SPORTS
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2015
Photos by Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Seaside’s Jaxson Smith, No. 2, shoots in the first quarter of the game against Sisters Friday at the Seaside Holiday Classic. More photos at www.dailyastorian.com
Gulls top Astoria in
+ROLGD\&ODVVLF¿QDO
Seaside’s Sydney
Villegas, No. 20,
fights for the ball
in the first half of
the game against
Lost River Friday.
By GARY HENLEY
The Daily Astorian
SEASIDE — The Seaside
Gulls were just tuning up Satur-
da\ night Rn their hRPe ÀRRr
Tuning up their game, tuning
up for the Cowapa League sea-
son, and tuning up for whatever
team picture they may be posing
for 0arch
Because from the looks of it,
the Gulls could be reaching some
lofty heights come state tourna-
ment time
It’s still early in the season,
but Seaside was hitting on all
cylinders late Saturday, in a 61-
40 win over Astoria in the boys’
title game of the annual Seaside
+oliday Classic
The Fishermen are expected
to be the main challenger for the
Gulls once Cowapa League play
begins, -an 1
“All our kids played well,”
said Seaside coach Bill Wester-
holm “Astoria is going to be one
of the top contenders in the state
They got off to a good start, and
they were ready to play”
And Astoria held an early
14-8 lead, following a three-point
play by .yle Strange 0organ
Fruiht scored six of his team-high
14 points in the opening quarter
to help the Fishermen to a 16-15
lead
But the Gulls quickly found
their quick game, quickened the
pace and outscored Astoria 20-4
in the second period Attikin
Babb drained a pair of 3-pointers,
and Jackson Januik added a third
to highlight the rally
Jaxson Smith scored 10 of his
game-high 18 points in the ¿rst
half
The Gulls were knocking
down shots from inside and out-
side (20-for-42 overall), from
the 3-point line (5-of-12) and
from the free throw line (16-for-
21), as they maintained a 15- to
20-point lead for most of the
second half
Januik and Smith shared the
tournament’s 093 award
It was Seaside’s defense,
however, that earned Wester-
holm’s praise
“We just did a good job de-
fensively,” he said “(Fruiht) is a
tough guy to defend, and Austin
Eagon did a nice job defending
him And =ach 0arston did well
in getting out and defending As-
toria’s pick and roll stuff It was
our best defensive effort we’ve
had all season”
The victory came almost one
year to the day that the Gulls lost
the championship game of the
2014 tournament, when Madras
rallied for a 45-41 win
“Our kids are more mature
and they respond to adversity a
lot better,” Westerholm said
And despite having two more
league games with Astoria, the
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Astoria’s Olaf Englund, No. 3, secures a loose ball during the
game against Newport Friday at the Seaside Holiday Classic.
Gulls weren’t holding anything
back
“What you saw from us is
just what you’re going to get,” he
said “We like to full-court press
and speed up the game”
In Friday’s semi¿nal round,
the Gulls trailed Sisters 15-11
early in the second quarter, then
caught ¿re and led 25-1 at half-
time
Sisters put up a brief rally in
the third period, pulling to with-
in 30-24, but Hunter Thompson
drilled a 3-pointer at the buzzer to
end the third, and the Gulls ¿n-
ished the game with a 21-8 run
Januik had 15 points and
Smith added 12
Astoria defeated Newport 54-
38 in the other semi¿nal
Lady Gulls take third
The shocker of the tourna-
ment came Friday night in the
girls’ semi¿nals, where Class
2A Lost River held on for a 30-
28 upset win over Seaside, end-
ing the Gulls’ hopes for a third-
straight Classic title
Seaside bounced back, how-
ever, in Saturday’s third-place
game, where the Gulls pounded
Newport 63-25
After a poor shooting night in
Friday’s loss, Seaside came out
hot against the Cubs and led 2-6
after one quarter
