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A8 THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, JANUARY 11, 2020 CONTACT US FOLLOW US Gary Henley | Sports Reporter ghenley@dailyastorian.com facebook.com/ DailyAstorianSports ATHLETES OF THE WEEK HALLE HELMERSEN Astoria ELI TAKALO Knappa Vicki O’Brien I n the Pepsi Invitational in Anchorage, Alaska, the Lady Fishermen advanced to the championship game. Helmersen led Astoria in scoring in two of its three games, including 13 points in a 64-61 semifi nal win over Barrow. In the championship game, the junior scored 24 in a loss to Anchorage Christian. “Halle played by far her best game of the season,” said Astoria coach Mike Jacobson, as Helmersen and teammate Brooklynn Hankwitz were named to the all-tournament team. Dayton defeats Seaside boys in 3A-4A showdown The Astorian Tuesday night’s marquee matchup in Oregon nonleague boys basketball took place in Dayton, where the Pirates hosted Seaside in a contest between a pair of top 10 teams. Coming off a loss at home to Marist, the No. 8-ranked 4A Gulls had a big fi rst quar- ter, but the Pirates — the No. 1-ranked team at the 3A level — fought back, then fi nally took a late lead and held on for a 53-47 win over Seaside. It’s the fi rst time the Gulls have lost back-to-back games in the same season since 2017- 18, when Seaside lost consec- utive road games to Banks and Scappoose. The Gulls came out fi r- ing in Tuesday’s showdown, and behind baskets from Beau Johnson, Conner Langmo, Brayden Johnson and a 3-pointer from Ryan Hague, Seaside built fi rst quarter leads of 9-0, 13-1 and 17-5. But 6 -foot Dayton soph- omore Tyler Spink woke up the Pirates’ crowd with three 3-pointers in a three-minute span midway through the fi rst half, and Dayton had closed to within 23-21 at halftime. Holding a slim 32-31 lead late in the third quarter, the Gulls appeared ready to pull away with back-to-back tri- ples from Hague and Everest Sibony for a 38-31 advantage. The Pirates rallied again with buckets from Kody Fuller and Dawson Ashley, before consecutive scores from Hague pushed Seaside’s lead to 44-39. Two free throws from Ash- ley tied the game at 45-45 with 2:50 remaining, and the Pirates took their fi rst lead, 48-47, with 2:20 left on a three-point play from Payton Garrison. That sparked Dayton to an 8-0 run to fi nish the game. Spink led all scorers with 22 points, while Ryan Hague had a team-high 21 for the Gulls. Brayden Johnson scored eight and Langmo added six in a starting role for Seaside . SCOREBOARD PREP SPORTS SCHEDULE SATURDAY Girls Basketball — Corbett at Astoria, 3 p.m. Boys Basketball — Corbett at Astoria, 4:45 p.m. Wrestling — Sesaide Pac Rim Invitational, 9 a.m. GIRLS BASKETBALL Seaside 37, Warrenton 32 SEA (37): Lilli Taylor 18, Douglas 10, McFad- den 5, Blodgett 3, Peterson 1, LaPlante, Doney, Owsley. WAR (32): Kenzie Ramsey 17, Heyen 5, Miethe 3, Fritz 3, Kelly 2, Kapua 2, Dunaway. Seaside 14 2 6 15—37 Warrenton 7 7 11 7—32 Krissy Barendse-Goodman I n the biggest game of the season so far in 2A boys basketball, No. 3-ranked Knappa defeated No. 2-ranked Toledo in a semifi nal game of Toledo’s “Beach Bash” Invitational on Jan. 3. The Loggers went on to win the tourna- ment with a win over Harrisburg. Takalo hit a short game-winning jump shot at the buzzer to defeat Toledo, 78-76. He fi nished with 21 points, and was later named tournament Most Valuable Player, as Knappa jumped to No. 1 in the rankings, and improved to 10-0. Seaside girls rally for win at Warrenton By GARY HENLEY The Astorian The Astorian T he Seaside and Warrenton girls basketball teams played the momentum game Wednesday night in a nonleague Clatsop Clash at Warrenton. Seaside ultimately won the back-and-forth affair, 37-32, for its third win over the last fi ve games, while the Warriors dropped their fourth in the last fi ve. Still — after falling behind 14-6 late in the fi rst quarter — the Lady Warriors controlled most of the action in the second and third periods, building an eight-point lead of their own in the fourth. A steal and layup by Seaside’s Tristyn McFadden gave the Gulls their eight-point lead in the fi rst quar- ter, but Warrenton answered with a huge fi rst half from their designated sharp-shooter. Senior Kenzie Ramsey had 11 of Warrenton’s 14 fi rst half points, then had three consecutive scores off three turnovers for the fi rst six points of the third quar- ter, giving the Warriors a 20-16 lead. Baskets by Annie Heyen and Melia Kapua had Warrenton in front 25-22 after three quarters of play. And the Warriors added to their lead to start the fourth, with a 3-pointer from Grace Fritz and a pair of free throws by Avyree Miethe giving Warrenton a seemingly safe 30-22 lead. But the biggest run of the night belonged to the Lady Gulls, as a simple layup from Ruby Douglas sparked a 15-2, game-deciding run for Seaside. Back in the Seaside lineup after spraining her ankle in a tournament at Stayton, Lilli Taylor scored six straight points to tie the game at 30-30. A 3-pointer by teammate Ellisa Blodgett gave the Gulls a 33-30 advantage with 2:40 remaining, and Seaside closed with scores from Taylor and Doug- las, while Rebecca Kelly had a late bucket for the Warriors. Taylor led all scorers with 18 points to go with 10 rebounds and