Joseph,
Wallowa, Enterprise at OSAA
1A/2A State Championships,
Culver High School, TBA
La Grande at OSAA 4A State
Championships, Cascade High
School, TBA
The Observer
COLLEGE SOFTBALL
Eastern Oregon vs. Hope
International, Rocklin, California,
10 a.m.
Eastern Oregon at William
Jessup, noon
PREP WRESTLING
Union, Elgin, Imbler at 1A State
Championships, TBA
La Grande at 4A State
Championships, TBA
Sunday, Feb. 27
COLLEGE WOMEN’S
WRESTLING
Eastern Oregon at Cascade
Collegiate Conference
Championships, Great Falls,
Montana, TBA
COLLEGE BASEBALL
Eastern Oregon at Lewis-Clark
State, 11 a.m.
Eastern Oregon at Lewis-Clark
State, 2 p.m.
COLLEGE SOFTBALL
Eastern Oregon vs. Marymount
California, Rocklin, California,
10 a.m.
Eastern Oregon vs. Marymount
California, Rocklin, California,
noon
COLLEGE WOMEN’S
LACROSSE
Eastern Oregon vs. Whitworth,
Walla Walla, 1 p.m.
what we call it,” Kemp said. “We
have to go be the same team on
the road as we are here.”
LA GRANDE — As win-
ter’s end gradually approaches,
basketball season is reaching its
culmination.
The Eastern Oregon Uni-
versity men’s basketball team
has overcome a series of obsta-
cles 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 program’s all-time leading
scorer, Max McCullough, suf-
fered a season-ending injury.
Experienced guard Paul Pen-
nington 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 tour-
nament as the No. 6 seed in the
conference and face Lewis-
Clark State on the road in the
opening round. The Mountain-
Women’s team among
conference elites
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 lost to the Warriors 76-72
on Dec. 17 and 65-55 on Feb. 5.
Eastern wrapped up the regular
season with a 12-10 conference
record.
Kemp noted that Malatare
and Lovelace have been the
team’s two most solid contrib-
utors this season, as expected
when the program signed the
transfers. Malatare is averaging
19 points and 5.7 rebounds per
game, while Lovelace is putting
up 13.2 points and 8.3 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 Chandler, 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 Moun-
taineers managed to secure a
winning record. As the post-
season 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.”
Tip-off against Lewis-Clark
State is set for 7 p.m. in Lew-
iston, Idaho on Feb. 23.
“The guys have a mentality
of just being road dogs, which is
The Mountaineers women’s
team did not get off to an ideal
start, but conference play pre-
sented Eastern with a chance to
rise to the top.
The team began the year 2-5,
but rallied to a 21-9 record at the
conclusion of the regular season.
Eastern has remained among the
top three in the Cascade Col-
legiate Conference, alongside
Lewis-Clark State and Southern
Oregon.
Eastern finished the season as
the No. 3 seed heading into the
Cascade Collegiate Tournament.
The Mountaineers have clinched
home-court advantage in the
quarterfinal round and will face
Warner Pacific at Quinn Col-
iseum on Feb. 22. Tip-off is
slated for 7 p.m.
For some teams, home and
away makes little difference. For
Eastern, Quinn Coliseum has
been a nightmare for opposing
women’s basketball teams
coming in to play the Mountain-
eers. 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 15.4
points and 3.3 assists per game,
while senior Taylor Stricklin is
averaging 13.4 points and 8.4
rebounds per game. Freshman
Adyson Harris has been a
pleasant addition to Eastern’s
rotation, averaging 12 points and
4.5 rebounds per contest.
SPORTS SHORT
Sanctioned Oregon wrestling dual meet championship nixed by OSAA committee
By NIK STRENG
The Oregonian
PORTLAND — The
Oregon School Activities
Association’s State Champi-
onship Committee has made
it clear in recent months that
it would like to make as few
changes as possible as it puts
together a plan for the 2022-
2026 time block.
Part of that plan includes
shutting down a proposal for
a wrestling dual meet state
championship.
Culver wrestling coach
J.D. Alley pitched the idea of
a dual meet state champion-
ship to the committee during
a Jan. 24 meeting.
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
La Grande’s Joshua Collins, left, and Pendleton’s Gabe Browning
grapple Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2022, in the 138-pound matchup at
Pendleton High School. Collins won by fall.
“I want to propose incor-
porating, in our season, an
OSAA sanctioned dual meet
tournament,” Alley told the
committee on Jan. 24. “I
think I can do this in one
week with two dates and
involving eight teams with
some home duals.”
Alley said the tourna-
ment could be a part of the
regular season and would be
held in early February, after
the Reser’s Tournament of
Champions and before dis-
trict tournaments. The com-
mittee did say that any clas-
sification would be capable
of running an unofficial pilot
version of the dual meet
state championship and the
committee would use that to
see if it is viable statewide.
The State Championship
Committee is also looking
into changing the bracket size
for the state championships,
but that will be a topic of dis-
cussion for the upcoming
March 14 meeting.
The committee added
that it wants to condense
the number of state cham-
pionship sites in the future,
but is leaving the door open
for the state tournament to
be held at multiple loca-
tions if it chooses to increase
the bracket sizes for any
classification.
For the 2021-2022 season,
the state championships are
being held at multiple loca-
tions (6A at Sandy High
School, 5A at Ridgeview, 4A
at Cascade, 3A at La Pine,
and 2A/1A and the girls
tournament at Culver).
“Going from a single
site at the Veterans Memo-
rial Coliseum to six sepa-
rate venues is not sustain-
able moving into the future,”
reads the OSAA’s update on
the meeting.
Outside of wrestling, the
committee announced that it
does not support the creation
of a 10th race at the cross
country state champion-
ship meet, as coaches have
asked the OSAA to split up
the 3A/2A/1A girls race.
Currently, the three classi-
fication race together due to
lower participation among
the smaller schools.
Boys cross country does
have it split up so there is
a separate 3A race and a
2A/1A race.