hoodrivernews.com
Wednesday, January 8, 2020 A7
HOOD RIVER NEWS | Hood River, Ore.
SPORTS
Photo by Gabriel Bravo
HORIZON sophomore Josh Rogers (23) bodies up against St. Stephen’s senior Joel Radigan in the fourth quarter Saturday, Dec. 4.
Hawks win against Archers in intense overtime
By GABRIEL BRAVO
News staff writer
In a nail-biting, stressful and
emotional overtime, Horizon
Christian School’s varsity boys
basketball team defeated St.
Stephen’s Academy 55-53 Sat-
urday. This marks the Hawks’
third consecutive overtime
game.
John Jackson, head coach for
the Archers, said he knew they
would face a tough team.
“We hung around within
five points pretty much for the
whole game,” Jackson said.
“We had our chances to win
in regulation, we had a chance
to win in over time we just
couldn’t quite get the job done.
But I couldn’t be prouder of
my guys.”
In the first quarter the game
was evenly matched with both
teams trading buckets and
rarely turning over the ball. The
Archers had the upper hand at
the end of the first quarter with
a score of 12-10.
Horizon responded in the
second quarter scoring 20
points and conceding 13. The
Hawks entered the half with a
lead of 30-25.
With Horizon outperform-
ing them, St. Stephen’s didn’t
throw in the towel and kept
hustling and working to tie
the game. St. Stephen’s closed
down on the lead and finished
the third quarter trailing Hori-
zon 42-39.
Finally, St. Stephen’s work
paid off when they took the
lead in the fourth quarter with
three minutes left to play.In
dramatic fashion, the Hawks
tied the game at 49 points and
pushed the game into over-
time.
Horizon sophomore Josh
Rogers said their previous
overtime encounters prepared
them for this game.
“That was our third overtime
game in a row,” Rogers said.
“So, it’s really good for us to use
those rough situations and get
experience of those times of
‘this is it. We got to go now.’ But
I thought we executed well. We
all stayed in it, stayed mentally
prepared and we got the win.”
Despite the win Darrin Lin-
gel, head coach for the Hawks,
said he thought the team
played okay. With the team
being gone for the holidays
there was a noticeable perfor-
mance decrease in the team,
Lingel said.
“You could tell we were
rusty. We haven’t had a game
for a while,” Lingel said. “Over-
all, this wasn’t a great rhythm
game. I didn’t feel comfort-
able with this game. We’ve
done a better job offensively in
other games but it’s part of the
growth and I’m glad we had a
game prior to league play.”
Illness within the Hawk
squad also deteriorated the
team’s performance, Lingel
said.
Leading scorers for Horizon
include Rogers with 17 points,
junior Kai Robertson at 13
and sophomore Alex Whitaker
with 12.
Top scorers for St. Stephen’s
include senior Joel Radigan
with 22 points junior Daniel
Maharjan with 20 and junior
Seth Bergeron with six.
The Hawk squad is back in
action Friday, Dec. 10 as they
host Mitchell/Spray at 7:30
p.m.
Photo by Gabriel Bravo
HRV sophomore Emanuel Romero (23) attempts to drive the ball to the rim with Reynolds junior Brandon Buffington (0) closely guarding him Friday, Dec. 3.
HRV fights good fight but loses to Reynolds
By GABRIEL BRAVO
News staff writer
On Friday, Hood River Val-
ley’s varsity boys basketball
team fought a good fight but
was defeated by Reynolds
High School 63-58. This was
HRV’s final game against a
6A school in the season.
Ted Aubin, head coach
for the Raiders, said they
planned on limiting scor-
ing opportunities for senior
Noah Webster and junior Ian
Searcy.
“We were really focusing
on our defensive fundamen-
tals, trying to get in the gaps
and prevent them from driv-
ing,” Aubin said. “I thought
we did a really good job in
the first half of that.”
The Raiders tipped-off the
game with 10 unanswered
points. Their strong offense
gave the Raiders a 17-7 lead
at the end of the first quarter.
“A b i g t a l k i n g p o i n t
throughout the game was
adjusting to what they were
doing,” Christopher Dirks,
HRV head coach, said. “They
kept hitting threes in the first
quarter and we took too long
to change our mindset to
take that away.”
HRV responded in the
second quarter outscoring
Reynolds with 22 points
and limiting them to 17. In
the final possessions of the
second quarter the Eagles
swiped the ball, scored and
prevented the Raiders from
scoring.
These series of events riled
and fired up the crowd as the
teams headed to the locker
rooms with a score of 34-29
favoring Reynolds.
The energy and momen-
tum that HRV created before
halftime carried over to the
third quarter as they out-
scored the away team 13-11.
One HRV player who over-
powered Reynold defenders
was junior Emilio Castaneda.
Castaneda easily rebounded
and blocked a few Raider
shots.
“I have been very pleased
with Emilio’s progress this
year and how he has changed
his mindset when he gets the
ball in the key,” Dirks said.
“I think come league play
he could be a great weapon
for us.”
In the final quarter HRV
was outscored by two points.
HRV had two three-point at-
tempts by sophomore Eman-
uel Romero and Webster but
both could not score.
“I think Hood River real-
ly competed well and they
never gave up,” Aubin said.
“I know they got down, but
I felt like they brought a lot
more energy in the second
half and there was no quit
in them. I think they can be
very proud in their effort.
Disappointing with the re-
sults but there’s stuff to build
on there for sure.”
The Eagle squad returns
to the court Friday, Jan. 10
as they host Parkrose High
School at 6:30 p.m.