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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (March 7, 2017)
SPORTS TUESDAY, MARCH 7, 2017 1B FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @EOSPORTS 1A Girls Basketball Championship UNDENIABLE: Nixyaawii Golden Eagles dominate Country Christian to cap undefeated season Mary Stewart scores 34, named Player of the Game By MATT ENTRUP East Oregonian BAKER CITY — There was simply no stopping the Nixyaawii Golden Eagles on Saturday in the OSAA 1A girls basketball champi- onship. Saving its best for last, No. 1 Nixyaawii thoroughly dominated No. 3 Country Christian for a 68-39 win to claim the program’s #3 Country Chr. second state title and finish off an undefeated season. Junior guard Mary Stewart scored a game-high #1 Nixyaawii 34 points on 13-of-23 (56.5 percent) shooting and added seven steals, six rebounds, three blocks and three assists to earn Player of the Game honors. Although they led by more than 20 for the entire second half, Stewart and her teammates didn’t consider the game won until head coach Jeremy Maddern pulled them from the game with a minute left. See GOLDEN EAGLES/3B 39 68 “It’s a big thing, we couldn’t let our community down, basically. We were nervous. … But that also pushed us to do better.” Staff photo by Kathy Aney MAIN PHOTO: Mary Stewart, of Nixyaawii, goes up for a shot during Saturday’s 1A OSAA championship game against the County Christian Cougars in Baker City. TOP RIGHT: Kaitlynn Melton (20), of Nixyaawii, puts up a shot against the Cougars. BOTTOM RIGHT: Milan Schimmel, of Nixyaawii, eyes the basket just before launching a shot during Saturday’s 1A OSAA championship game. 2A Boys Basketball Championship Stanfield’s Jose Galarza goes up for a rebound contested by San- tiam’s Aus- tin Fawcett and Jonah Downey in the Tigers’ 57-54 loss to the Wolverines in the class 2A basket- ball state champion- ship game Saturday in Pendleton. Santiam’s surge too much for Tigers Stanfield finishes second as Downey brothers lead Wolverines to title #4 Santiam #2 57 By ERIC SINGER East Oregonian PENDLETON — All season long, the No. 2 Stanfield boys basketball team was known for its hyper-speed pace-of-play and an engine that continuously drove the team to victory after victory, all the way to the 2A state championship game. But in Saturday’s championship game at the Pendleton Convention Center against the No. 4 Santiam Wolverines, that engine finally ran out of gas. The Wolverines, powered by the sibling duo of Julian and Jonah Downey, outscored Stanfield 20-10 in the fourth quarter to pull out would eventually hold a 17-14 lead after one. After a back-and-forth second quarter, the Tigers began to gain momentum in the third quarter. Santiam had tied the game up at 37-37, but then Stanfield went on a 7-0 run over the final 3:30 of the third to hold its largest lead of the game at 44-37 heading to the fourth quarter. At that point, excitement began to build amongst the Stanfield crowd as just eight minutes stood between the Tigers and their first state championship. However, that’s when Julian Downey took over. Downey hit a 3-pointer just 10 seconds in to cut the deficit to four, and then with four minutes left he nailed another 3-pointer to put his Wolverines on top 47-46. Stanfield then re-took the lead at 48-47 and 50-49 on back-to-back makes by Dylan Grogan, and then Downey hit another 3-pointer and was fouled by Thyler Monkus for a 4-point play to See TIGERS/3B Stanfield 54 the 57-54 victory over the Tigers to claim the schools’ first state championship since 1974. The Downey brothers combined for 54 of Santiam’s (24-4) 57 points on 18-31 shooting (58 percent) to carry the load for Santiam. “Those brothers are awesome players,” Stanfield coach Jason Sperr said afterwards. “Their whole team was solid, but yeah Julian hit some huge shots ... it was a great game and both teams played pretty hard.” The game was close from start to finish with a total of 15 lead changes and five ties. Santiam scored the first points of the game on a fastbreak lay-in by Jonah Downey, and then Stanfield (22-2) took its first lead at 9-8 with 4:33 left in the first and Hauner scores 16 to pace Honkers East Oregonian BAKER CITY — Arlington struck first in the fourth quarter, but Adrian answered Megan Hauner’s three-pointer with 13 straight points to take a firm hold in the third-place game at the OSAA 1A girls basketball state tournament on Saturday at Baker High School. No. 7 Buckaroos open final bracket against No. 2 Lancers 5A Boys Hoops #12 Arlington #10 Adrian 36 50 By the time Selina Villar- real sank a pair of free throws with 2:40 left to play, No. 10 Adrian had stretched its lead to 21 points and was able to relax down the stretch for a 50-36 win. See HONKERS/3B Staff photo by E.J. Harris PENDLETON 1A Girls Basketball Arlington finishes fifth — Kaitlynn Melton, Nixyaawii junior Pendleton Buckaroos (15-4) #7 Churchill Lancers (21-4) #2 • Today, 8:15 p.m. • at Gill Coliseum • KUMA 1290 AM Pendleton, Churchill have competitive history East Oregonian After a one-year hiatus, the Pendleton boys basket- ball team makes its return to Gill Coliseum for the 5A final bracket today. The No. 7 Buckaroos open in the night’s final game against the team that ended their last run, the No. 2 Chur- chill Lancers. Only one player that saw significant time in that 67-64 four-overtime consolation semifinal will be back on the court when the teams tip off at 8:15 p.m. Pendleton senior Caden Smith was a sophomore on that Bucks’ squad that went 0-2 in Corvallis but was outscored by just 11 points total. Senior Wyatt Morris was also a member of that squad, but played sparingly. Smith had 26 points to help the Bucks stay in it against Churchill in their last meeting at Gill, and hit the tying shots at the end of the second and third overtime. The Bucks and Lancers have a recent history of great games as well, and Churchill again edged the Bucks in the 2015-16 preseason 49-47. Pendleton (15-4), the Columbia River Conference See BUCKAROOS/2B
