10A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2017
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Gary Henley | Sports Reporter
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Valiants
rally for
win over
Astoria
State championship preview?
Gulls boys beat Valley Catholic
Seaside takes Cowapa
League bragging rights
The Daily Astorian
The Daily Astorian
BEAVERTON — The Astoria
Lady Fishermen held a halftime
lead and went down swinging,
but a nine-point loss to the No.
10-ranked team wasn’t enough to
extend their season.
Valley Catholic had to rally to
beat Astoria 51-42 in a Cowapa
League playoff Tuesday night,
bringing an end to the season for
the Lady Fishermen.
The Valiants (15-8 overall)
advance to the Regional Play-in
round, while Astoria finishes 9-16,
just out of playoff contention.
It was a “really good first half,”
said Astoria coach Mike Jacob-
son, whose team held a 22-16
lead at the break over the Valiants.
“The foul disparity turned against
us to begin the third,” as Astoria
had seven team fouls in the first
three minutes of the second half.
The Valiants ended up out-
scoring the Fishermen 24-7 in
the decisive third quarter to take
a 40-29 heading into the final
period.
Still, “We got it back to a three-
point game (43-40) with two min-
utes left, and then had to start
fouling,” Jacobson said, as his
team went on an 11-3 run. “The
girls played a great all-around
game. I couldn’t be more proud
of them.”
The Valiants finished 19-of-32
at the free throw line, to Astoria’s
6-for-7.
Valley Catholic’s Noelle Man-
nen led all scorers with 25 points,
while Brooklynn Hankwitz had
14 and Sam Hemsley added 10
for Astoria.
Rylee DeMander and Alexis
Wallace chipped in nine points
apiece.
TILLAMOOK — Goal No. 1 is officially
out of the way for the Seaside boys basket-
ball team.
In a possible state championship preview,
the Gulls defeated Valley Catholic, 71-59,
Tuesday night in Tillamook to officially lock
up bragging rights atop the Cowapa League.
The teams actually shared the official
league title, with the Gulls winning Tuesday’s
tune-up for the state playoffs.
Not much else was on the line in the game,
the third meeting of the season between the
Gulls and Valiants. Both teams had locked up
their free passes to the Sweet 16, win or lose.
Seaside is No. 1 and the Valiants No. 2 in
the latest OSAA rankings, and the rankings
were going to remain the same, no matter the
outcome of Tuesday’s game.
The Gulls will host an opponent (to be
determined) March 3, followed by a trip to the
state tournament, March 9-11.
After losing to Valley Catholic in their pre-
vious meeting Feb. 10, the Gulls overcame
an early six-point deficit and sprinted past the
bigger Valiants with ease in the second half, in
a game that featured 11 lead changes.
Valley Catholic held a 35-34 halftime lead,
before the Gulls went on a 3-pointer rampage
in the third and fourth quarters.
The Valiants held a 43-42 advantage mid-
way through the third, when Payton Wester-
holm scored on a layup, giving Seaside the
lead for good.
Chase Januik followed with a 3-pointer,
as he and Hunter Thompson combined for
six 3-pointers over the final 16 minutes. The
Gulls played their run-and-gun, steal-and-
score game after that, running circles around
the Valiants.
Januik capped his night with a four-point
play in the closing minutes, as the Gulls ran
away with the win.
Seaside had four players in double figures,
led by Jackson Januik with 22, and followed
by Attikin Babb (13), Chase Januik (12) and
Thompson (11).
SCOREBOARD
BOYS BASKETBALL
Seaside 71, Valley Catholic 59
VC (59): Daniel Hardy 20, Plambeck
12, Haggerty 7, Robbins 6, Grassberger
5, Welsh 5, Braun 2, Katin 2.
SEA (71): Jackson Januik 22, Babb
13, C.Januik 12, H.Thompson 11,
Westerholm 4, D.Thompson 4, Hoek-
stre 2.
Valley Catholic 17 18 11 13—59
Seaside
16 18 19 18—71
GIRLS BASKETBALL
Valley Catholic 51, Astoria 42
AST (42): Brooklynn Hankwitz 14,
Hemsley 10, Wallace 9, DeMander 9,
Cummings, Gimre, O’Brien, Norris.
VC (51): Mannen 25, Flemmer 12,
Nguyen 11, Kawaguchi 3.
Astoria
11 11 7 13—42
Valley Catholic 8 8 24 11—51
Banks 60, Seaside 46
BAN (60): Sydney Gregg 21, Slifka 15,
Nelson 7, Gerlinger 6, Ragsdale 5, Klein
4, Wren 2.
