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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 14, 2018)
SPORTS WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2018 1B FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @EOSPORTS PENDLETON Prep Roundup BUCKS GO BACK-TO-BACK Pendleton clinches another league championship East Oregonian By ERIC SINGER East Oregonian PENDLETON — Eight years ago, current Pendleton girls basketball seniors Maureen Davies, Rylee Gentner, Jaiden Lemberger, Kalan McGlothan and Hallie Porter started playing basketball together on a team coached by Hallie’s father, Kevin Porter. The group stayed on the same team together and continued to be coached by Porter over the next few years, and throughout those years Basketball one message continued to relayed Pendleton from coach to his players. When the team would be at Warberg Court, Porter Hood River r e c a l l s pointing to the gym rafters at the banners of the teams’ in the Buckaroos’ league and discussing how the wins at the middle school level didn’t really matter. The group wanted to put in the necessary work to reach the high school varsity level and win games — a lot of them — there at Warberg Court. Eight years later, the group did just what they talked about — and more. The Buckaroo senior class now has 54 career wins and put their names in the school record books after defeating Hood River Valley 50-28 on Tuesday evening to clinch back-to-back Columbia River Conference championships for the first time since 2004-2005, doing so on senior night, too. “This is amazing,” an elated McGlothan said Tuesday. “It’s all we wanted, all we work for and we’ve worked so hard to get here.” Porter added, “I never dreamt I’d be their coach in high school ... but it’s been a long journey here to senior night and to eight years later be here with these kids to capture another league title is BOARDMAN — Weston-McEwen’s Jordyn Lambert scored a buzz- er-beating lay-in to give her TigerScots a 49-47 victory over Culver on Tuesday, clinching the CBC regu- lar-season championship. Culver had just tied the game at 47-47 on free throws with 7.8 seconds left, when Weston-McEwen’s Chelsea Quaempts took the inbounds pass and dribbled the length of the court, putting up a shot as the seconds on the clock ticked away. The shot missed, but Lambert grabbed the rebound and putback the miss to win the game. “We played great,” Weston-McEwen coach Mike Giusti said. “We had really, really good defense ... better than it has been, and credit the girls for that.” Quaempts led the Tiger- Scots () with a game-high 30 points and Katie Vescio added eight. Mia Gamboa scored 15 to lead the Bulldogs (). The win clinches a playoff spot for the TigerScots and an automatic berth in Saturday’s district title game, where they will play the winner of Friday’s semifinal between Culver and Heppner. The game will be at the Pendleton Convention Center at 3 p.m. 50 28 See PENDLETON/3B TigerScots win league title with last-second putback Staff photo by E.J. Harris Pendleton’s Maureen Davies shoots the ball flanked by Hood Rivers’ Gracie Meyers and Lizzie Weekly (13) in the Bucks’ 50-28 win against the Eagles on Tuesday in Pendleton. Sports shorts Cubs, Darvish finalize contract CHICAGO (AP) — Yu Darvish and the Chicago Cubs have finalized their $126 million, six-year contract, by far the largest deal in a slow-moving free agent market. Darvish joins a rotation that includes Jon Lester, Kyle Hendricks, Jose Quintana and Tyler Chatwood, who agreed to a $38 million, three-year contract in December. Darvish A four-time All-Star, Darvish finished last season with the Los Angeles Dodgers, helping them knock out the defending champion Cubs in the playoffs to reach the World Series. The 31-year-old Japanese right-hander is expected to take the rotation spot of Jake Arrieta, who became a free agent. Darvish went 4-3 with a 3.44 ERA in nine starts with the Dodgers down the stretch. But Darvish was hit hard in the World Series against Houston, managing just five outs in each of his two starts. See PREPS/2B HERMISTON Bulldogs ride three-game win streak Hermiston holds off Riverhawks to remain tied for top spot in CRC By ALEXIS MANSANAREZ East Oregonian HERMISTON — In the two teams last matchup of the season, Hermiston had a few goals when The Dalles came to town Tuesday. A win would mean the Bulldogs will be playing for the conference championship against Pendleton next Tuesday and defensively, they had to stop the Riverhawks’ top shooter in Basketball senior Dakota Murr. Both of those goals were accomplished in the 46-41 victory over The Dalles, even if Hermiston it wasn’t in the prettiest manner. “Sometimes you’ve got to win ugly, and it was ugly,” head coach Casey Arstein said. “I thought the kids did some good things defensively but at the same The Dalles time, we let them crawl back into it, but a win is a win right now.” The Bulldogs (10-11 overall, 5-2 Columbia River Conference) held a 33-24 lead going into the fourth quarter. After upping their advantage to as many as 15 points in the first half, Hermiston allowed the wrong River- hawk shooter to find his rhythm but surprisingly, it wasn’t Murr — who scored 28 points the last time he was in the Dawg House. Sophomore Jacob Hernandez began to cut away at The Dalles’ deficit in the third quarter when he scored seven of its last nine points. By that point, Hermiston was still up 33-24 but Hernandez was there again at the start of the fourth to pull the Riverhawks (10-11, 2-5) within striking distance. Hernandez pitched in 10 of the 17 fourth quarter 46 NCAA considering reforming transfer eligibility rules (AP) — The NCAA is considering allowing athletes who are doing well in the classroom the ability to transfer with immediate eligibility and permitting incoming freshmen to get out of a national letter of intent if there is a head coaching change. The NCAA’s Division I transfer working group concluded two days of meetings Tuesday. Justin Sell, the group chairman and athletic director at South Dakota State, says the group studied data on how transferring impacts academics as it develops concepts for rule reforms that could be presented to coaches, administrators and student-athletes for feedback. The group will meet again in April and the goal is to present a proposal for the Board of Governors to consider for approval in June. ONTARIO 39, MAC-HI 16 — The Mac-Hi Pioneers season came to an end Tuesday in Ontario. The 39-16 loss came in the district playoff game. “It was a tough way to end the season,” head coach Brooke Garton said. The Pioneers (2-21 overall, 0-6 Greater Oregon League) couldn’t buy a basket with their top scorer, Victoria Garcia, recording a team-best of four points. Garcia also led the team with eight rebounds, and Courtney Breeding notched three steals. 41 Staff photo by Kathy Aney Cole Smith (12), of Hermiston, goes up for a shot as The Dalles’ Henry Lee defends during Tuesday’s game at the Dawg House. See HERMISTON/3B
