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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, FEbRuARY 25, 2019
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Gary Henley | Sports Reporter
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Warrenton tops Amity
in battle of the Warriors
First state
tournament
in nine years
By GARY HENLEY
The Daily Astorian
ARRENTON — Goal No. 1
was to make the state playoffs.
Goal No. 2 was a state tourna-
ment appearance, the school’s first since
2010.
Now that the Warrenton girls bas-
ketball team has accomplished the first
two, it’s on to Goal No. 3: To win a state
championship. After all, there’s no rea-
son it can’t be the Warriors.
Following a 60-52 win Saturday night
over the Amity Warriors, the Warrenton
Warriors have wins over the No. 2, 8 and
9 teams in the state. Now they’re in the
final eight themselves — and looking
like Final Four material.
(Bonus points — it’s also the first
20-win season since 2009-10 for War-
renton, now 20-7).
“We’ve worked hard every single
practice for this moment,” said Warren-
ton senior Fernanda Alvarez, who scored
a game-high 28 points in Saturday’s win.
“I was excited to play this game. I was
really focused on getting this (win). I
didn’t want the season to be over.”
Warrenton will open the state tour-
nament Thursday at Marshfield High
School, tipoff 8:15 p.m. against Salem
Academy, one of the ranked teams the
Warriors knocked off (even without
Alvarez) during the regular season. The
winner of Thursday’s game will meet
Blanchet Catholic or Vale in the Final
Four.
“We haven’t had a state playoff win
since I’ve been here, in any sport,” said
Warrenton coach Robert Hoepfl, in his
fourth year. “It’s so great for the kids. We
had great minutes from everybody, and
we get to keep playing.
“We get another shot at SA (Salem
Academy), then who knows what could
happen,” said Hoepfl (pronounced
“hopeful”). “Three wins, and that’s the
goal. All those teams area really good,
and we’ll have to play really well to beat
them. At least we get a chance.”
A win would be Warrenton’s first in
a state tournament game since beating
Valley Catholic in 2009 at Willamette
University.
Meanwhile, Amity’s only lead Satur-
day was 3-2. A short jumper by Claire
Bussert gave Warrenton a 4-3 lead, and
the home team never trailed again.
Warrenton (and specifically Alva-
rez) dominated the first half, gathering in
offensive rebounds and forcing turnovers
at will. Or, has Hoepfl calls it, “frantic
trapping. That’s just how we play.”
Baskets by Alvarez and Avyree
Miethe to close the second quarter gave
Warrenton a commanding 26-15 lead.
While Alvarez and her teammates
were scoring inside, both teams were
struggling from the 3-point line, finish-
ing a combined 2-for-21 in the first half.
Warrenton was an eventual 1-for-
16 from the arc, before Kenzie Ramsey
found her range and made three long-
range 3-point bombs for Warrenton’s
biggest lead at 41-27.
Still, Amity won the 3-point shooting
contest, making seven triples in the sec-
ond half, four by senior Keeley Graham
that helped Amity close to within 56-52
with 20 seconds left.
“They’re super well-coached,” Hoepfl
said. “Reg (McShane) does an incredible
W
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Fernanda Alvarez reaches high for a rebound for the Warriors.
Kenzie Ramsey battles for a loose ball for Warrenton.
job with their kids. This is the third time
we’ve played them in the last two years,
and they beat us the other two. You have
to give their kids credit. They hit a bunch
of shots down the stretch.”
But Amity was called for an inten-
tional foul in the final seconds, and Alva-
rez made four straight free throws to
close the game.
Ramsey added 14 points (11 in the
second half) for Warrenton.
It was a balanced scoring effort from
Alvarez, who had six points in the first
quarter, seven in the second, six in the
third and nine in the fourth.
“I thought Fernanda played her best
game ever,” Hoepfl said. “She was dom-
inant, really incredible on both ends,
stayed out of foul trouble and made huge
shots down the stretch.
“Claire and Kenzie have kind of car-
ried us all year, and they were both great
tonight. Kenzie made some huge threes
when we needed them.”
He added, “It’s about this group of
seniors. We have five kids who, when
they came into the program, we were
2-22. It’s been a steady climb ever since,
with their eyes on this. To be able to
reach the goal that we set at the begin-
ning of the year, it’s incredible.”
Said Alvarez, “We just want to get
better from here. We gotta keep going so
we can win.”
Sweet 16
for Seaside,
after win
over Molalla
The Daily Astorian
Seaside’s 2-6 league record
may not look like it belongs in
the Sweet 16, but that’s where
the Gulls are headed, follow-
ing a Class 4A girls basketball
play-in game Friday night at
Molalla.
The Gulls clinched their spot
in the final 16 with a 41-31 win
over Molalla, improving Sea-
side’s overall record to 14-13
and sending the Gulls on to the
first round of the state playoffs.
Lilli Taylor scored 19 points
for Seaside, which is one win
away from returning to the state
tournament for the first time
in three years, when they took
third in 2016-17.
The Gulls will open the state
playoffs Saturday at Baker.
The Bulldogs finished second
in the final OSAA rankings —
but they haven’t faced a team
from the tough Cowapa League,
which has four teams among the
final 16.
