BAGE A14, KEIZERTIMES, FEBRUARY 8, 2019
KEIZERTIMES.COM
McNary upsets second-ranked South Salem
By MATT RAWLINGS
Of the Keizertimes
McNary boys basketball
head coach Ryan Kirch has
had a number of big victories
throughout his eight years
with the Celtics.
But the win he got on
Thursday, Jan 31 will stick in
his mind for a long time.
Boston Smith led the
Celtics with 19 points as
McNary went on the road
and knocked second-ranked
South Salem, beating the
Saxons 59-57 and keeping
themselves in position for the
MVC title.
“I’m just really proud of
our guys. Each and every one
of them gave of themselves
for the betterment of the
team,” Kirch said. “It’s one of
the best wins I’ve ever had as
a coach. To watch them be so
happy and excited is a joy to
watch.”
Nate Meithof was also in
double-fi gures with 14 points
and Alfredo Villareal added
13 points in the victory.
“Honestly, for me, this is
the best win I’ve ever had in
my entire life,” Villareal said.
“We all played so great to-
gether and I am just proud of
this team.”
Villareal had been play-
ing limited minutes coming
into this game after suffer-
ing a foot injury in January.
But in his fi rst game back in
the starting lineup, the senior
point guard made his pres-
ence felt almost immediately.
After knocking down a
mid-range jumper to start the
game, Villareal hit an open
3-pointer right of the key on
the next trip to give McNary
the early momentum.
Meithof and Smith each
added hoops to put the
Celtics ahead 9-7 midway
through the opening period,
but a pair of offensive fouls
by Smith sent the McNary
big man to the bench.
However, Kirch entered
Smith back into the contest
later in the period and the
senior post threw down a
monster jam after the Celtics
beat the overly-aggressive de-
fensive press from the Saxons.
South Salem forced nu-
merous McNary turnovers
throughout the game with
their aggressive double-teams
on the ball and three-quar-
ter-courts traps. However, the
Celtics also got a large supply
of easy hoops after taking ad-
vantage of the Saxons being
a little too greedy defensively.
“We spent a lot of the
last two days working on all
the fundamentals of han-
dling pressure,” Kirch said.
“We don’t talk about it as a
press-break, we refer to it as
press-attack. I’m a big believ-
er that, if you attack it, you
got to make them pay. If they
don’t pay, their just going to
keep on doing it.”
“We did have some turn-
overs, but we got some easy
buckets because of their pres-
sure.”
Both teams went back and
forth into the midway part of
the second period. But with
the Saxons up 23-22, South
Salem was hit with their
second technical foul of the
game when Eric Lungu got
in the face of a McNary play-
er after the whistle.
After Meithof hit one of
the two technical foul shots,
McNary’s Devyn Schurr
knocked down a straightaway
triple to give the Celtics the
lead back at 26-23. A lay-in
from Noah Hudkins and
a pair of free throws from
Meithof helped the Celtics
go on a 7-1 run to take a 30-
24 lead late in the period.
“We knew it was going to
be chippy. These two teams
have been at the top of the
league for the last fi ve years,”
Kirch said. “When (South
Salem) started talking a little
bit, our guys just maintained
their composure throughout
the entire thing.”
The Saxons cut the lead to
three with under a minute re-
maining before halftime, but
Villareal ended the second
quarter with back-to-back
buckets in a 20-second span,
extending McNary’s advan-
tage to 34-27 at the break.
“We had so much energy
KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings
McNary guard Nate Meithof goes up for a shot after driving into the lane in the Celtics 59-57 victory over South Salem on
Thursday Jan. 31.
going into the locker room. I
knew at that moment that we
were going to win this game.”
A three-point play from
Smith early in the third pe-
riod gave McNary their larg-
est lead of the game at 41-29.
Smith picked up his third
foul midway through the
quarter, but that didn’t stop
his aggressiveness on the of-
fensive end.
Smith scored two more
times before the end of the
period, including a high-
light-reel fi nish off a lob from
Meithof.
“I just have to play my
game,” Smith said. “I’m not
going to change for the refs
and I’m not going to change
for the other team.”
“My teammates defi nitely
got me open with being ul-
tra-aggressive driving in from
the three-point line.”
The Celtics entered the
fourth quarter with a 49-41
advantage. Now, the only
thing on their mind was to
hang on.
One thing that allowed
McNary to do that was their
tenacious 2-1-2 zone, a de-
fense that has become prom-
inent for the Celtics over the
last few weeks.
South Salem had to settle
for long jumpers and were
denied any second-chance
opportunities thanks to the
rebounding abilities of Hud-
kins and Smith.
McNary also held South
Salem’s star guard Jaden
Nielsen-Skinner in check all
night as the Portland State
commit made just two fi eld
goals for the game.
