SPORTS
FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 2017
1B
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ALL-EO GIRLS BASKETBALL
Stewart’s divergent drive
Nixyaawii junior shuns spotlight
while also striving for success
practices were, I wouldn’t say brutal,
but it was fun to watch. There were
times when I wouldn’t call for a
ven at a young age, Mary Stewart scrimmage before a game because we
were pounding on each other so much.
wanted to be like Mike.
I think her competitiveness trickled
The Nixyaawii junior is too
down to the rest of the team. I think
young to remember the ear-worm
that’s why you saw some of the one big
Gatorade commercials, but she knew
margins, just because we’re pushing
her favorite clothing and shoes were
each other so hard in practice.”
Nike’s Air Jordan line, and that
Stewart turned in some huge games
was enough to make her pick up a
during her junior
basketball and head
campaign, including a
out to the hoop behind
41-point game against
her grandmother’s
Helix in which she
Pendleton home.
went 10-for-11 from
“I was like four,”
three-point range, and a
said Stewart, the
34-point game against
All-EO Player of the
Country Christian in
Year for girls basket-
— Mary Stewart,
the state championship
ball. “It was in the
Nixyaawii junior guard
which Nixyaawii won
back of my grandma’s
and All-EO Player of the
68-39.
house in the grass
Year for girls basketball.
But while she’ll
on a 10-foot hoop. I
gladly bask in the
could hit the rim, then
glory of a win, Stewart will be the fi rst
I started getting better and I started
to point out that there were 34 other
making them. I went down there by
points scored by her teammates in the
myself a lot, then my grandma started
that title win, and she’s just playing the
coming out with me.
role her natural talents have put her in.
“My grandma started shooting
She’d be the last person you’d expect
with me, and I thought it was so fun
to slap her emblem on a shoe and sell it
so we’d go shoot every day. It got into
around the world.
our schedule, like we’d go shoot every
“I’m not shy, you can just talk to me
day.”
and I’ll talk back. But I guess I don’t
The addition of a competitor would
really like talking about, like, just me I
prove key for Stewart’s growth as a
guess. I feel like if it’s just me then it’s
player.
Perhaps unknown to her at the time, not fair,” she said. “I kind of push (the
Stewart shared a very distinct trait with attention) to the side. After our games
I try to leave as soon as I can before
her basketball idol Michael Jordan.
someone can talk to me. And that’s
“I just don’t like to lose,” she said.
what I did at state, when they wanted to
Stewart’s competitive streak just
take pictures but I didn’t want to do it.
may have been the biggest factor in
So I was trying to leave.”
Nixyaawii’s undefeated championship
For sports reporters this poses a
season in 2016-17. Undoubtedly, her
problem, but not for her coach.
27.7 points, 5.9 assists, 4.8 rebounds
“For me I don’t really think it’s an
and 6.4 steals played a big role in
issue, and I think she does what she
the Golden Eagles’ 27-0 record, but
Nixyaawii coach Jeremy Maddern said needs to do. She stays away from the
spotlight,” Maddern said. “She’s going
Stewart’s drive to win seemed to be
contagious to her teammates and made to have that spotlight but she tends to
shy away from that. You can defi nitely
for some pretty intense practices.
tell it bothers her a little bit but I’ve
“The thing I think is the more
seen kids the exact opposite where they
competitive the drill is, the harder
are attention hogs, so for me I’d rather
you push her, the more you’re going
have a kid who does the right things
to get,” said Maddern, whose Golden
and doesn’t look for that attention.”
Eagles outscored teams by a 27-point
average. “I think the key to her success
is that competitiveness. Some of our
See STEWART/2B
By MATT ENTRUP
East Oregonian
E
“I feel like if
it’s just me then
it’s not fair.”
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Nixyaawii’s Mary Stewart is the All-EO player of the year for the 2017 girls basketball season.
PENDLETON
Prep Roundup
Greb, Som lead Bucks to wins
Pendleton golfers shoot
low rounds at Pendleton
Country Club
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — Haley Greb shot
her second-straight sub-par round and
Nathan Som led the Pendleton boys
to their lowest score of the season on
Thursday at the Buckaroo Invite at
Pendleton Country Club.
Greb posted a three-under 69 to
win the girls’ individual title, and Som
paced the boys’ fi eld with a 74.
