10A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2017
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Gary Henley | Sports Reporter
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Win pushes Ilwaco’s Lady Fish to state
Late
basket
topples
Loggers
By DAMIAN MULINIX
For The Daily Astorian
By GARY HENLEY
The Daily Astorian
IMBLER — For the second
game in a row, the Knappa boys
basketball team managed to erase
a big halftime deficit … only to
come up short on the final score.
Imbler held a 34-21 halftime
lead in the Class 2A first round
state playoff Friday, lost their
lead in the fourth quarter, but then
regained it for an eventual 51-49
win over the Loggers.
A steal and layup by Imbler’s
Brandon McGilvray with 55 sec-
onds left was the game-winning
score for the Panthers, who held
on for the two-point victory.
Imbler (18-2 overall) advances
to Pendleton for the
second year in
a row, and
will
face
Santiam in
a Thursday
quarterfinal.
Knappa’s
season comes to
a close at 18-9 overall, one win
shy of a trip to the tournament.
The Loggers would have been
the fourth team from the North-
west League to secure a spot in
Pendleton.
As it is, the NWL will have
three teams among the final eight,
as Columbia Christian, Life Chris-
tian and Vernonia all advanced
with victories Friday.
The Loggers led very early
in Friday’s game, 4-2, and did
not lead again until the closing
minutes, when a layup by Ethan
Rubus gave Knappa a 49-48 lead.
In between, Imbler built leads
of 18-9 after one quarter and
34-21 at halftime, highlighted by
a 3-pointer from 30 feet at the
buzzer by Trayse Riggle to end
the first half.
“We shot extremely poor in the
first half, especially the first quar-
ter (4-for-15),” said Knappa coach
Chris Spencer. “And (the Pan-
thers) were shooting at a tremen-
dous clip. The biggest problem
was that we were getting good
looks and missing, and they were
coming back down and hitting
3-pointers.”
Imbler was 6-of-8 from beyond
the arc in the first half.
Like they did last week in vs.
Columbia Christian in the league
tournament, the Loggers rallied,
with a 3-pointer from Colton Wei-
rup trimming the lead to 42-38
late in the third period.
Knappa tied the game twice
in the fourth quarter before tak-
ing the lead on a score by Ethan
Rubus with 1:20 left.
The Loggers had possession
and the lead with a minute remain-
ing, when McGilvray had a steal
near the top of the key, drove the
length of the floor, scored and
drew the foul for a three-point
play.
Knappa had one final shot at a
tie, but a tough turnaround jumper
by Dale Takalo along the baseline
missed.
“We cranked it up in the third
quarter, turned them over several
times and we were scoring on fast
breaks,” Spencer said. “The big
thing was that Imbler only had
one team foul with 1:15 left, so
they were able to foul us without
putting us on the line. We had a lot
of close calls go against us.
“But hats off to Imbler,” he
said. “I’m proud of our guys for
fighting and staying in it. That’s a
tough environment to play in and
we had some adversity with some
of the calls. Our kids managed to
overcome that and we still had the
lead with a minute left.”
Timber Engblom led Knappa
with 14 points, while McGilvray
had 20 for the Panthers.
“We’ll lose some seniors and
my assistant coach (Jed Miethe),
who gave us three outstanding
years,” Spencer said. “For the
guys coming back, we will try
to get better and hopefully learn
how to win more of these big
games.”
Damian Mulinix/For The Daily Astorian
Ilwaco’s Makenzie Kaech passes out of a defensive
double team by Raymond during the fourth quarter of
the Lady Fishermen’s regional playoff win.
CHEHALIS — With less than three
minutes left to play in the game and hold-
ing a double-digit lead over rival Raymond,
Ilwaco’s Makenzie Kaech and Made-
line Jacobson were on the floor, wrestling
for a loose ball. They won the tussle, kicked
a pass out to an open Ebby McMullen
who drilled a three point shot, essentially
sealing the 2B girls regional playoff win Sat-
urday at W.F. West High School in Cheha-
lis, 57-37.
