A10
Hood River News, Saturday, January 10, 2014
S PORTS
Eagle wrestlers show no mercy
Photo by Adam Lapierre
NO MERCY: Freshman 126-pounder Jason Shaner puts the hurt on his Stevenson opponent Tues-
day night. The Eagles won the dual 74-4 and followed with a 38-30 win at Pendleton.
Hood River Valley High School wrestlers are in
full attack mode as the pinnacle of the season quick-
ly approaches. In action this week, the team compet-
ed in away dual meets against Stevenson in an an-
nual dual called Battle of the Bridge and against
Pendleton in the first Columbia River Conference
Dual of the season.
Tuesday’s result in Stevenson wasn’t much of a
surprise. The Eagles won all but one match to finish
with a dominating 74-4 score. Thursday’s thriller in
Pendleton was another story. Both teams knew the
dual would be close, but after falling behind 30-3 in
team points, the outlook was grim. The Eagles fin-
ished with seven straight wins – from Steven Swaf-
ford, Justin Wilson, Jessica DeHart, Angel Jones,
Jason Shaner, Christian Marquez and Junior Manzo
– to seal a 38-30 win over their CRC rivals.
Awesome opportunity
In a unique opportunity for the commu-
nity and Hood River Valley wrestling, mem-
bers of the U18 Japanese national
wrestling team will be in town for the next
few days and will stay with HRV wrestling
families through the weekend. On Monday
the public is invited to a dual meet be-
tween HRV wrestlers and the Japanese
team at HRVHS at 1:15 p.m. Visitors are
asked to enter the school through the reg-
ular athletics event entrance.
Hawks make statement in Big Sky opener
Bloomster, Davis
combine for 47 in
latest Horozon win
By MIKE WEBER
For the News
The 1A No. 1 ranked Horizon
Christian High Hawks boys basket-
ball team got off to a good start in
their Big Sky Conference season
opener with a 71-56 home win Tues-
day over the Sherman Huskies.
Led by the dynamic duo of se-
niors Mason Bloomster (25 points,
11 rebounds) and Jared Davis (22
pts., seven assists, five steals), the
Hawks led from start-to-finish to
notch their first win of 2015.
The Hawks (9-2) went on the road
Friday to face the No. 12 ranked
Dufur Rangers (6-3, results unavail-
able as of press time) and return
home to meet the Arlington
Honkers (2-8 overall) Saturday at
5:30 p.m. The team’s next big test
comes on Tuesday, when it travels
to one of the state’s top 2A squads,
the 10-1 Irrigon Knights.
Despite a long break in action for
the holiday break, the Hawks ap-
peared in mid-season form against
Sherman, displaying a potent of-
fense and a rock solid defense
against the No. 9 ranked Huskies
(7-2), who are considered to be one
of their top Class 1A opponents.
“I thought it might be a tough
game for the boys since we haven’t
played in quite awhile, but the kids
were not rusty at all,” said coach
Darren Lingel. “We did have a little
trouble adjusting to Sherman’s de-
fense, which seemed to limit our
scoring somewhat in the first half.
After we made some adjustments
at halftime, the kids came out and
played pretty well in the second
half.”
Horizon jumped in front early on
baskets by Nick Andersen (two
pts.), Davis and RJ Hicks (nine pts.)
in building an 8-1 lead in the open-
ing minutes of the first quarter.
After Sherman trimmed the mar-
gin to 10-6, Davis and Bloomster
combined to score 10 straight
points to extend the Hawks lead to
20-6. A driving layup by Davis
helped the Hawks hold onto a dou-
ble-digit 22-11 lead at the end of the
first quarter.
“We just weren’t in synch defen-
sively in the first half and they
(Sherman) outrebounded us too,”
said Davis, Horizon’s leading scor-
er who averages 21.3 points a game.
“We killed them on the boards in
the second half though, and we
played tougher defense too. Sher-
man has some guys that can really
shoot well, but we were able to
score well by driving to the hoop
better than they did.”
Sherman came out strong after
the half and trimmed their margin
to five points. Momentum then
quickly shifted in favor of the
Hawks, who took control of the
game with a 14-2 run to build a 50-33
lead with 4:12 left in the quarter.
Bloomster’s three-point play and
baskets by Hicks, Ryan Aldrich (six
LEADING
SCORERS:
Mason Bloom-
ster (left) and
Jared Davis
were a deadly
duo Tuesday as
they racked up
25 and 22
points, respec-
tively.
Photo by
Adam Lapierre
pts.) and Davis fueled an offensive
surge as Horizon led 57-42 after
three.
“We really picked up the pace in
the second half,” said Bloomster,
who is averaging 20.2 points and
11.5 rebounds per game. “Once we
were able to break through their
triangle and two defense, they had
trouble switching to a different
scheme and we were able to just
take off from that point on. Playing
with Jared, who is one of the best
guards I’ve ever played basketball
with, it’s pretty easy to get lots of
layups with him feeding the ball to
me.”
An 8-4 Hawk run at the outset of
the fourth, including Bloomster’s
defensive rebound and length of
the court drive on a layup, extended
Horizon’s lead to 19 points. Sopho-
more Ethan Evans (four pts.) sank
two free throws on a sherman tech-
nical foul by Sherman’s Jacob
Justesen for the Hawks’ largest
lead of the game, 65-46, with 4:42
left in the game.
“We played well, we’re getting
better and it’s nice to start league
play with a win,” said Lingel.
