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THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, JANUARY 11, 2020
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Gary Henley | Sports Reporter
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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.”