Despite knowing that they would still
advance to the state tournament in Spo-
kane later this week regardless of the out-
come, the Lady Fishermen came out looking
to make a statement after being eliminated
the last two years in the regional round. Fac-
ing their Pacific League rivals for the fourth
time this season, the Gulls were able to hang
around for the first half. But by the midway
point of the third quarter the Lady Fisher-
men took control of the pace of the game
with their grind-it-out style of defense. By
the fourth quarter, the Gulls seemingly had
little left and soon IHS was off to a 20-point
win.
Ilwaco — who are seeded fifth in the
state tournament — earned a first round bye
at state with the win and will play next in the
quarterfinals, Thursday at 3:45 p.m., against
the winner of a first round game between the
#14 seeded Walla Walla Valley and #6 Saint
George’s.
Kaech led the team with 21 points, fol-
lowed closely my McMullen with 20. Jacob-
son and Eliza Bannister added seven points
each.
Local
wrestlers
have tough
time at state
The Daily Astorian
Jeff Ter Har/For The Daily Astorian
Seaside’s Maddi Utti takes on Junction City’s starting five and scores in first-half action Saturday.
ON TO SWEET 16
FOR LADY GULLS
The Daily Astorian
SEASIDE — The Seaside
Lady Gulls pronounced them-
selves “state tournament-ready”
Saturday night, following a deci-
sive 57-33 win over Junction
City in a Class 4A girls basketball
Regional Play-in game.
Seaside must win one more
game to officially qualify for the
tournament, but the way the Gulls
played Saturday, they’re looking
far beyond just the final eight.
The Gulls (17-4 overall) earned
the No. 9 seed to the Sweet 16,
and will play at No. 8 seed Molalla
(14-6) March 4. The winner will
play either Cascade or Cottage
Grove in a state tournament quar-
terfinal (March 9, 1:30 p.m. at
Forest Grove High School).
Seaside coach Mike Hawes
called it a “good win. The girls
were ready. Ugly fourth quar-
ter, but sometimes that happens.
Gonna be a tough one at Molalla.”
Tied 7-7 in the opening min-
utes of Saturday’s game, Seaside
took off on a 32-0 run for a 39-7
halftime lead, and the Gulls had
all the points they would need to
win.
Seaside was forcing turnovers
at will in the first half (18), while
Maddi Utti scored 19 of her game-
high 23 over the first two quarters.
Teammate Sydney Villegas fin-
ished with 17, as the two seniors
combined to outscore the Tigers
by themselves.
Villegas sparked the big
32-point run for the Gulls with
a jump shot. Utti scored sev-
eral times off steals and Gretchen
Hoekstre scored twice on offen-
sive rebounds. Emy Kiser added
a 3-pointer, and Seaside out-
scored the Tigers 17-0 in the sec-
ond quarter.
Junction City scored the first
basket of the second half, before
the Gulls reeled off a 16-5 run
for their biggest lead of the night,
55-12.
The Tigers outscored the Sea-
side reserves 19-2 in the fourth.
In addition to her 23 points,
Utti had eight rebounds, six steals
and six assists. Villegas had seven
rebounds, and the Gulls finished
with 19 steals.
Loss to Taholah eliminates Naselle boys
By DAMIAN MULINIX
For The Daily Astorian
TUMWATER — After losing the
league and district titles to Taholah
over the last few weeks, the last team
the Naselle High School boys likely
wanted to see in their 1B regional play-
off last Saturday were the Chitwins.
The Comets kept it close in the first
quarter, but by halftime were down 21
points, as Taholah easily eliminated the
Comets from the 1B playoffs, 76-47.
Despite the deficit, and a poke in
the eye that had him sidelined for part
of the third quarter, Donny Edwards
was dynamic at both ends of the court
for Naselle, leading the team with 19
points. Antonio Nolan added 10.
With less than five minutes to go
before racking up their fourth straight
double digit win over the Comets, the
Chitwins showed questionable sports-
manship, with a breakaway dunk
attempt (which was missed) and an
alley-pop off the backboard (which
they also missed).
The Comets finished the season
14-10 and placed second in the league
and the district tournament.
PORTLAND — Clatsop County
had just three wrestlers competing
in this year’s OSAA State Tourna-
ment, held Friday and Saturday in
Portland.
