SPORTS
THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 2017
1B
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HERMISTON
STANFIELD
Bulldogs dismantle Pioneers
Tigers
hungry for
another run
Herm-
iston’s
Kynzee
Padilla
shoots
the ball
surround-
ed by
Sandy
defenders
in the
Bulldogs’
53-29 win
against
the Pio-
neers on
Wednes-
day in
Hermis-
ton.
Hermiston routs
Sandy, advances
to fi rst round
By MATT ENTRUP
East Oregonian
The Bulldogs weren’t falling for
any of Sandy’s tricks.
Hermiston never fl inched when
the Pioneers opened Wednesday’s
5A play-in game looking nothing like
they’d seen on fi lm. If anything, the
Pioneers just ended up outsmarting
themselves and
the
Bulldogs Girls Hoops
never trailed on
their way to a
53-29 rout.
Sandy
Sandy (14-10),
the No. 5 team
from the North-
west
Oregon
Conference,
opened in a zone
Hermiston
defense and an
offense that put
all fi ve players
outside the three-
point arc.
“That’s not something we’ve
seen (Sandy) do at all, ever,” said
Hermiston coach Juan Rodriguez.
“It probably just had something to
do with the fact that we’re a more
athletic team and they were trying to
slow the ball down quite a bit and see
if they could make it a shorter game.
I was worried there for a while, but
once we got in a groove and started
scoring they had to come out of it,
and try to score as well.”
It took nearly three minutes to
break the scoreless tie, but Sandy
went 3:31 without even attempting
a shot. By then senior post Maddy
Staff photo by
E.J. Harris
29
53
See BULLDOGS/3B
Stanfi eld eyes
experienced bracket
at 2A tournament
By MATT ENTRUP
East Oregonian
The key word for this week’s 2A boys
basketball state tournament is experience.
Half of the eight teams that will tip
off at Pendleton High School today are
loaded with returning
Class 2A starters and players that
Quarterfi nals saw minutes during
previous state appear-
ances. Three of the teams
have little to no state
#7 Oakridge experience to speak of.
Warriors
Then there’s Stanfi eld.
(20-6)
The No. 2 Tigers don’t
fi t in with either group,
because although they
bring just two players
#2 Stanfi eld to Pendleton that have
Tigers
played in state tourna-
(20-1)
ment game in basketball,
• Today, 8:30 nearly the entire roster
p.m.
has been experiencing
• at Pendleton
High School playoff success in some
sport from the time they
made their fi rst varsity
roster.
A title run in baseball in 2016 and a
runner-up fi nish in football this past fall
has the Tigers well accustomed to playing
under pressure.
“Everybody’s tough from here on out,
there’s no gimmes,” said senior Dylan
Grogan, who started as a freshman for the
2014 basketball team that placed third. “I
can see from that team and this team, the
thing that we have in common is we’re
See TIGERS/2B
MISSION
ATHENA
TigerScots
embracing
underdog role
Golden Eagles ready to roll as top seed
Weston-McEwen gunning
for upsets as state begins
#9 Powder
#1 Nixyaawii
Valley
Golden Eagles
(21-5)
(24-0)
• Today, 1:30 p.m.
• at Baker High School
Nixyaawii girls
ready to start
run to state title
By ERIC SINGER
East Oregonian
By ERIC SINGER
East Oregonian
The Weston-McEwen TigerScots
are no strangers to the underdog role.
Just four months
Class 2A ago, the majority of the
quarterfi nals TigerScots basketball
players
made
the
state tournament in
volleyball as a No. 5
#13 Weston- seed and proceeded to
pull of three statistical
McEwen
(17-8)
upsets over the No. 4,
No. 1, and No. 3 seed to
capture the state cham-
pionship. Now, starting
#5 Imbler today, the TigerScots
Panthers girls basketball team
(15-6)
will head to the state
• Today, 1:30 tournament as a No.
p.m.
13 seed ready to make
• at Pendleton
another run.
Convention
“It’s kind of funny
Center
because we were in
almost exact same posi-
tion,” senior Sarah Finifrock said before
See TIGERSCOTS/2B
In this Jan.
5, 2017 fi le
photo, Nixy-
aawii’s Milan
Schimmel (24)
dishes off a
pass during a
game against
Echo. Schim-
mel and the
Golden Eagles
head to the
1A state tour-
nament today
as the No. 1
seed in the
bracket.
The Nixyaawii girls basketball
team has been the premier team
in Class 1A for the majority of
the 2016-17 season, standing as
one of only three unbeaten girls
programs in the entire state of
Oregon and dominating nearly
every team that stood in its way.
