Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 24, 2017)
Page 2B SPORTS East Oregonian Stan- field’s Natalia Esquivel gets a hand on the ball as Sara Von Borstel (10), of Weston- McEwen, tries to shoot during Satur- day’s Colum- bia Basin Confer- ence game in Athena. Saturday’s Prep Roundup Webb’s 30 leads Vikings Umatilla boys stay unbeaten in league East Oregonian Staff photo by Kathy Aney TIGERSCOTS: Continued from 1B The girls played really well tonight doing things better on offense and defense that they’re certainly capable of doing.” Junior point guard Chelsea Quaempts scored a game-high 25 points for Weston-McEwen (10-5, 2-1 CBC), with 19 of those points coming in the first quarter. “I was on fire and I could just feel it,” Quaempts said afterwards. “My last game I was kind of out of whack and I felt I needed to step it up tonight as a captain and contribute to the team the best I can.” Jensen said Quaempts’ performance was what he’s come to expect from the junior. “She’s our playmaker and she does it offensively, and a lot of it on the defensive end she just creates so much havoc,” Jensen said. “I don’t know how many lay-ins she had off of steals tonight but that’s just what she does.” Stanfield (3-11, 1-3) was able to weather the storm a bit through the middle parts of the game, outscoring Weston-McEwen 22-18 over the second and third quarters. It left the TigerScots with a 45-27 lead and the Tigers holding momentum. But between periods, Jensen said he encouraged his team to just keep playing hard on defense and it would help create offense. “When you play good defense it usually sparks the pace of the game and once the girls refocused a bit they kind of took it over from there,” Jensen said. “It’s a really smart group of girls and they always know what to do and when to do it.” The TigerScots did just what Jensen said and pressured Stanfield’s ball handlers in the half-court, resulting in numerous turn- overs and fast-break lay-ins. Weston-McEwen outscored Stanfield 12-5 in the fourth quarter to seal the victory. Stanfield’s offense was led by Natalia Esquivel with 13 points and Kendra Hart had 11 points. Also reaching double-digits for Weston- McEwen was Katie Vescio with 12 points. Weston-McEwen is now tied for second in the league with Pilot Rock, with only first place Culver yet to play in the first round of league play. Jensen said that his team will need to focus on how to handle ball pressure this week in practice to prepare for Friday night. “If we can be confident in our ball handling and make sure we can get past Culver’s initial pressure, I think we should be fine,” Jensen said. “We’ve got good ball handlers and that’s the main focus of the game plan is to handle the pressure and if we attack like we did tonight then good things will happen.” Stanfield will next host Pilot Rock on Friday. ——— SHS 5 14 8 5 — 32 W-M 27 8 10 12 — 57 STANFIELD — N. Esquivel 13, K. Hart 11, B. Braithwaite 4, A. Lemmon 2, A. Carilllo 2. WESTON-MCEWEN — C. Quaempts 25, K. Vescio 12, S. Finifrock 6, A. Coffman 4, S. von Borstel 3, A. Schroeder 2. 3-pointers — SHS 2, W-M 2. Free throws — SHS 8-17, W-M 7-18. Fouls — SHS 15, W-M 12. TIGERS: Grogan scores game-high 20 Continued from 1B “The first half (Weston- McEwen) as right there with us but the second half we took off because our legs weren’t tired and we could tell they were,” he said. “It was the same thing with the Heppner game last week and a few before that, the first half they’re with us and the second half we take off.” Senior Enoel Angel admits, however, that it took some time for the Tigers (12-1, 3-0 CBC) to come around to liking the mass substitutions. “The five-in, five-out rotations we didn’t really like it or trust it at first,” he said. “But like (NBA player) Joel Embiid says, ‘Gotta trust the process,’ and we did.” Twelve players saw game action on Saturday night for Stanfield and nine players scored in the game, led by Dylan Grogan with 20, Garcia with 17, and Brody Woods with 16. Angel