Team champions included Cul-
ver (2A/1A) and Nyssa (3A), while
Sweet Home edged Crook County
by a half-point to win the team title
at the Class 4A level.
Knappa’s Andrew Goozee won
his quarterfinal match Friday, but
then lost two straight matches to
wrestlers from Culver in a tough
195-pound (2A/1A) bracket.
Goozee wrestled less than a
minute on Day 1, when he pinned
Ben Crabill of Myrtle Point in just
44 seconds.
But for the first time all season,
Goozee was on the losing side in his
first match on Saturday.
No. 2 seed Jaiden Jones of Cul-
ver scored a 48-second pin over the
No. 3 seed Goozee. Jones lost a 7-3
decision in the championship bout
to Cord Flynn of Heppner/Ione.
Bumped into the consolation
half of the bracket, Goozee ran into
another tough Bulldog from Cul-
ver, sophomore Cylus Hoke, who
scored a 6-5 decision over Goozee.
Hoke eventually finished third.
Wrestling in the 285-pound
bracket at the Class 3A level, War-
renton junior Beau Reynolds
opened with a loss (49-second pin)
to Riverside’s Ruben Villa in Round
1, then lost a consolation match
by fall (:26) to Keegan Cook of
Willamina.
In the Class 4A portion of the
meet, Astoria’s Kaden Gilbert lost
by fall (1:55) to Cole Facchini of
Yamhill-Carlton in the first round at
182 pounds.
But Gilbert reversed his fortune
with a pin (1:56) over freshman
Joseph Carrion of Hidden Valley
in consolation and scored a major
decision (12-2) over La Grande’s
Spencer Gerst.
North Marion’s Matt Carrillo
ended Gilbert’s run with a 17-7
major decision over the Astoria
sophomore.
SCOREBOARD
BOYS BASKETBALL
Imbler 51, Knappa 49
KNA (49): Timber Engblom 14, D.
Takalo 11, Weirup 8, J.Miller 6, Rubus 6,
E.Takalo 4.
IMB (51): Brandon McGilvray 20,
Whitaker 8, VanLeuven 8, Riggle 7,
Tritchka 6, McDonald 2.
Knappa
9 12 17 11—49
Imbler
18 16 8 9—51
Taholah 76, Naselle 47
Naselle 10 14 8 15 — 47
Taholah
20 25 15 16 — 76
GIRLS BASKETBALL
Naselle girls bullied out of the playoffs
By DAMIAN MULINIX
For The Daily Astorian
TACOMA, Wash. — Poor shoot-
ing and a physical mismatch led
to a regional-round exit from the 1B
playoffs for the Naselle High School
girls basketball team Saturday in
Tacoma.
The Comets, who did not convert
a field goal for nearly two quarters,
had a hard time matching up against
the bigger Neah Bay Lady Red Dev-
ils, who had a deep bench and seemed
willing to play rough if it meant a trip
to state, which they got with a 58-39
win.
The Comets did not score a bas-
ket from around the 6-minute mark in
the first period until the 3:37 mark in
the third — their 13 points in between
came by way of free throws.
Sophomore Taylor Gudmundson
led the Comets with 9 points, followed
by Ellie Chapman and Lilli Zimmer-
man with 7 each. The Comets finished
the season 16-7, and went 12-0 in
Coastal League play, where they were
the league champs, and placed second
at district.
Seaside 57, Junction City 33
JC (33): Madison Mehlbrech 13,
Bruhn 6, Chappell 5, Ohman 4, Evans
2, Hernandez 2, Fox 1.
SEA (57): Maddi Utti 23, Villegas 17,
Hoekstre 5, Ideue 4, Kiser 3, Garhofer
3, Babbitt 2, Smart, Bodner, Falleur.
Junction City 7 0 7 19—33
Seaside
22 17 16 2—57
Ilwaco 57, Raymond 37
Ilwaco
14 15 9 19 — 57
Raymond 10 14 11 4 — 37
Neah Bay 58, Naselle39
Naselle
9 9 4 18 — 39
Neah Bay 14 16 14 14 — 58