PAGE A14, KEIZERTIMES, JANUARY 11, 2019 KEIZERTIMES.COM McNary dominates Forest Grove By MATT RAWLINGS Of the Keizertimes Forest Grove came into Keizer last Friday night beam- ing with confi dence. The Vikings had started off the season 10-1 and entered their matchup with McNary as the ninth-ranked team in the state. But in the last non-league contest of the regular season for both squads, McNary em- phatically showed that they were the superior team. The Celtics never trailed in the game and dominated from start to fi nish, running away with the 62-39 victory on Friday, Jan. 4. Nate Meithof had a game- high 24 points for McNary in the victory. One of the main keys to McNary’s success so far this season has been the offen- sive productivity of senior post Boston Smith. Howev- er, Forest Grove made it a point-of-emphasis to try and take Smith out of the game, double-teaming him nearly every time he got the ball on the block. Smith only scored two points on 1-of-2 shooting, but McNary head coach Ryan Kirch commended his senior leader for getting his team- mates involved and not forc- ing up shots. “I could not be more proud of him and the leadership Bos- ton showed,” Kirch said. “He got his teammates so many opportunities to score because of the way (Forest Grove) was guarding us, and that allowed our guards to attack the rim off the bounce and get open looks.” “Most people won’t be able to see Boston’s impact tonight, but it was incredible.” Devyn Schurr was the ben- efi ciary of Smith’s vision and passing ability in the early go- ing. With the Celtics up 6-4 in the fi rst quarter, Smith kicked the ball out to Schurr on the perimeter after getting dou- ble-teamed down low, and the senior wing buried a 3-point- er from the top of the key to put McNary up 9-4. On the next possession, Schurr completed a three- point play after knocking down a fl oater while getting fouled. Later in the period, Schurr hit another triple off a feed from Smith, which concluded a 9-2 run for the Celtics and put McNary up 15-6 at the end of the fi rst quarter. Schurr fi nished the game in double-fi gures with 12 points. “I hadn’t been playing well the last few games, so I want- ed to make sure that I played with a fi re and intensity all throughout the game,” Schurr said. In the second period, it was Meithof ’s time to shine. The sophomore shoot- ing guard hit back-to-back fl oaters to open the period up. Moments later, Meithof completed a three-point play, then knocked down a deep trey from the corner on the following trip down the court, putting McNary up 27-11 and forcing Forest Grove head coach Greg Evers to burn a timeout. Meithof would fi nish the period with 12 points, guid- ing the Celtics to a 31-16 lead at the break. Meithof credit- ed Smith’s ability to fi nd the open man as the reason for his offensive outburst before the end of the half. “(Forest Grove) was really focused on guarding the post and Boston knew that and he did a really good job of kick- ing it out to us,” Meithof said. “That’s what really got us go- ing on offense.” While the McNary offense was quite impressive during spurts, their defense really car- ried the charge for most of the contest. With a suffocating full- court press and disciplined man-to-man defense in the half-court, the Celtics made life incredibly diffi cult for the seemingly unprepared Forest Grove team. “Great players are going to score on you, but we made every single basket and every single point diffi cult on them,” Kirch said. “We still need to rebound a little better, but I thought we were really, really tough on the defensive end.” It was the second time this season that McNary held a team under 40 points. The Vikings tried to make it a game midway through the third quarter by cutting the lead to 10 at 39-29. But McNary responded by going on a 7-0 run thanks to a pair of hoops by Griffi n Oliveira and a transition layup from Meithof. McNary travels to West Sa- lem tonight for a 5:45 p.m. matchup with the Titans. KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings McNary guard Devyn Schurr drives hard to the rack in the Celtics 62-39 victory over Forest Grove on Friday, Jan. 4. McNary wrestlers place fi fth at Portland Tourney KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings McNary’s Isabella Walker looks for an open teammate in a game against Westview earlier this season. Lady Celts pick up huge win By MATT RAWLINGS Of the Keizertimes The McNary girls basket- ball team desperately wanted to break a six-game losing streak and give themselves some mo- mentum heading into Moun- tainside Valley Conference play. Thanks to some key buckets down the stretch, along with their tough defense, the Lady Celts got exactly what they were looking for. Abigail Hawley led the way with a game-high of 15 points and Leah Doutt chipped in with 13 points as McNary came away with a 47-39 over- time road victory against Mc- Minnville in their last non- league game of