said having the ability to get contributions from nearly every player on the team should be a big factor for Stanfield as it begins to creep toward the postseason. “I think it’s going to be huge because most teams play eight or nine guys,” he said, “but we have guys that can score at any time and can turn it up when we need to.” Weston-McEwen (9-6, 2-1 CBC) did its best to keep up with Stanfield’s fast pace in the first half, breaking the Tigers’ full-court, man-to-man press with decent success. The Tiger- Scots were pretty efficient from the floor in the first half as well, and trailed Stanfield 38-27 at halftime. But in the third quarter, the TigerScots got careless with the basketball in the Tigers press, tallying a good chunk of their 33 turnovers in the quarter alone while Tuesday, January 24, 2017 UMATILLA — On Saturday morning, the Umatilla boys basketball team held a shootaround to prepare for the evening’s game against Nyssa. During the shootaround, Umatilla coach Derek Lete said that senior Kaden Webb put up a lot of shots, so much so that Lete had to tell Webb to ‘Save yourself for the game’ to which Webb replied ‘I’ll be fine coach.’ Well after Saturday night’s game, it’s safe to say Webb’s extra shots paid off as he scored a game-high 30 points to help his Vikings knock off the defending league champion Nyssa 66-39 at Umatilla High School. “He was just in a zone,” Lete said of Webb. “He was 6-9 from 3-point range and had five in the third quarter, which was our big quarter, and that stretch really fueled us.” Umatilla (11-5, 3-0 EOL) did not start the game the greatest, though, as Nyssa jumped to a 7-0 lead early in the quarter, resulting in Lete thinking “it looked like it might be one of those long nights,” he said. But then the Vikings stepped up their physicality to match that of Nyssa and the results soon followed, as Umatilla went on an 11-0 run to end the quarter and then did not look back. Lete said he was proud of his team’s defensive effort, holding defending EOL Player of the Year Andres Gonzalez of Nyssa to just two points and the Bull- dogs’ leading scorer Boston Thompson scoreless. “We felt it was a must-win game for us and the boys came to play,” Lete said. ——— NHS 7 8 11 13 — 39 UHS 11 15 23 17 — 66 NYSSA — J. Ortiz 14, J. Fuentes 11, P. Chavez 7, O. Tellez 3, D. McIntosh 2, A. Gonzalez 2. UMATILLA — K. Webb 30, J. Maret 10, T. Miller 7, S. Garcia 6, S. Cranston 4, T. Durfey 4, J. Garcia 3, S. Miller 2, S. Hartung 2. 3-pointers — NHS 10, UHS 12. Free throws — NHS 1-7, UHS 6-8. Fouls — NHS 15, UHS 17. ECHO 64, HELIX 60, OT — At Helix, the Cougars came out on top of a back-and-forth Old Oregon League game that saw the teams tied at 53 when regulation ended. Morgan Marcum paced all scorers with 28 points for Echo (5-12, 4-4 OOL), and Klay Jensen added 14 points as the Cougars won their third in a row. Jonathan Shaw led Helix (3-9, 2-4) with 26 points and 13 rebounds, Justin Williams added 16 points, Gavin Newtson had 11 and Tylor Fehrenbacker finished with eight assists. “If we would have played a few more minutes, maybe it would have been a different outcome,” said Helix coach Ben Maney. “But it was fun, the kids played hard.” Helix plays at Powder Valley today at 4:30 p.m. while Echo’s next game is Friday when it hosts Pine Eagle at 7:30 p.m. HEPPNER 54, PILOT ROCK 42 — At Heppner, the Mustangs picked up their second win of the weekend with a 54-42 victory over Pilot Rock on Saturday night. The game was close throughout the first half, with Heppner holding a 28-25 lead at the halftime break. Pilot Rock got hot from the outside in the third quarter and pulled out to a 39-38 lead at the end of the third quarter. But the Mustangs pulled away in the fourth, outscoring Pilot Rock 17-3 to pull out the win. Logan Grieb had 16 points and eight rebounds for Heppner, while Kevin Smith had 12 points and Jake Lindsay had 11. Chris Weinke led Pilot Rock with 18 points on 7-13 shooting while Bryson Pierce finished with 10 points. Heppner next hosts Stanfield on Saturday at 4 p.m., while Pilot Rock travels to Stanfield on Friday at 7 p.m. ——— PR 10 15 14 3 — 42 HHS 14 14 9 17 — 54 PILOT ROCK — C. Weinke 18, B. Pierce 10, D. Hasher 9, R. Lankford 5. HEPPNER — L. Grieb 16, K. Smith 12, J. Lindsay 11, C. Hedman 7, K. Murray 5, N. Dias Martins 3. 