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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 13, 2018)
SPORTS TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2018 1B FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @EOSPORTS UMATILLA Saturday Prep Roundup Vikings repeat as league champs Umatilla secures 20th win of the season By ALEXIS MANSANAREZ East Oregonian UMATILLA — For the second straight year, members of the Umatilla boys basketball team clipped atop a ladder to cut down the net commemorating its Eastern Oregon League championship. Boys Last year, the Basketball Vikings sealed the deal with a 68-52 win over Vale. This year, Burns they dominated early, came back from a third-quarter lull and pulled off a 61-44 victory Umatilla against Burns. “(When) you win back- to-back league champs it’s an awesome feeling to be the senior group to do that,” Kaden Webb said. Webb was one of six seniors honored before Umatilla’s final regular season home game. But in the same breath that Webb spoke praises for the team’s effort Saturday evening, he admitted the celebration would need to be a quick one. “At the end of the day, you have to move on,” Webb added. “You celebrate it in the moment but next week we have got to move on to district, then get ready for the state playoff game, so the road doesn’t stop here, you’ve got to keep going.” As the Vikings (20-5 overall, 8-2 EOL) would have it, they will be heading into the postseason riding a five-game win streak. In the past few games, winning didn’t come easy and good looks were hard to come by at times. Umatilla won back-to-back games by a two point margin before having a 22-point cushion against Vale just two days ago. “The last four or five games we weren’t shooting (very well),” Webb said. “We (would) feel really good for some reason, we were having amazing weeks of practice and the ball just wouldn’t go in the hole for us on game night, and tonight we just finally found our groove.” Umatilla opened the game Riverside girls beat Nyssa on last-second 3-pointer East Oregonian 44 61 Staff photo by Kathy Aney Kaden Webb (1), of Umatilla, gets ready to go up for a shot as Burns’ Bryce Goss (0) defends during Saturday’s Eastern Oregon League game. with a staggering 22-8 lead after the first quarter capped off by two consecutive 3-points from Webb. He was responsible for 10 of those first-quarter points, and he ended the game with leading all scorers with 20. “During timeouts, there was really nothing to tell the kids but to keep working hard and doing what they were doing because there were no adjustments,” head coach Scott Bow said. The shots kept falling in the second, again Webb hit a three to extend the Vikings’ lead to 30-10. Fellow senior Moises Garcilazo See VIKINGS/2B BOARDMAN — Alondra Caldera banked in a 3-pointer with 2.5 seconds left to help Riverside finish off the regular season with an upset of Nyssa on Saturday night. Caldera and Brendy Avalos led the Pirates (16-8 overall, 4-6 Eastern Oregon League) with 10 points apiece, and Caldera added nine rebounds. Riverside outscored Nyssa 18-7 in the fourth quarter to help earn the win and finish the season in fifth place. Madison Hartley led the Bulldogs (14-9, 7-3) with 10 points. HELIX 46, PINE EAGLE 22 — The Helix Grizzlies wrapped up their season on the road in Pine Eagle. They entered Saturday’s game losing their last three, but that skid ended with a 46-22 victory over the Eagles (2-18 overall, 0-13 Old Oregon League) The Grizzlies (13-10, 7-6) were led by Charmayne Bennett and Sadie Wilson, who each had nine points. ECHO 32, COVE 27 — At Echo, the Cougars finished off the regular season with their second straight win as they defeated Cove 32-27 on Saturday afternoon. Tylene Skillman led the Cougars (9-16 overall, 4-10 Old Oregon League) with a game-high 15 points and nine rebounds and Marti Huff added 10 points. Maggie Ledbetter and Austin Kendall led the Leopards (9-14, 5-9) with six points apiece. ARLINGTON 50, MITCHELL/SPRAY 28 — In the final Big Sky League matchup for both Arlington and Mitchell/Spray, the Honkers were playing for their final chance at a league win and the Loggers were trying to break their seven-game losing streak. It was, however, Arlington See PREPS/2B Prep Wrestling Hermiston, Pendleton, Mac-Hi wrap up district tournaments Combined 22 locals qualify for state tournament East Oregonian REDMOND — The Hermiston Bulldogs and Pendleton Buckaroos both earned top-five finishes in the Class 5A Special District 4 tourna- ment on Saturday, and are sending a combined 15 wrestlers to compete at the state tournament