“Well, we were able to sneak
our way into the state tourna-
ment, and Marla (Olstedt, assis-
tant coach) and I couldn’t be
more proud to accompany this
group,” said Seaside coach
Mike Hawes, whose team won
a first-round playoff game at
Molalla in the 2016-17 season,
38-31.
If they win Saturday, the
Gulls would face either Junc-
tion City or Stayton in a first-
round game of the state tourna-
ment, March 7 at 8:15 p.m. at
Forest Grove High School (the
Seaside boys will likely play
at 8:15 p.m. the same night, at
Pacific University).
Molalla scored the first three
points of the game, but Sea-
side’s Emy Kiser scored the
next seven off a steal, an offen-
sive rebound and a 3-pointer.
And the Gulls never looked
back.
Back-to-back scores from
Morgan Blodgett and Lilli Tay-
lor gave Seaside a 15-7 lead.
Ruby Douglas hit a 3-pointer
to counter a trey by the Indians,
and Blodgett knocked down a
triple as time expired in the sec-
ond quarter to give the Gulls a
commanding 23-12 halftime
lead.
Seaside had to weather a
brief third-quarter rally by the
Indians, who closed to within
26-22, but the Gulls went to
their go-to play — Taylor at the
free throw line.
The freshman finished
11-for-12 at the line, includ-
ing 7-for-8 in the fourth quar-
ter alone. With limited defen-
sive pressure from the Indians,
the Gulls closed it out with easy
scores by Taylor and Douglas in
the final 1:20 to pull away.
Taylor had five rebounds and
five assists in addition to her
19 points. Douglas added nine
points, Blodgett had eight points
and nine boards. Kiser finished
with seven points, as only four
Seaside players scored.
“The second half (the Indi-
ans) made a run and switched
to man, and eventually we just
turned it over to our freshman,”
Hawes said. “We ask an awful
lot from this youngster, but
sometimes she just has to be
the best player on the floor, and
tonight she certainly was.”
SCOREBOARD
Knappa boys knock off Coquille in state playoff game
The Daily Astorian
Coquille was faced with what
has become a near-impossible task
Friday night — playing a first-
round boys basketball state playoff
game at Knappa.
The Loggers have become
unbeatable in first-round games at
home, as they showed again with a
70-46 win over the Red Devils.
Knappa has won six straight
first-round state playoff games on
its home floor — all by lopsided
scores — Union (70-45), Yoncalla
(86-47), Monroe (95-34), Heppner
(84-67) and Reedsport (81-35).
And now it’s on to the Loggers’
home away from home, Pendleton,
where Knappa will play Thursday
against Oakland (3:15 p.m.), with
the winner to face either Kennedy
or Columbia Christian in the Final
Four.
Outside of a good second quar-
ter, the Red Devils were never in the
ball game after the first eight min-
utes. Knappa outscored Coquille
47-16 in the first and third quarters.
Leading 25-9 after one quar-
ter, the Loggers “jumped on them
early, but Coquille battled back and
cut the lead to seven at the half,”
said Knappa coach Paul Isom.
“Our pressure and pace seemed to
get to them some in the third and
we were able to pull away.
“Credit to Coquille,” he said.
“Those kids battled and if not for
some timely shooting by Joe Ram-
vick, we would have been in a fight.
Joe And Ty (Vanderburg) played
really well. They made plays all
over the court defensively and Joe
ended up going 3-for-3 from (the
3-point line) which was huge. Tris-
tin (Wallace) also was aggressive
and had some big steals in the third
quarter.
“Timber (Engblom) and Eli
(Takalo) led the way,” he added,
with Takalo scoring 24 and Engb-
lom adding 18. “Seemed like every
time Coquille wanted to make a
run, one of those guys would make
a play.”
GIRLS BASKETBALL
Seaside 41, Molalla 31
SEA (41): Lilli Taylor 19, Blodgett 8, Kiser 7,
Douglas 7.
MOL (31): Madeline Lisac 10, Myers 7, Nogle 3,
Nelzen 2, Nacoste 2, Wood 2, Curry 2, Burge
2, Greer 1.
Seaside 11 12 5 13—41
Molalla 5 7 10 9—31
Warrenton 60, Amity 52
AMT (52): Keeley Graham 19, Lopez 14, Plum-
mer 13, Hatch 4, Stables 2.
WAR (60): Fernanda Alvarez 28, Ramsey 14,
Bussert 6, Miethe 6, Dejesus 2, M.Heyen 2,
Diego 2, Kapua.
Amity 7 8 16 21—52
Warrenton 10 16 15 19—60
BOYS BASKETBALL
Knappa 70, Coquille 46
COQ (46): Ean Smith 15, Davis 14, Haagen 8,
Kistner 3, McKinley 3, Sperling 2, Baxter 1.
KNA (70): Eli Takalo 24, Engblom 18, Ramvick
13, Wallace 5, Vanderburg 3, Coffey 2, Phillip
2, Westerholm 2, Goodman, Hoover, Lackey.
Coquille 9 13 7 17—46
Knappa 25 4 22 19—70