3-pointers — PR 7, HHS 6. Free throws — PR 1-1, HHS 12-25. Fouls — PR 21, HHS 9. Fouled out — L. Thieme (PR). GIRLS BASKETBALL PILOT ROCK 53, HEPPNER 22 — At Heppner, the Rockets moved into a tie for second in the Columbia Basin Conference with a blowout 53-22 victory over Heppner on Saturday night. Kayla Deist led Pilot Rock with 16 points on 7-12 shooting, while Jacey Wilson pitched in 10 points and a 3-5 performance from 3-point range. Kacie Gray led Heppner (5-9, 0-4) with nine points and five rebounds. Pilot Rock next travels to Stanfield on Friday, and Heppner will host Stanfield on Saturday. ——— PR 10 21 12 10 — 53 HHS 4 2 11 5 — 22 PILOT ROCK — K. Deist 16, J. Wilson 10, R. Willingham 7, G. Austin 6, S. Weinke 5, A. Aguilar 4, B. Roe 2, R. Oates 2, K. Evans 1. HEPPNER — K. Gray 9, J. Currin 5, J. Mahoney 4, M. Correa 2, M. Combe 2. 3-pointers — PR 4, HHS 1. Free throws — PR 9-27, HHS 3-6. Fouls — PR 9, HHS 20. ECHO 37, HELIX 29 — At Helix, the Echo Cougars outscored the Helix Grizzlies 16-4 in the fourth quarter to pull away with a 37-29 victory on Saturday night in an Old Oregon League match-up. The loss was frustrating for Helix coach Kirk Flerchinger, who said that Saturday’s game was “probably our best defen- sive game all year.” “We had a good game plan and we played great,” Flerchinger said, “but you can’t win games when you only score single digits in the fourth quarter. But Echo deserved to win tonight.” Devyn Tarvin led Echo (13-4, 6-2 OOL) with 15 points and Hannah McCarty had 11 points. Sadie Wilson and Emma Fehrenbacker each scored eight points to lead Helix (6-6, 2-4). Wilson also led Helix with 14 rebounds. Helix next travels to Powder Valley today for a 6 p.m. start, while Echo hosts Pine Eagle on Friday at 6 p.m. ——— EHS 10 5 6 16 — 37 GHS 8 7 10 4 — 29 ECHO — D. Tarvin 15, H. McCarty 11, M. Huff 6, T. Swaggart 3, L. Wiggins 1, B. Milbrodt 1. HELIX — S. Wilson 8, E. Fehrenbacker 8, K. Mize 6, A. Wood 3, H. Christman 2, A. Krol 2. 3-pointers — EHS 4, GHS 2. Free throws — EHS 5-18, GHS 1-9. NYSSA 45, UMATILLA 32 — At Umatilla, the Vikings couldn’t overcome a slow start that saw them staring at a 27-8 halftime deficit as the Nyssa Bulldogs went on to win 45-32 on Saturday night in Eastern Oregon League play. Aleesha Watson and Lauryn Journot each scored 14 points apiece for Umatilla (6-10, 1-2 EOL), providing the bulk of the Vikings offensive firepower. Charlina Lancaster led Nyssa with 11 points. Umatilla next hosts Burns on Monday for 5:30 p.m. start. ——— NHS 15 12 10 3 — 45 UHS 2 6 6 18 — 32 NYSSA — C. Lancaster 11, M. Mitchell 10, B. Arredondo 9, K. Hernandez 6, S. Hartley 5, J. Martinez 3. UMATILLA — A. Watson 14, L. Journot 14, P. Picker 2, N. Soto 1, C. Alvarez 1. 3-pointers — NHS 1, UHS 3. Free throws — NHS 3-10, UHS 9-15. Fouls — NHS 16, UHS 13. DAWGS: WIAA has yet to weigh in Continued from 1B Staff photo by Kathy Aney Ethan Reger (3), of Weston-McEwen, dribbles past Standfield’s Brody Woods (32) Saturday in Athena. Stanfield cashed in and sped out to a 71-44 lead after three quarters. “We just didn’t finish very well and didn’t take care of the ball,” Weston-McEwen coach Brian Pickard said. “And against a team like Stanfield it can get away from you quick and that’s what happened. I thought the kids played good, but Stanfield is one of the best teams in the state.” Four players reached double figures in scoring for Weston-McEwen, as Ethan Reger led with 15, Brett Speed had 13, Shaw Broncheau had 10 and Garrett Hungerford had 10. With just one game left to play in the TigerScots’ first round of league play, Weston-McEwen sits alone in second place of the stand- ings — solidly in a district tournament berth. But Pickard says his team