The Golden Eagles (24-0)
have won only three games by
10 points or less, including a
54-51 victory over defending
state champion Country Chris-
tian on Dec. 3, but have won
their remaining 21 games by an
average of 31.4 points. However,
the Golden Eagles know that they
have the target on their backs as
the No. 1 overall seed in the Class
1A state tournament starting
tomorrow, and that the previous
24 games mean nothing at this
point.
“It doesn’t matter who the
opponent is, we’re just trying to
take it one game at a time,” Nixy-
Staff photo by Kathy
Aney
aawii coach Jeremy Maddern said
prior to practice on Wednesday.
“We’ve kind of felt that target all
season being the defending league
champions and having the talent
that we have, we got everybody’s
best game throughout the season
so it’s nothing new.”
What is also not new is Nixy-
aawii’s opponent in the quarterfi -
nals of the state tournament to be
played today, the Powder Valley
Badgers (21-5). Both teams
fi nished 1-2 at the top of the Old
1A Quarterfi nals
Oregon League this season and
faced off three times with Nixy-
aawii winning all three games by
an average of 21 points, the most
recent a 46-27 win in the district
championship on Feb. 18.
However, Nixyaawii knows
that they cannot get too cocky
knowing those previous results.
“Any team can beat us at any
moment,” senior Stacy Fitzpat-
rick said, “so you have to go into
every game not knowing what
the outcome might be. We have
to go in confi dent, but not too
confi dent.”
“We’ve talked about it a
lot,” Maddern added. “It’s kind
of hard, but I also think it’s an
advantage because if we get off to
a good start, it’ll be in their head
a little bit. But for the most part,
we’re just trying to down there
and get a win now matter how it
happens, but we also understand
it’ll be a tougher game.”
See NIXYAAWII/2B
Sports shorts
Sixers’ Embiid to miss rest of season
MIAMI (AP) — Philadelphia center Joel
Embiid’s season is over because of left knee
problems, including a torn meniscus that is
worse than the 76ers fi rst thought.
Embiid hadn’t played since Jan. 27, and
the 76ers had said in recent days
that his return was likely later
this week. But an MRI performed
Monday showed the meniscus
problem was worse than the
original diagnosis suggested, and
after reviewing that information
Embiid
the 76ers decided to end his
season.
Embiid missed his fi rst two NBA seasons
with right foot issues, then fi nally made his
debut this season and appeared in 31 games
with the 76ers. Embiid averaged 20.2 points
and 7.8 rebounds this season, numbers that
merited serious All-Star consideration.
“My goal is to make our
team the team of the
Rockies. We want to be
the team that broadcasts
into Boise, Salt Lake
City, all through
Montana ... It’s the
Vegas Golden Knights,
but we’re going to be
everywhere.“
— Bill Foley
Vegas Golden Knights owner
speaking on Wednesday after
Vegas offi cially became the 31st
NHL franchise after making the
fi nal expansion payment. The ex-
pansion draft is set for June 21.
Mariners make yet another
trade, pick up starting pitcher
PEORIA, Ariz. (AP) — The Seattle Mari-
ners acquired right-hander Chase De Jong
from the Los Angeles Dodgers for a pair of
minor leaguers Wednesday.
The Mariners sent infi elder
Drew Jackson and pitcher
Aneurys Zabala to the Dodgers,
and designated infi elder Mike
Freeman for assignment to
clear a spot on the 40-man roster.
De Jong, 23, is coming off a stellar 2016
season mostly spent at Double-A where he
went 15-2 with a 2.82 ERA in 26 starts with
Tulsa. He was promoted to Triple-A Okla-
homa City for one game. He was named the
Texas League pitcher of the year last season.
Seattle general manager Jerry Dipoto says
the Mariners see De Jong as “knocking at the
door,” of being a starter in the majors.
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1921 — Kentucky beats
Georgia 20-19 in the Southern
Intercollegiate men’s basketball
championship game in Atlanta.
The 14-team conference does
not keep formal regular season
standings. It’s college basket-
ball’s fi rst tournament.
1962 — Wilt Chamberlain
scores an NBA-record 100
points to lead the Philadelphia
Warriors to a 169-147 triumph
over the New York Knicks.
Chamberlain scores 59 second-
half points and 28 points from
the free-throw line for records.
2012 — MLB expands its
playoff format to 10 teams,
adding a second wild-card in
each league.
Contact us at 541-966-0838 or
sports@eastoregonian.com