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