A 10-2 run in the second pe-
riod had the Gulls ahead 3-8 at
halftime
Seaside was 25-for-48 on
two-point ¿eld goals Tourna-
ment MVP Maddi Utti was 11-
of-15 from the ¿eld and ¿nished
with 25 points, to go with six
assists, four rebounds and four
steals
The Gulls provided plenty
of support with balanced scor-
ing from Jetta Ideue and Sydney
Villegas (eight points each), with
seven points and ¿ve assists from
Whitney Westerholm Seaside
had 14 team steals
Madras 65, Astoria 58
Call it a “hard-fought loss”
for the Astoria girls basketball
team Saturday afternoon
The Lady Fishermen are
vastly improved and played
well enough to win Saturday’s
consolation ¿nal in the Seaside
Holiday Classic … but “vastly
improved” doesn’t always show
up in the win column
Madras rallied from a
15-point, third quarter de¿cit to
beat Astoria, 65-58, to take ¿fth
place in the Classic
The Lady Fishermen looked
great and played great, but a
16-0 run by the White Buffaloes
midway through the second half
— coupled with 1 second-half
turnovers by Astoria — helped
Madras score the victory
The Lady Fish were runnin’
and gunnin’ in the ¿rst half, forc-
ing turnovers and hitting shot
after shot (11-for-14 in the ¿rst
quarter) to build a 23-11 lead
Chloee Hunt highlighted a
13-0 Astoria run with a 3-pointer
and two mid-range jump shots
Teammate Taylor Mickle scored
all 10 of her points in the ¿rst
half, which ended with Astoria
holding a 35-24 lead
Astoria’s largest lead was 3-
24, following scores by Hunt and
Alexis Wallace to open the sec-
ond half
Madras senior Leah Suppah
— scoreless in the ¿rst half —
caught ¿re in the third quarter,
hitting ¿ve 3-pointers Sopho-
more teammate Lynden Harry
¿nished with 23 points, 14 in the
second half
Despite sitting for much of
the second half in foul trouble,
Hunt poured in 2 points, with
12 rebounds Wallace added 15
points and 11 boards
With the Lady Fishermen
leading 50-4 midway through
the fourth quarter, Madras scored
on a steal and layup by Harry,
and another score by Kaliyah
Iverson for a 53-50 lead
With 1:44 left, Astoria was
called for a foul, followed by
a technical foul, and Madras
pushed the lead to 55-50
Astoria outrebounded Ma-
dras 35-24, with Hunt pulling
down 12 rebounds,
Astoria bounced back from
an opening round loss to Elma
with a 61-3 win over Corbett
in Friday morning’s consolation
game
Knappa boys score huge win
The Daily Astorian
KNAPPA — The Knap-
pa Loggers chopped down
one of the Class 2A’s top
teams Friday night, as they
defeated Central Linn 56-
48 in a nonleague contest at
Knappa
Colton Weirup scored 25
points, Dale Takalo added 15,
and the Loggers shut down
a much bigger Central Linn
front line to score the win
Knappa was 12-of-32
from the ¿eld and made 1-
of-2 free throws to hold off
the Cobras
The Loggers built a 25-
20 halftime lead, and pushed
their advantage to 38-2 go-
ing into the fourth quarter
Weirup made all ¿ve of
Knappa’s 3-pointers to help
the Loggers maintain their
second half lead
Girls Basketball
Cobras 33, Loggers 11
KNAPPA — Central
Linn held Knappa to just
three points in the second
half Friday, as the Cobras
posted a 33-11 win over the
Lady Loggers in nonleague
action
Jessica Ramirez scored
eight points to lead Cen-
tral Linn, with ¿ve team-
mates adding four points
apiece Bailey Corder had
¿ve points and Kaitlyn
Landwehr pulled down ¿ve
rebounds for the Loggers
Kalama 44, Ilwaco 32
ILWACO, Wash — The
Ilwaco girls basketball team
took a break from league
play Saturday, and hosted
former 1A foe Kalama
And the Chinooks left
town with a 44-32 win over
Ilwaco (4-2 overall), which
is now 0-2 in nonleague
games
Kaelyn Shipley scored
14 points to lead Kalama,
which outscored Ilwaco -1
in the decisive fourth quar-
ter
Mackenzie Kaech had 13
points for Ilwaco
SCOREBOARD
PREP SCHEDULE
MONDAY
Girls Basketball — Warrenton at Portland Adven-
tist, 6 p.m.