Horizon had one of its most pro-
ficient offensive games this year as
the boys shot 63.9 percent (23-for-
36). The Hawks exceeded 70 points
for the fourth time this year. The
contest marked the first of 14 total
Big Sky regular season games.
the Huskies pulled away in the
fourth quarter.
“The girls did play pretty well,
but we struggled because we were
missing our starting point guard,
Hannah Kempf,” said Stevens.
“The girls played hard for as long
as they could and then we had
some freshmen (Paulina Finn,
Sammi Halseth, Miranda Roberts)
come in to help make some good
contributions that helped make it
a competitive game until the last
six minutes. We have a long way to
go and a lot of work to do. Our de-
fense (2-3 zone) was solid today
and I’m really impressed with the
way the girls played. We just need
to play a little more aggressively.”
After three early deadlocks,
Sherman went up 9-6 at the end of
the first quarter. After Sherman
built a 23-10 margin in the second,
the Hawks came back to get within
24-15 at halftime.
A steal and breakaway layup by
senior Trista Hicks (five pts.) nar-
rowed the margin to just six
points early in the third. The
Hawks were within striking dis-
tance in the third quarter when
Finn (season-high 10 pts.) sank
two free throws to maintain the
f ive - p o i n t m a r g i n . S h e r m a n
outscored Horizon 7-1 over the
final 1:58 of the quarter to take a
36-23 lead going into the fourth.
The Huskies remained in control
of the momentum for the remain-
der of the game to extend their
lead at the end.
On Monday, the Hawks had a
fun and exciting opportunity to
play on the Portland Trailblazers
NBA homecourt at the Moda Cen-
ter. The Hawks lost 28-23 to South
Wasco, but the game was a mile-
stone, as it marked the first time
Horizon’s girls had ever played
there. Following the game, the
Hawks enjoyed watching the Blaz-
ers defeat the Los Angeles Lakers.
PA U L I N A
F I N N
scored ten
points for
the Hawks
Tu e s d a y
night in the
team’s 46-
28
loss
against the
Sherman
Huskies.
Girls fall short vs. Huskies
Horizon Christian’s varsity girls
team opened its 14-game Big Sky
Conference schedule with a 46-28
loss at home to the Sher man
Huskies Tuesday. The Hawks (0-1
Big Sky, 3-6 overall), who played
Friday at Dufur (results unavail-
able at press time), will try to
bounce back and get a win in their
next contest at home Saturday, 4
p.m., a g ainst the Arlington
Honkers (7-3).
For first-year coach Brian
Stevens and his Hawks, the game
was much closer than indicated by
the final score. Horizon played
strong and trailed by just single
digits for most of the game before
Photo by
Adam Lapierre
Eagles look for momentum before CRC schedule
By ADAM LAPIERRE
News staff writer
Photo by Adam Lapierre
KELSEY WELLS led the varsity girls team against South
Albany Tuesday night with 18 points and 14 rebounds.
The girls return home Jan. 23 to host Pendleton.
In the words of the late, great Stuart
Scott, Kelsey Wells was as cool as the
other side of the pillow Tuesday night.
The senior iced 18 points and 14 rebounds
in a Hood River Valley High School varsi-
ty girls basketball matchup against South
Albany. Despite the game-leading double-
double, however, the Eagles were unable
to overcome an eight-point first half
deficit and the visiting Rebels claimed a
42-35 victory.
The loss puts the Eagles at 3-9 going into
the final weeks of nonleague play. The girls
traveled to St. Helens Friday, then Heritage
and Stevenson the following week before
returning home Jan. 23 to host Pendleton
in their Columbia River Conference open-
er. Current CRC standings (as of Friday
morning) have Hermiston at 11-2, ranked
5A No. 1 and riding a nine-game winning
streak. Pendleton is second at 8-5 (ranked
No. 7), The Dalles is 5-6 (ranked No. 13) and
HRV is fourth with a No. 29 ranking.
HRV finished strong in Tuesday’s
matchup, outscoring the Rebels 18-17 in the
second half and keeping the opposing of-
fense from running away with the game.
The effort fell short, however, and the Ea-
gles simply ran out of time before they
could mount a comeback. Jestena Mattson
chipped in with seven points, three assists
and five rebounds, Lauren Winans had six
points, four boards, a block and a steal,
Kassidy Davidson chipped in with two
points, two assists and three rebounds and
Mykan Malone scored two.
■
A big fourth quarter and a big perfor-
mance by Dominick Crittenden gave South
Albany the boost they needed to get past
the HRV boys in a varsity basketball
matchup Tuesday evening. The traveling
Eagles were led by Parker Kennedy and
Dallas Buckley, who had 12 points each in
the 72-61 loss. Scottie Ziegner and Skyler
Hunter aided in the effort with 10 and nine
points respectively. Crittenden had 21
points and 13 rebounds to lead his team in
the win.
Although not the result they wanted, the
game marks the ninth of the season in
which the Eagles have scored 60 or more
points – a stark improvement from last sea-
son when the team met that benchmark
just once; an 83-64 loss vs. Pendleton in the
Eagles’ final game of the season. At 5-6 (as
of Friday morning), HRV sits in second
place in the CRC going into the end of non-
league play. The team hosted Woodburn
Friday and Heritage (Wash.) Saturday (6
p.m.) and hosts Stevenson next Friday be-
fore traveling to Pendleton and Hermiston
to open its CRC schedule. Pendleton cur-
rently has the best CRC record and ranking
at 6-4, No. 8. Hermiston is third with a 3-8
record and The Dalles fourth at 1-12.