PAGE A14, KEIZERTIMES, MARCH 6, 2020
KEIZERTIMES.COM
Saxons spoil Celtics senior night
when we were struggling to
By MATT RAWLINGS
score. They’re a great team
Of the Keizertimes
Senior night featured one with multiple offensive
of McNary’s best defensive threats,” McNary head coach
performances of the season. Elizabeth Doran said.
Doutt had fi ve straight
Unfortunately for the Celt-
points to start
ics, the same
couldn’t be
the game out.
said for the “ I thought
Then, McNary
offense.
post
Bekah
our effort and
McNary
Grimmer had
failed
to intensity were
back-to-back
reach
the good. We
hoops as South
30-point
Salem
ended
mark for just carried out
the period with
the second the defensive
just a two-point
time in the
lead.
conference scout, but
The Saxons
season as the their defensive
had
trouble
sixth-ranked
with McNary’s
Saxons de- pressure made
2-3 zone in
feated
the
the early going.
us a little tired
Celtics 56-
The defensive
scheme espe-
29 on Friday, offensively... ”
Feb. 29.
cially affected
— Elizabeth Doran, South
L e a h
Salem
McNary head coach
Doutt was
point
guard
the
only
Hillary James.
McNary
James,
the
player in double-fi gures with Mountain Valley Conference
10 points.
player of the year, was held to
“I thought our effort and just fi ve points on 2-for-12
intensity were good. We car- shooting.
ried out our defensive scout,
“I thought we did a good
but their defensive pressure job of lowering Hillary’s
made us a little tired of- points, which is what our
fensively and I think that
Please see SENIOR, Page A11
showed in the third quarter
KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings
Bekah Grimmer goes up for a shot after battling for position on the low block. Grimmer fi nished with eight points in McNary’s
56-29 loss to South Salem on Friday, Feb. 28.
Ruberto and Villavazo
pick up wins at state
KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings
Nate Meithof drives past a South Salem defender on Friday, Feb. 28.
McNary falls fl at in second
half against South Salem
By MATT RAWLINGS
Of the Keizertimes
What started as a competi-
tive ballgame got out of hand
on the scoreboard in the sec-
ond half.
McNary had the score
within six early in the third
quarter, but second-ranked
South Salem outscored the
Celtics 38-11 in the last 13
minutes of the game to earn
the 83-50 victory in the regu-
lar season fi nale on Friday Feb.
29.
Nate Meithof led the Celt-
ics with 18 points and Jando
Gonzalez added 11, but Mc-
Nary had no answer for South
Salem’s Trey Galbraith, who lit
up the gym for 39 points and
set the Saxons new school re-
cord for 3-pointers in a game
(10).
Gonzalez, a freshman, talk-
ed about the challenge of
guarding a 19-year old senior
in Galbraith.
“It was a tough. He had a
lot of combo moves and he
was just shooting from every-
where. It was a challenge, but
I believe that this experience
will help me grow as a player,”
Gonzalez said.
After losing their top play-
er from last season in Jaden
Nielsen-Skinner, the Saxons
reloaded with six incoming
transfers to easily win the
Mountain Valley Conference
with a 14-0 league record
— only three of their league
games were within single-dig-
its.
McNary gained the upper
hand early in the opening
quarter thanks to a triple from
Gonzalez and back-to-back
hoops from Tyler O’Connor.
A fl oater from Meithof
and a bucket in the post from
O’Connor put McNary on
top 11-8, but the Saxons went
on a 12-0 run to take a nine-
point lead. The Celtics, how-
ever, were able to score the
last fi ve points of the quarter
to cut the lead to four.
“We were playing more
like a team on both sides of
the court,” Meithof said. “We
had really good ball move-
ment.”
A trio of McNary turn-
overs led to some easy baskets
for the Saxons. But after trail-
ing by double-digits early in
the second quarter, the Celtics
fought back.
A baseline triple and a nif-
ty lefty fl oater from Gonzalez
trimmed the defi cit to 32-26.
Meithof and Gunner Smede-
ma each hit jumpers before
the end of the half, but South
Salem still went to the break
with a 40-32 advantage.
Despite the defi cit, Mc-
Nary head coach Ryan Kirch
was quite pleased with the
fi rst half effort he saw from his
squad.
“I thought we did an un-
believable job in the fi rst half.
They hit a couple of deep
threes and we had a couple
turnovers in the backcourt,
but I thought we executed our
game plan well and our kids
played hard,” Kirch said.
The two teams traded
hoops to begin the third quar-
ter. A put-back bucket from
Please see CELTS, Page A10
By MATT RAWLINGS
Of the Keizertimes
The McNary wrestling
squad sent four athletes to the
state tournament, which took
place at Memorial Coliseum
Feb. 28-29. Although they
weren’t able to get anyone to
the podium, the Celtics got
multiple match victories form
sophomore Aldo Villavazo and
freshman Hunter Ruberto.
Villavazo, a 220-pounder,
advanced in the bracket by re-
ceiving a bye in the fi rst round
before facing off against Eric
Sheldon from Reynolds.
Villavazo held the lead late
in the match, but Sheldon got
a two-point takedown in the
waning moments of regulation,
tying the match at 10-10 and
forcing overtime.
However, Sheldon had been
called for stalling earlier in the
match, and Villavazo took full
advantage.
“Aldo did a really nice job
of pushing the pace in over-
time,” McNary interim head
coach Sam Martin said. “The
Reynolds kid was pretty timid.”
As Villavazo continued to go
after Sheldon in the overtime
period, Sheldon tried to back
away every time, forcing the
offi cial to hit him with another
stalling call, which gave Villa-
vazo the 11-10 sudden victory,
as well as a berth in the quar-
terfi nals.
Villavazo ended up getting
pinned in the third round of his
quarterfi nal match, then again
in the consolation bracket, but
that didn’t take away from what
he was able to accomplish in
his fi rst ever state meet.
“He proved that he be-
longed. He put his head down
and got to work. He is already
pumped for next year and I
can’t wait to see what he will
do,” Martin said.
Ruberto, who competed at
145 pounds, lost via major de-
cision in his opening bout. But
the freshman bounced back
in a big way in his next two
matches.
Ruberto got a bye in the fi rst
consolation round, then won
an 8-3 decision over Sprague’s
Devin Jeanes. In the following
match, Ruberto gained a dom-
inating victory over Aloha’s
Logan Moore, earning a fall
early in the second round.
“Hunter was in a tradition-
ally tough weight class, so to
win two matches was defi nitely
a huge confi dence builder for
him,” Martin said. “I think he
had a lot of nerves going into
his fi rst match, but the way he
responded was awesome.”
Ruberto was eliminated
from the tournament after get-
ting suffering a fall to Oregon
City’s Austin Nekvapil.
The Celtics also had Gilbert
Parra wrestling in his second
straight state meet. Parra just
missed a victory in his fi rst
match, which was a 3-2 loss
Uriel Rodriguez from Centu-
ry. The McNary senior was un-
able to recover from the defeat
as he lost his second match via
major decision.
Dalila Hernandez competed
as a freshman in the 190-pound
girls tournament, but got
pinned in the second round of
both her matches.
KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings
McNary’s Aldo Villavazo (blue singlet) advanced to the quarterfi nal match at the state tournament.