SEA (46): Maddi Utti 24, Villegas 8,
Babbitt 7, Kiser 3, Ideue 2, Garhofer 2,
Smart, Bodner, Hoekstre.
Banks
11 14 11 24—60
Seaside
13 2 19 12—46
Jeff Ter Har/For The Daily Astorian
Jackson Januik scored a game-high 22 points for the Gulls, who will have more than
a week off before their next game.
Lady Braves defeat Seaside, earn top seed
The Daily Astorian
TILLAMOOK — Two games
in six days versus Seaside, two
wins for the Banks girls basketball
team, which locked up the Cowapa
League’s top seed to the state playoffs
Tuesday with a 60-46 victory over the
Lady Gulls.
The Braves earn a free pass to the
Sweet 16, while the Lady Gulls could
also receive a bye later this week,
but if not, the Gulls would host a
Regional Play-in game before open-
ing the state playoffs March 4.
After suffering a 62-58 loss to
Seaside in the first meeting, Banks
has rebounded with two straight wins
over the Gulls.
With both teams ranked in the
top three in the latest coaches poll,
the No. 2-ranked Braves and No.
3-ranked Gulls could easily end up
facing each other at the state tourna-
ment in Forest Grove, March 9-11.
Banks jumped out to a quick
9-2 lead on the strength of 3-point-
ers from Sydney Gregg and Katie
Ragsdale, before the Gulls answered
with an 11-2 run, capped by baskets
from Sydney Villegas and Annaka
Garhofer.
The momentum swung back to
the Braves in the second quarter, as
Gregg knocked down another trey in
a 14-2 quarter for Banks, resulting in
a 25-15 halftime lead.
Seaside’s Maddi Utti had just two
points in the first half, but the senior
scored 14 in the third period and had
the Gulls within 36-34 going into the
final quarter.
But the Braves had plenty left, out-
scoring Seaside 24-12 in the fourth
quarter.
Utti had 24 points to lead all scor-
ers, while Gregg had 21 and Aspen
Slifka added 15 for the Braves.
Maddi Utti
scored 24
points for
Seaside in a
loss Tuesday
night against
Banks.
Jeff Ter Har
For The Daily
Astorian
MLB to push forward with process for rule changes
Union agrees
to intentional
walk change
By JANIE McCAULEY
Associated Press
AP Photo/Morry Gash
Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred an-
swers questions at a news conference Tuesday in Phoenix.
PHOENIX — Major
League Baseball intends
to push forward with the
process that could lead to
possible rule changes involv-
ing the strike zone, installa-
tion of pitch clocks and limits
on trips to the pitcher’s mound.
While baseball Commis-
sioner Rob Manfred expressed
hope the ongoing process
would lead to an agreement,
he said clubs would reserve
the right to act unilater-
ally, consistent with the rule-
change provision of the sport’s
labor contract.
Union head Tony Clark
said last weekend he did not
foresee players agreeing to
many of the proposed changes
for 2017. Under baseball’s
collective bargaining agree-
ment, management can alter
playing rules only with agree-
ment from the union — unless
it gives one year notice. With
the one year of notice, man-
agement can make changes on
its own.
While the union has
resisted many of MLB’s pro-
posed innovations, players are
willing to accept an intentional
walk change, which would
allow intentional walks with-
out pitches.
“As part of a broader discus-
sion with other moving pieces,
the answer is yes,” Clark wrote
today in an email to The Asso-
ciated Press. “There are details,
as part of that discussion, that
are still being worked through,
however.”
Commissioner
Man-
fred had complained Tues-
day during a news conference
about a lack of meaningful
change and blamed the union.
“I’ve tried to be clear that our
game is fundamentally sound,
that it does not need to be
fixed as some people have sug-
gested, and I think last season
was the kind of demonstration
of the potential of our league to
captivate the nation and of the
game’s unique place in Ameri-
can culture,” he said.
Yet, he also added: “I
believe it’s a mistake to stick
our head in the sand and
ignore the fact that our game
has changed and continues to
change.”
Manfred said while he pre-
fers an agreement, “I’m also
not willing to walk away.” He
said he will send a letter to the
union in the coming days and
plans to continue dialogue
with Clark and others in hopes
of reaching agreement.
Clark met with Cactus
League teams last week, five at
a time over Thursday, Friday
and Saturday, before depart-
ing Monday for Florida to visit
each Grapefruit League club
— and proposed rules changes
were a topic.
“I have great respect for the
labor relations process, and I
have a pretty good track record
for getting things done with
the MLBPA,” Manfred said. “I
have to admit, however, that I
am disappointed that we could
not even get the MLBPA to
agree to modest rule changes
like limits on trips to the
mound that have little effect
on the competitive character of
the game.”