SPORTS
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2018
1B
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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.
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