SPORTS
WEEKEND, MARCH 4-5, 2017
1B
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @EOSPORTS
2A State Tournament
5A State Tournament
Tigers claw into first final
Stanfield makes big
plays down stretch
to beat Life Christian
By MATT ENTRUP
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — The Stan-
field Tigers continued to thrive
under pressure and came out
of Friday’s 2A state semifinals
with another gem to knock off
the Life Christian Lions 56-41 at
Pendleton Convention Center.
No. 2 Stanfield started the
fourth quarter 6-for-8 from the
field and sealed the win during
a 39-second stretch in the final
minutes that all started when
senior
Jose
Garcia held his
ground to draw Boys Hoops
charge on Life
C h r i s t i a n ’s
Zeke Quinlan #2 Stanfield
with 2:18 left
and Stanfield
up 47-39.
The Tigers
(22-1)
were
only able to #6 Life Christian
get two points
out their next
possession, but
they made it
last until the 1:39 mark by grab-
bing three offensive rebounds.
No. 6 Life Christian (23-7)
scored its final points on a pair
of free throws by Bo Quinlan
with 1:30 left to play, and shot
3-for-10 in the fourth quarter as
Stanfield earned its first champi-
onship berth in program history.
It is the third straight sport the
Tigers have reached the cham-
pionship in after winning the
2016 baseball title and finishing
second in football this past fall.
“Before the game we just
calmed ourselves down. I don’t
think any of us were nervous,”
said senior Dylan Grogan.
“We’ve been deep in the playoffs
so we know how to take it. Some
people break down and try to
take it individually, we took it as
a team and stepped up.”
Grogan scored 10 of his team-
high 20 points during the fourth
quarter and played the final 4:44
with four fouls.
“When I was younger I used
to get into foul trouble a lot, so
I kind of knew how to play off,
how to use it,” he said. “It’s
tough, you have to play off, but
it worked.”
Grogan drained three straight
shots during an 11-2 run that put
the Tigers up for good, and his
three-pointer with 4:13 left made
it 43-37 to match their largest
lead from the first half.
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Pendleton’s Caden Smith (23) goes
up for a shot Friday during a 5A state
championship quarterfinal game
against Corvallis at Warberg Court.
56
Bucks are
state bound
41
Pendleton advances to
Final 8 with 2OT thriller
By ERIC SINGER
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — Pendleton coach
Kyle Tedder has raved about senior Johnny
Stuvland’s improvement throughout this
season, and with good reason.
Stuvland showed why on Friday night.
With a packed house at Warberg Court,
Stuvland put up 17 points and grabbed
15 rebounds and sank the game-winning
free throws with just
Boys Hoops
2.2 seconds left to send
his Buckaroos to the
state tournament with
a thrilling 69-67 double
overtime victory over #7 Pendleton
the Corvallis Spartans
in the Class 5A first
round.
“I feel high on life
right now,” Stuvland #10 Corvallis
said minutes after the
game. “It’s a great
feeling to get a team
win, everybody did
their part from defense to offense and got
it done.”
Stuvland scored all six of Pendleton’s
points in the second overtime, including a
key breakaway lay-up with five seconds
left that put his Bucks on top. Stuvland
gave all the credit on that play to soph-
omore Tyler Newsom, who set him up
for the lay-in. Prior to the play, Corvallis
was content on dribbling down the clock
See BUCKS/2B
69
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Stanfield’s Dylan Grogan shoots the ball guarded by Life Christian’s Zeke Quinlan and Zac
Ross (25) in the Tigers’ 56-41 win against the Lions on Friday in Pendleton.
The game was tied six times
and had 13 lead changes, but
Stanfield made more hustle plays
to give it the edge after the game
was tied at 30-30 after three
quarters.
The Tigers finished with 14
offensive rebounds that led to 12
second-chance points, scored 14
points off turnovers, and came
up with key defensive stops to
frustrate the Lions.
“All season we’ve been one
hand-length away and keeping
the pressure tight,” said senior
Thyler Monkus. “This team (Life
Christian) plays slow, so we
wanted to play our tempo game,
and that’s what we did all game.”
Monkus came up with his
fourth steal of the game with
1:03 left when he ran down Zeke
Quinlan at midcourt. He also had
a block and four assists.