three steals, while Ramsey had 17 for Warrenton. The Gulls had 21 turnovers, and shot 37% Bruce Dustin Kenzie Ramsey scored 17 points, 11 in the fi rst half, for the Warriors. from the fi eld (17-for-45). “We fi nally started doing what had been there all along,” said Seaside coach Mike Hawes. “Clearly having Lilli start at the top on offense settled us.” Warrenton’s “best play was intercepting our hor- rible passes,” he said. “I will say I’m very happy we pulled this out. Perhaps we can continue to learn some from it.” Yamhill Knappa girls nearly upset No. 1 Faith Bible holds off The Astorian Knappa rolled out the red car- pet Thursday night for the No. 1-ranked girls basketball team (Faith Bible), and their own No. 1-ranked boys team in a Northwest League doubleheader. In the opener, the Knappa girls nearly stunned the top-ranked Fal- cons, who held off the Lady Log- gers for an eventual 52-43 win. “You have to believe in our league that on any given night, you can get the win,” said Knappa coach Tracie Brockey, whose team was even without three poten- tial starters. “Faith Bible lost to Vernonia on Tuesday and Verno- nia nearly lost to Nestucca tonight (38-36).” In addition, Mannahouse Chris- tian beat Vernonia, but only nar- rowly escaped a loss to Nestucca, and Nestucca squeaked by a low- ranked Columbia Christian team by three points last month. “As I’ve told our girls, we will never be able to walk into a gym and expect a win without fi ghting for it,” Brockey said. “We are a team that will have to set the bar high and bring our ‘A’ game every Knappa boys improve to 12-0 night. No one gets a night off in our league.” Including the top-ranked Fal- cons, who found themselves locked in a 12-12 tie after one quarter, and led by just 21-20 at halftime. “Our girls were focused,” Brockey said. “We set small goals throughout the game, related to limiting their second chance oppor- tunities, limiting fast breaks, keep- ing the game within reach, and we accomplished much of that in the fi rst half.” Knappa outscored Faith Bible 10-8 in the fourth quarter, but it was a 23-13 run by the Falcons in the third that decided the game. The Loggers were without Han- nah Dietrichs, Aiko Miller and Vicki Ramvick. Sophia Carlson picked up the slack, scoring 19 points, with 13 rebounds and fi ve steals. “She was mentally locked in, hitting shots in rhythm and fi nish- ing free throws (5-for-7),” Brockey said of Carlson. “Raven Corcoran also recorded a double-double (11 points, 11 rebounds). She and Megan (Hellberg) were huge for us tonight. They came out fi ghting for rebounds.” Warrenton boys, 63-56 The Astorian Warrenton put up a strong battle for over three-and-a-half quarters Tuesday night at Yam- hill-Carlton, before the Tigers were able to pull away for a 63-56 nonleague boys basket- ball win. “They are good,” said War- renton coach Nate McBride, whose team drops to 4-7. “It was a three- or four-point game until late. They shot lights out.” Yamhill held leads of 28-27 at halftime 45-43 after three quarters. The Tigers outscored the Warriors 18-13 in the fi nal period, helping Yamhill improve to 8-4. Austin Little scored 22 and Dawson Little added 14 for Warrenton, while the Tigers countered with freshman Moroni Roberts (17 points) and Trey Richmond (16), with Sam and Spencer Horne scoring six points each. The only undefeated boys basketball team in the state (2A and above) remained perfect Thursday night with another win in Northwest League play. Knappa (12-0 overall) jumped out to an 11-0 lead against visiting Faith Bible, on its way to win No. 12 in a row, 69-48. The Falcons — ranked 46th out of 47 teams — drop to 1-9, while Knappa fell from fi rst to fi fth in the rankings. The Loggers are now 5-0 in league play, with an aver- age mar- gin of victory of 31 points per game. After a 22-11 fi rst quarter, Knappa pulled away by outscoring the Falcons 37-13 over the second and third quarters. “Mason (Westerholm) espe- cially had a great game, leading us in scoring with 16 and made a lot of plays defensively,” said Logger coach Paul Isom. “All the guys played quite a bit and did well. It is nice on nights like this when all the guys can get a lot of minutes and get into the fl ow of the game.” He added, “Shane McMahan did a nice job breaking down the defense, and Brandon Gale was aggressive offensively and got a few nice buckets.” Loggers 68, Neah-Kah-Nie 43 After a string of nonleague games, Knappa returned to Northwest League play Tues- day night at Neah-Kah-Nie. And the Pirates did not stand a chance against the No. 1-ranked Loggers, who cruised to a 68-43 win. Knappa led 36-26 at half- time, then outscored Neah- Kah-Nie 32-17 in the second half. Isom said, “We came out pretty sluggish at Neah-Kah- Nie, especially defensively. Those road trips in league are never easy and that proved to be the case at the start of this one.” But, he said, “the guys set- tled down after halftime and we were able to get con- trol of the game. Kanai (Phil- lip) especially was able to get to the rim and either score or fi nd open teammates for some easy hoops, which really got us going.” The Loggers have a “big league week coming up,” Isom said. “We will face the three best teams in the league, two on the road, so it will be a good test to see where we are at.”