“It’s different than what a
lot of people see, so it’s hard
to prepare for a little bit,”
Celts pick up a win at multi-dual meet
By MATT RAWLINGS
Of the Keizertimes
The majority of league
wrestling meets feature two
teams facing off against each
other. However, the addition
of Bend schools into the valley
has caused teams from the Sa-
lem-Keizer area to do things a
little bit differently this season.
The McNary wrestling
team took on Mountain View,
Summit and Bend in a unique
Mountain Valley Conference
multi-dual match on Fri-
day Feb. 1. Sprague and West
Salem also competed at the
meet.
The Celtics couldn’t hang
with the likes of Bend and
Mountain View — who are
two of the better programs in
the state — as they fell to Bend
49-18 and lost to Mountain
View 57-24. However, Mc-
Nary was able to salvage a
victory in their fi nal match,
defeating Summit 57-14.
More importantly for the
Celtics is that they are peaking
at the right time as an overall
team.
“I can honestly tell you
there was a difference in our
kids,” McNary head coach Ja-
son Ebbs said. “It didn’t nec-
essarily come in the form of
wins and losses, but we were
ATHLETE
presented by
LEAH DOUTT
Sophomore at McNary High School
KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings
McNary’s Estaban Victoria tries to get out of a leg lift in the
132-pound bout against Bend on Friday, Feb. 1
Walling receives offer from Yale
Junior Walling, who is cur-
rently a junior at McNary
High School, announced on
his Twitter page Tuesday eve-
ning that he received an offi -
cial offer to continue his ed-
ucation and football career at
Yale University.
As one of the best Sa-
lem-Keizer players in the Class
of 2020, Walling had a monster
braith tried a step-back tri-
ple on the Saxons ensuing
possession, but Meithof was
able to extend every bit of his
6-foot-4 inch frame to par-
tially block the shot.
Ryan Brown caught the
carom for the Saxons and
threw up a desperation shot
in mid-air at the buzzer, but
the ball spun around the rim
and fell out of the cylinder.
Right as gravity brought
the ball back down to the
hardwood, the McNary stu-
dent section rushed the fl oor,
celebrating the monumental
victory.
“The crowd defi nitely
brought the energy for the
whole game,” Smith said.
McNary travels to Bend
tonight for a 6:30 p.m. con-
test.
of the Week
more purposeful in what we
were doing that night.”
“The kids were attacking
with purpose and their tech-
nique was better. But was more
exciting to see was the types
of mistakes and the number of
mistakes we were making was
a lot fewer. Across the board,
we saw marked improvement.
We made a leap, and it wasn’t
a small leap, it was a big leap in
the right direction.”
McNary 138-pounder Gil-
bert Parra was the top per-
former on the night for his
team and was the only Celt-
ic wrestler to fi nish the meet
3-0.
Blease see WRESTLING,
BAGE A11
Kirch said about the unique
zone defense. “It certainly
gave (South Salem) a lot of
trouble tonight.”
What nearly killed Mc-
Nary down the stretch was
foul shooting. The Celtics
held a 58-52 with 1:30 re-
maining in the contest and
were looking to put the game
on ice. However, they missed
six out of seven free throws
to close out the game — in-
cluding a pair of front end
1-and-1 misses.
After Nielsen-Skinner hit
a couple of free throws to cut
the Saxons defi cit to 59-57
with 8.1 seconds left, Villareal
was fouled on the inbounds
and was sent to the line. But
Villareal missed both shots,
giving South Salem the op-
portunity to force overtime
or win with a 3-pointer.
South Salem’s Trey Gal-
junior season for the Celt-
ics in 2018. He was named a
fi rst-team all-Mountain Valley
Conference performer at both
linebacker and running back
and was also received all-Mid-
Valley recognition.
Walling rushed for over
1,000 yards last season and
scored 12 touchdowns on the
offensive side of the ball. On
defense, he ended the year
with 86 total tackles (49 solo,
37 unassisted) as well as fi ve
sacks.
In the classroom, Walling
earns a 4.0 GPA and takes
weighted classes.
This is Walling’s second of-
fer from a Division 1 school —
the fi rst one came from Ore-
gon State University last April.
#14 - Boint Guard
Leah Doutt led all scorers with 21 points on 8-of-13
shooting in McNary’s fi rst league loss to South
Salem on Thursday, Jan. 31.
In the Celtics previous contest, Doutt’s 20 points
helped her team to a 42-41 win over Mountain View
on Saturday, Jan. 26.
Doutt was also honored as the player of the week
by the Salem Sports and Breakfast Club.
She is averaging 13 points and 5 boards per game
so far this season.