Boys Basketball — Warrenton at Portland Adven-
tist, 7:45 p.m.; Willapa Valley at Ilwaco, 7 p.m.
TUESDAY
Girls Basketball — Clatskanie at Seaside, 7:45
p.m.; Warrenton at Jefferson, 2:30 p.m.; Ilwaco at
Willapa Valley, 7 p.m.
Boys Basketball — Clatskanie at Seaside, 6 p.m.;
Warrenton at Jefferson, 4 p.m.
WEDNESDAY
Boys Basketball — Astoria at R.A. Long, 6:15 p.m.
BOYS BASKETBALL
Seaside 61, Astoria 40
AST (40): Morgan Fruiht 14, Jarrett 11, Strange
9, Englund 5, Williams 1, Meisner, Gohl, Fremstad,
Burchfield, Loughran, Palek, Arnsdorf, O’Brien.
SEA (61): Jaxson Smith 18, Babb 13, Januik 10,
Eagon 8, Thompson 7, Marston 4, Cazarez 1, Olson,
Hoekstre, Richardson, Bassett, Lewis.
Astoria
16 4 11 9—40
Seaside
15 20 15 11—61
Knappa 56, Central Linn 48
CL (48): Diego Jimenez 16, Nightengale 11, Deb-
ban 9, Holmes 5, Gerber 5, Pettner 2.
KNA (56): Colton Weirup 25, Takalo 15, Miller 7,
Engblom 4, Severson 3, Rubus 2, Goodman, Geis-
ler.
C.Linn
6 14 9 19—48
Knappa
7 18 13 18—56
GIRLS BASKETBALL
Seaside 63, Newport 25
NEW (25):
SEA (63): Maddi Utti 25, J.Ideue 8, Villegas 8,
Westerholm 7, Brown 5, West 4, Smart 2, Trott 2,
Bodner 2, P.Ideue, Babbitt.
Newport
6 2 8 9—25
Seaside
27 10 18 8—63
Madras 65, Astoria 58
AST (58): Chloee Hunt 27, Wallace 15, Mickle 10,
DeMander 4, Mitchell 2, Dalton, Abrahams, Gimre.
MDR (65): Lynden Harry 23, Suppah 18, Iverson
16, Anderson 4, Scott 2, Adams 2.
Astoria
25 10 10 13—58
Madras
15 9 18 23—65
Central Linn 33, Knappa 11
CL (33): Jessica Ramirez 8, McLaughlin 4,
E.Phearson 4, Neal 4, Kaczmarek 4, Wright 4, Black
3, Stutzman 2.
KNA (11): Bailey Corder 5, Vanderburg 4,
Landwehr 2, Vandergriff, Strain, Truax, McMahan,
Silva, Miethe.
C.Linn
9 9 6 9—33
Knappa
4 4 3 0—11
Kalama 44, Ilwaco 32
KAL (44): Kaelyn Shipley 14, Esary 12, Montanez
12, Mickelson 4, Nelson 2.
ILW (32): Mackenzie Kaech 13, McMillan 8, Ban-
nister 4, Ellsworth 3, Bentley 2, Jacobson 2.
Kalama
15 8 12 9—44
Ilwaco
11 9 12 1—32
Seaside Holiday Classic
All-Tournament
GIRLS
MVP-Maddi Utti, Seaside
Conley Doyle, Elma
Lynden Harry, Madras
Chloee Hunt, Astoria
Destiny Martinez, Newport
Emily Parks, Lost River
Rachel Parks, Lost River
Maddie Thompson, Elma
Whitney Westerholm, Seaside
BOYS
MVP-Jackson Januik, Seaside
MVP-Jaxson Smith, Seaside
Kye Blaser, Newport
Morgan Fruiht, Astoria
Keegan Greaney, Sisters
Brock Johnson, Castle Rock
Kyle Strange, Astoria
Hunter Thompson, Seaside
Brenden Thurber-Blaser, Newport
Shea Yeahquo, Madras