the season on Friday, Jan. 4. “It was a great confi dence builder for us,” McNary head coach Elizabeth Doran said. “We have had a really tough non-league schedule, so that was a great way to fi nish it off. I think were in a good spot going into league (play).” Each team struggled on the offensive end in the fi rst half as both McMinnville and Mc- Nary shot under 30 percent from the fi eld in the fi rst 16 minutes. McMinnville, howev- er, went 7-of-10 from the foul line in the opening half, which allowed them to take a 16-12 lead at the break. McMinnville still clung to a four-point lead at 29-25 as the game entered the fourth quar- ter and even increased their lead to seven with less than four minutes remaining in reg- ulation. But the Celtics fi nished the fourth period on a 9-2 run to tie the score at 37-all and force overtime. Hawley knocked down a pair of free throws to start the extra session, which was fol- lowed by a big put-back hoop by Anna Leigh Besa on the next trip, putting the Celtics on top 41-39. Hawley would add a clutch bucket, as well as another pair of free throws, to give the Celt- ics the six-point lead. Sabella Alfaro came through with a key basket moments later to help McNary outscore McMinnville 10-2 in the overtime. “We were able to get to the basket and we just shot free throws a lot better towards the end of the game,” Doran said. “We stayed aggressive.” Doran also commented on McNary’s tenacious defense that held McMinnville to just four points in the fi nal seven minutes. “The girls really buy into the scout and what were supposed to do against opposing person- nel,” Doran said. “We play really hard on defense and our zone is looking a lot better.” By MATT RAWLINGS Of the Keizertimes Even though it had been more than two weeks since they faced competition, the McNary High School wres- tling team proved that they didn’t have any rust to knock off. The Celtics took fi fth place out of 21 teams and sent seven athletes to the po- dium at the Don York Invita- tional last Saturday. While a lot of squads might take it easy during the holiday break, McNary wres- tlers use that time to turn up the intensity of their practic- es and workouts. Based on the results last weekend, it appears that the extra practice time paid off. “It’s kind of become a tra- dition for us to work really hard and get better during the break,” McNary head coach Jason Ebbs said. “I was defi nitely really pleased. We’re defi nitely on an uptick KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings Grady Burrows (blue signlet) wrestles against a Sprague opponent in a match from Dec. 19. when it comes to perfor- mance.” McNary sophomore Tia Vincent provided the main highlight for the Celtics as she won the girls tourna- ment with back-to-back pins in the semifi nal and fi nal matches. If was the fi rst time Vin- cent placed fi rst at a tourna- ment in her career. “It honestly didn’t even feel real at fi rst,” Vincent said. “I feel like I usually don’t win a lot of matches, but I just kept working hard and tak- ing it one match at a time.” Vincent fell behind early in her semifi nal match against Dore Young from Franklin. But midway through the second round, Vincent was able to come back and get the pin. “(Young) was super ag- gressive so I was just looking for her mistakes because she was coming out too aggres- sive,” Vincent said. “I was able to grab her from behind and pull her down.” In the championship match, Vincent earned a fi rst- round pin against Jennifer Lopez from Forest Grove to take home the title. “It probably should have been a more challenging match, but Tia just controlled her position and did what she was supposed to do,” Ebbs said. After losing his quarterfi - nal match, Jordan Orr came back with four straight vic- tories to place third in the 106-pound division. Orr earned a 9-3 decision over his teammate, Damian Her- nandez in the third-place match. 113-pounder Grady Bur- rows earned a pair of falls in his fi rst two matches, then won via technical fall in his semifi nals match to reach the championship round. Burrows, however, was pinned in the second round of the title match against Tu- alatin’s Argenys Arbarca-Lo- pez. Garret Wampler (182 lbs.) fi nished with a record of 4-3 at the tournament, which was good enough for sixth place. Lanye Runyan also placed sixth in the 220-pound di- vision. Anthony Garcia-Reyes (220 lbs.) earned three straight victories via pin, and then won an 11-4 decision in the semifi nals, before los- ing the championship match against Dustin Jorgenson from Cleveland. Five out of the seven Mc- Nary wrestlers that made it to the podium on Satur- day were either freshmen or sophomores — with the two exceptions being Gar- cia-Reyes and Wampler. “It’s exciting to see the growth out of our young guys,” Ebbs said. The Celtics return to the mat this afternoon to compete in the Earl Gillis Invitational at Newberg High School. FOR MORE, see pages A10-A11