next weekend. The Bulldogs finished in third place with 207 points and Pendleton in fourth with 178 points. Mountain View won the team district title with 400 points and Redmond was second with 279.5 points. For the Bulldogs, Joey Gutierrez (195 pounds) and Sean Stewart (220) each wrapped up the Bulldogs’ only individual titles on the day. Gutierrez finished a superb tournament with his third win by fall in three matches, this time pinning Redmond’s John Crivellone in 1:44. Stewart won his first career district title by pinning Redmond’s John Lawrence in 2:53. Also qualifying to state for Hermiston was Ruben Madrigal (2nd place, 106 pounds), Gage Shipley (3rd, 120), AJ Tuia (2nd, 145), Zach Kirkpatrick (2nd, 160), Jake Palmer (4th, 182) and Beau Blake (2nd, 285). For Pendleton, senior Brendon Bedolla finished off his successful run as the No. 6 seed at 138 pounds by capturing the district title with an 8-2 decision over Mountain View’s John Cole. Alex Rendon (126) came up just short of his second straight title as he fell to the undefeated Beau Ohlson from Mountain View by a 10-2 major decision. Also qualifying for the Buck- aroos were Caleb Tremper (3rd, 113 pounds), Isaac Urbina (4th, 152), Aiden Patterson (4th, 160), Kirk Liscom (4th, 170) and Aiden Henderson (4th, 195). The Class 5A state tournament will begin on Friday morning at 8:30 a.m. and runs through Saturday night at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland. CLASS 4A DISTRICT 4 LA GRANDE — It was a solid day at the Special District 4 tourna- ment for Mac-Hi on Saturday, as four Pioneers secured district champion- ships and a total of seven wrestlers earned qualifying spots to the Class See WRESTLING/3B Ronald Bond/La Grande Observer Mac-Hi’s Spencer Wells, left, wrestles La Grande’s Spencer Gerst in the 220-pound final at the 4A District 4 Tournament on Saturday. Wells won a 5-2 decision to capture his third straight district championship. Sports shorts Earnhardt Jr’s replacement, Bowman, wins Daytona 500 pole DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Alex Bowman put an old familiar car on the top of the board for the Daytona 500. Bowman won the pole for “The Great American Race” in his debut as the official driver of the No. 88 Chevrolet. That was Dale Earn- hardt Jr.’s car, and NASCAR’s most popular driver won six races at Daytona International Speedway behind the wheel of that Hendrick Bowman Motorsports entry. But Earnhardt retired at the end of last season and the empty seat went to Bowman, who drove 10 races filling in when Earnhardt was sidelined in 2016 with a concus- sion. Bowman will be racing in the Daytona 500 for just the second time in his career. Denny Hamlin qualified second in a Toyota from Joe Gibbs Racing. “We’ve all had pretty successful pro careers, I think, but we still have doubters, for sure. And I think that’s a motivation for us. We’ve been overlooked pretty much our whole careers, much of us, so just in the back of our minds we still think of those times where people didn’t give us the right chances and have this opportunity now to kind of take advantage of that.” — Ryan Zapolski Team USA men’s hockey team goaltender on the team’s underdog role in these Olympics without the top-flight NHL players. Former Blazer attempting one more basketball comeback NEW YORK (AP) — Former No. 1 NBA draft pick Greg Oden will attempt a comeback this summer in the Big3. The 3-on-3 league says Monday that Oden will be part of this year’s draft pool and take part in the draft combine. Oden was picked first in 2007 by Portland, which selected him over Kevin Durant. But the 7-footer battled injuries throughout his career and played in just 105 games, averaging 8.0 Oden points. His last NBA season was in 2013-14 with Miami. The league of former NBA players co-founded by entertainer Ice Cube completed its first season last year. The players who were not on the championship team or are captains or co-captains of teams in the eight-team league will be part of the draft pool. THIS DATE IN SPORTS 1923 — The New York Renaissance, the first all-black pro basketball team, is orga- nized. Rens become one of the dominant basketball teams of the 1920s and 1930s. 1990 — Bryan Trottier of the New York Islanders becomes the 15th NHL player to reach 500 goals, scoring in the second period of a 4-2 loss to the Calgary Flames. 1995 — Connecticut’s men’s basketball team is ranked No. 1 in the AP poll, joining the school’s women’s team. It is the first time a school’s men’s and women’s basketball teams were simultaneously No. 1. Contact us at 541-966-0838 or sports@eastoregonian.com
