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About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 28, 2018)
DECEMBER 28, 2018, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE B1 KEIZERTIMES.COM Shorthanded Celtics fall in tourney championship By MATT RAWLINGS Of the Keizertimes Even though they weren’t at full strength, the McNary boys hoops team put together a valiant effort against Newberg on Saturday night. But the Celtics couldn’t climb back into the game after falling behind by 21 in the fourth quarter and eventually lost 67-57 in the Newberg Boys Basketball Tournament Championship game. “I’m disappointed that we lost, but I’m encouraged at some of the things we showed with our toughness and competitiveness,” McNary head coach Ryan Kirch said. “Sometimes shots don’t fall and you come out on the losing end...Being down a couple of bodies made it really challenging for us at times.” McNary was without two of their best players in Junior Walling and Griffi n Oliveira. Walling has missed the last few contests due to injury, while Oliveira was not present due to “family stuff and prior engagements” according to Kirch. David Boston and Nate Meithof each had 23 points to carry the Celtics offensively, but in the end, McNary didn’t get enough help from the rest of their supporting cast. “We have a lot of leaders who lead in different ways and Griff is a guy that a lot of guys look to,” Kirch said. “You can’t replace him and you can’t replace Junior’s strength and his rebounding ability on the inside.” “It did give some opportunity for some other guys to get minutes and I thought they did some good things and competed well. We just fell a little short.” Smith got things going in the opening period with eight points on 3-of-4 shooting from the fi eld as the Celtics trailed just 14-12 at the end of the quarter. However, it appeared that McNary couldn’t buy a bucket in the second quarter. The Celtics settled for several contested jumpers and couldn’t get out in transition, which led to them only scoring four KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings Tyler O’Connor lines up a free throw attempt. points in the period, causing them to fall behind 26-16 at half. Meithof had the only fi eld goal of the second quarter on a put-back layup with 2:50 left in the half. “We weren’t on top of things offensively,” Meithof said. “We moved the ball well, but we weren’t getting to the hoop.” Kirch also added: “We were getting back on our heels in the fi rst half and running our offense 35 feet from the basket.” Things went from bad to worse for the Celtics as the game looked to be getting out of hand in the second half. After McNary ended the third quarter trailing 47-32, Newberg center Kyle Kruse knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers to start the fi nal period, giving his team the largest lead of the game. It would have been easy for the Celtics to give up at this point. But they weren’t quite ready to throw in the towel. McNary put on a devastating full-court press on Newberg, defending with an intensity that wasn’t present for most of the game. The suffocating defense helped create turnovers into offensive opportunities as the Celtics went on a 12-0 run thanks to a pair of triples by Meithof and a fl oater by Devyn Schurr. “We just competed hard in our press and didn’t worry about the score,” Kirch said. “A lot of them were gassed, but they didn’t stop.” “We talked about how, at the end, we were playing as the aggressor in that situation and that mindset is what we need from the get-go.” The 12-0 scamper by the Celtics got the lead down to single-digits at 53-44 with 3:48 left and forced Newberg head coach Mark Brown to call a timeout. Out of the timeout, McNary set up their press and looked they were about to get a steal before a reach-in foul was called on Schurr. Schurr let his emotions get the best of him after the call and was immediately whistled for a technical foul. Newberg was awarded two free throws for the personal foul, two more for the technical and was given back possession of the ball. It ended up being a fi ve- point trip for Newberg, which was too much for McNary to come back from. McNary is currently competing in the Arby’s Holiday Classic in South Medford. They return home on Friday Jan. 4 to take on Forest Grove at 7:15 p.m. in their fi nal non-league matchup. KEIZERTIMES/ MATT RAWLINGS McNary guard Nate Meithof (black jersey) positions himself for a rebound by boxing out a Newberg player. McNary swim teams hit century mark in dual win Lady Celts drop a pair of games in Medford By MATT RAWLINGS Of the Keizertimes McNary’s girls basketball team came home empty hand- ed after a trip to Southern Oregon last weekend, losing to North Medford 46-42 on Friday Dec. 21 and falling to South Medford 82-38 the fol- lowing day. The Celtics offense strug- gled mightily in the fi rst half of their game against North Medford, shooting just 4-of-19 from the fi eld. Facing a 21-12 defi cit at the break, McNary got back into the game in the third quarter thanks to the scoring ability of Leah Doutt. The sophomore point guard scored nine points in the peri- od, including a bucket at the horn that brought the Celtics within four at 29-25. McNary even came back to take a 32-31 lead with 4:50 left in the fi nal quarter thanks to a hoop from Sabella Alfaro. But poor free throw shooting doomed the Celtics down the stretch. McNary went just 10-of- 19 from the charity stripe for the game and missed four foul shots in the fi nal period. It was a quick and challeng- ing turnaround for the Celt- ics to face fi fth-ranked South Medford the following day. McNary hung tough in the opening quarter and was within four early in the sec- ond period. But the Celtics defense couldn’t contain the high-powered offense of South Medford as they gave up a sea- son-high in points. Doutt was the only McNary player who was in double-fi g- ures in both games. She had a game-high 19 points in the North Medford contest and was 8-of-15 from the fi eld. She then poured in 11 points against South Medford. The Celtics are currently competing in the Portland In- terscholastic League Holiday Classic up in Portland. They start the new year by traveling to McMinnville for their last non-league contest at 7:30 p.m. KEIZERTIMES/ MATT RAWLINGS McNary’s Kennedy Buss gets into defensive position in the Celtis game against Westview on Dec.. 7 KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings McNary’s Lucy Younblutt swims the 200-yard butterfl y at a meet earlier this season. Celtics swimmers take momentum into the New Year with their dominating performance against McKay last week By MATT RAWLINGS Of the Keizertimes The McNary High School swim program entered into the holiday break beaming with confi dence after their dominating overall perfor- mance against McKay in their last dual meet on Thursday, Dec. 20 The Celtic boys won their side of things by a score of 135-29. The McNary girls also had a high-quality show- ing with a 105-48 victory. This was the third straight dual victory for both the boys and girls teams. Alex Beard and Paris Boyd were the two multi-event winners on the day for the Celtic girls. Beard was victori- ous in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:27.05 and also took home the win in the 100-breaststroke (1:18.84). Boyd, on the other hand, won the 100-butterfl y (1:10.85) and the 100-back- stroke (1:09.83). After falling behind early, Bella Beard won a thrilling the 500-freestyle race with a time of 5:37.69, touching the wall 0.12 seconds before McKay’s Lidiia Buiko. Kaylynn Villalobos round- ed out the individual wins for the Celtic girls with her vic- tory in the 100-free (101.45). For the second straight week, the McNary boys won 10 out of their 11 varsity rac- es — their only defeat came in the 200-free. Harrison Vaughn and Kyle Hooper led the charge for the Celtic boys. Vaughn won the 100-fl y (1:05.40) and the 200-free (2:03.60) while Hooper was victorious in the 50-free (24.27) and the 100- back (1:04.76). The Celtics also got some great performances from unexpected sources. Nikita Martushev won the 100-free (59.47) and Tyshin Nguy- en was victorious in the 100-breast (1:23.29). Ethan Whalen also picked up an individual victory in the 200-IM (2:39.43). McNary returns to the pool on Jan. 17 at the Kroc Center for their dual meet with South Salem at 7 p.m. Both Celtic teams lost their only dual meet of the season against South Salem on Nov. 29.