67
“We just had to hustle after
everything,” he said. “No matter
if we’re down by a lot, up by a
lot, we just have to give 100
percent, and it can change the
momentum pretty fast. That’s
what we’ve worked on all year.”
Brody Woods came off the
bench to score 13 points with
nine rebounds, and two blocks
See STANFIELD/3B
5A State Tournament
1A State Tournament
Shorthanded Buckaroos
struggle against Kingsmen
state championship game
Pendleton ousted by Putnam Golden Eagles soar to
By ERIC SINGER
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — After
the Pendleton girls basketball
team won the program’s first
league title in 12 years and
clinched a home first round
playoff
game, the Girls Hoops
Buckaroos
had
high
hopes
at
making
a #8 Pendleton
state tourna-
ment run.
But those
hopes were
dashed even
before the #9 Putnam
Bucks took
the floor for
the playoff
game, as starting forward
and first team all-CRC player
Kalan McGlothan had to
have emergency gall bladder
surgery on Tuesday. The
procedure kept her out for the
Buckaroos first round game
against Rex Putnam on Friday
and the Buckaroos surely
missed her presence.
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Without
McGlothan’s
rebounding abilities and Pendleton’s Lauren Richards (5) drives to the basket
38
55
See GIRLS/2B
past Kanani Kremers (3), of Putnam, Friday in a 5A state
championship quarterfinal game at Warberg Court.
Nixyaawii puts away
Arlington in semifinals
11 boards.
The Honkers were the ones that drew
first blood on Friday, as Joely Patnode was
fouled in the act of shooting a 3-pointer
just 30 seconds into the game and then
East Oregonian
sank all three free throws to give her team
a 3-0 lead. But that lead was short-lived as
BAKER CITY — For the second time Nixyaawii put together an 11-1 run over
in school history, the Nixyaawii girls the next five minutes in the first quarter to
basketball team will play for a
take control of the game.
state championship.
Girls Hoops
Arlington got the lead back
Nixyaawii was able to put
under double digits late in the
away the Arlington Honkers with
second quarter with a 25-17
ease in the Class 1A semifinals
deficit, but that was as close as
on Friday afternoon with a 51-27 #1 Nixyaawii it could get as the Golden Eagles
victory at Baker High School,
proved to be too strong.
advancing to the state finals for
Nixyaawii will now play
the first time since 2011.
the winner of No. 3 Country
Kaitlynn Melton had a big
Christian and No. 10 Adrian to
game on offense for the No. 1
be played tonight at 6:30 p.m.
seed Golden Eagles (25-0) with #12 Arlington for the state championship.
17 points on 6 of 9 shooting to go
The Golden Eagles won a state
with seven rebounds and three
title in their only appearance in
steals. Behind her, Mary Stewart
2011, beating Hosanna Christian
finished with 16 points on 8 of 25
75-50.
shooting with 10 rebounds, eight
Arlington will play for third place
steals and five assists and Milan Schimmel tomorrow morning against the loser of the
added eight points and nine rebounds.
Adrian/Country Christian game at 11:30
The Golden Eagles’ defense kept the a.m.
No. 12 Honkers (22-6) offense very quiet
————
AHS
9 11
2
5 — 27
in the game, as Arlington shot a meager
NCS
18 13 12
8 — 51
14 percent from the floor and made just 8
ARLINGTON — M. Hauner 17, S. Collins 5, J. Patnode 4, E.
1, S. Grady, S. Weatherford, K. McClure, H. Davidson,
of 57 shot attempts. Nixyaawii also forced Kirby
R. McClure.
24 Honker turnovers.
NIXYAAWII — K. Melton 17, M. Stewart 16, M. Schimmel 8,
Melton 6, S. Fitzpatrick 2, K. Mountainchief 2, E. Butler, T.
Megan Hauner finished as Arlington’s T. Broncheau,
S. Patrick, S. Fuentes, A. Tonasket, E. Looney.
3-pointers
— AHS 0, NCS 0. Free throws — AHS 11-20,
leading scorer with 17 points and added
NCS 9-14. Fouls — AHS 13, NCS 20. Fouled out — K. Melton
10 rebounds, and Emily Kirby also added (NCS).
51
27