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