needs to regain some early-season form to finish strong. “I think we have to stress taking care of the ball,” he said. “We need to get back to the 10-15 turnover range and do some work on the offen- sive boards but I think we’re sitting pretty good right now and I think we’ve put ourselves in a good position for districts. “But the second time through we only have one home game so it’ll be a tough road for us.” ———— SHS 19 19 33 14 — 85 W-M 13 14 17 16 — 60 STANFIELD — D. Grogan 20, J. Garcia 17, B. Woods 16, R. Bailey 9, T. Flores 8, T. Monkus 4, N. Sanchez 4, E. Angel 4, J. Galarza 3. WESTON-MCEWEN — E. Reger 15, B. Speed 13, S. Broncheau 10, G. Hungerford 10, J. West 6, Q. Picard 3, K. Broncheau 2, B. Rudolph 1. 3-pointers — SHS 3, W-M 5. Free throws — SHS 10-13, W-M 13-19. Fouls — SHS 18, W-M14 ran by the Jan. 10 edition of the East Oregonian, took a harder stance in the district’s release. “This could increase the school’s travel costs by up to 60 percent, and students could miss up to 30 percent of their classes in a given month for their athletic events, which is unaccept- able,” he said. The more attractive option for Usher is hitching Hermiston’s wagon to the WIAA’s Mid-Columbia League along with Kenne- wick, Kamiakin and South- ridge — teams the Bulldogs regularly play in non-league competition already. Which leads to Hermis- ton’s other main issue with the OSAA — it’s ranking system. The OSAA’s Rated Percentage Index (RPI) determines postseason seeding, and in some cases even postseason berths. The RPI does not factor in out-of-state opponents, and favors teams that schedule games within their classifi- cations. It’s why Hermiston’s boys basketball team has taken four trips to the Portland area for games and tournaments this season, and dealt with multiple cancella- tions, rather than play local teams like Umatilla and Stanfield. Usher said the WIAA still needs to agree to the move, but the Bulldogs also have some outside backers in their corner. “I believe we are still facing an uphill battle with the WIAA, and we completely understand if they are hesitant,” he said. “Something new is not always easy for any group, but this is about our kids in Hermiston and this uphill battle is certainly worth it. We have the full support of every school across the river in the Mid-Columbia Conference and certainly hope that pulls some weight with their association.” Should Hermiston leave, the OSAA would lose one of its most successful programs of the last 10 seasons, which have seen the Bulldogs win 13 teams titles in wrestling (9), girls tennis (2), boys cross country and football. WRESTLING: Pendleton 2nd at duals Continued from 1B was sixth. Hermiston will wrestled a dual at Hood River tonight. COLTON HOLLY TOURNEY — At Wilson- ville, the Pendleton Buck- aroo took second in the dual format Colton Holly Tourney on Saturday. The championship match came down to the Bucks and Canby, which came out with a 49-24 after winning the last eight matches including a pair of forfeits by Pendleton. Going into that dual the Bucks had gone 4-0 with wins over Lake Oswego, 42-30, Cleveland, 43-30, Silverton, 37-33, and Forest Grove, 40-30. Morgan Holcomb and Scott Chambers alternated matches at 160 and 170 pounds, and both went 5-0 for the Bucks. Holcomb had five pins, and Chambers had three. Alex Rendon (138) and Jeff Kovach (145) also posted five wins for Pendleton, and Trevor Ulicni (285) and Greg Lee (195-220) won four times. With no 113- or 120-pounders, Pendleton was giving up 12 points in each match. Pendleton won the first three bouts in the semifinals against Forest Grove, then got pins from Holcomb and Lee to hold a 28-15 lead with five matches left — including the Bucks’ empty weights. Ulicni and 106-pounder Caleb Tremper secured the win in the next two matches, though, earning back-to- back first-round pins to make it 40-15. Lee and Ulicni also came up with big wins late in the matches against Silverton and Cleveland. Pendleton wrestles a dual at The Dalles tonight.