It was a tough day on the greens,
said Pendleton coach Nels Nelson,
and several players saw their scores
suffer due to some unforgiving
surfaces. But Pendleton’s Brayden
Pulver wasn’t one of them and needed
just 26 putts to get through his round
to fi nish second with a 77 after
winning a scorecard playoff.
The Pendleton boys shot as
second-low 320 to win the team title
by two strokes over Kamiakin, and
also beat regional foes The Dalles
(324) and Hermiston (346).
“We kind of put it all together as a
team,” said Nelson. “The greens were
fast and hard to hold, but we managed
it well.”
Jared Geier shot an 84 and Brandon
Cox turned in an 85 to complete
Pendleton’s score.
Hermiston was led by Anders Lind
with an 83, and fi fth-place Mac-Hi
(352) was led by an 83 from Riley
Chester.
On the girls side, Pendleton took
the top team spot with a 351, followed
by Kamiakin with a 412 and Herm-
iston a 446.
Pendleton girls coach Terry Prouse
See PREPS/3B
BMCC’s Mathews signs with Saints
Sophomore post
makes jump to NCAA
East Oregonian
Photo courtesy of Blue Mountain Community College
Blue Mountain’s Jared Mathews, right, and athletic director
Brett Bryan smile after Mathews signed a National Letter of
Intent with St. Martin’s for men’s basketball.
For the past two seasons, Blue
Mountain’s Jared Mathews has
been one of the top post players
in the NWAC East Region.
Now, Mathews will take his
talents to the NCAA.
On Wednesday, Mathews
signed a National Letter of Intent
with Saint Martin’s University
in Lacey, Washington and will
join the NCAA Division II team
this fall. At Saint Martin’s, the
sophomore from Bakersfi eld,
California will reunite with
the coach that recruited him
to BMCC, Adam Ellis, who is
now an assistant coach with the
See MATHEWS/2B
Sports shorts
Plum picked No. 1 in WNBA Draft
NEW YORK (AP) — The San Antonio
Stars made Washington star Kelsey Plum the
No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 WNBA Draft on
Thursday night.
The NCAA Player of the Year fi nished her
college career with an NCAA-record 3,527
points. The Stars had the worst
record last season and held the top
pick for the fi rst time in franchise
history.
“I’ve been dreaming about
it for so long,” Plum said. “I’m
really excited and grateful for the
Plum
opportunity and will make the
most of it.”
The Stars took Moriah Jefferson with the No.
2 pick last season. Plum played with Jefferson
on a USA Basketball Under-18 team and was
excited for the chance to play with her again.
Oregon State star Sydney Wiese went 11th
overall to the Los Angeles Sparks.
“We’re not going into the
playoffs saying ‘Alright,
we got here, we did a
great job, we fought
back and let’s just go in
here and put up a fi ght.’
We’re going in here and
we want to win. Ain’t no
moral victories and all
that.“
— Damian Lillard
Portland Trail Blazers guard
says he is confi dent in his team’s
abilities to take on and possibly
take down Golden State in the
fi rst round of the NBA playoffs,
even telling CSN Northwest the
Blazers will win in six games.
OSU baseball’s win streak
comes to a halt after 23 games
SEATTLE — For the fi rst time in 23 games,
the Oregon State Beavers fi nished a game on
the wrong side of the scoreboard.
The Washington Huskies beat the Beavers
3-2 in the series opener on
Thursday night, ending OSU’s
ninth-inning rally with the tying
run stranded on second base.
It’s just the second loss of the
season for Oregon State (28-2, 12-1 PAC-12),
with last loss coming on Feb. 24 to Ohio State.
Trevor Larnach opened up the scoring in the
game with an RBI double in the fi rst inning, but
that would be the last run OSU would get until
an RBI single by KJ Harrison in the ninth.
Luke Heimlich started for OSU, pitching 6
1/3 innings giving up seven hits and three runs
with seven strikeouts.
The series continues today at 4:05 p.m. at
Husky Ballpark in Seattle.
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1960 — The Montreal
Canadiens win their fi fth
straight Stanley Cup with
a four-game sweep of the
Toronto
Maple
Leafs,
including tonight’s 4-0 victory.
1994 — Seattle becomes
the fi rst team in NBA history
to have 10 double-fi gure
scorers in one game, as the
SuperSonics beat the Los
Angeles Clippers 150-101.
2006 — Kobe Bryant
sets the Los Angeles Lakers’
single-season scoring record
with a fl ourish, getting
50 points to eclipse Elgin
Baylor’s long-standing total
(2,719) in a 110-99 victory
over Portland.
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