E AST O REGONIAN
Friday, February 22, 2019
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B1
IT’S TIME TO REAP
THE REWARDS
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Natalie Neveau (21), of Pendleton, pre-
pares to go up for a shot as Hood River
Valley’s Reese Leibein defends during
Thursday’s game at Warberg Court.
Bucks knock
down tourney
win over Hood
River Valley
Pendleton girls to challenge
ridgeview on Saturday in
iMC tourney’s second round
By BRETT KANE
East Oregonian
if you ask the bucks, they weren’t
exactly on their a game on Thurs-
day night. Luckily, neither were their
opponents.
round one of the intermountain Con-
ference’s district tournament saw Pendle-
ton take down the bottom-ranked Hood
river Valley eagles 39-18, but the bucks
could only manage two quarters in dou-
ble digits along the way.
See Bucks, Page B2
Hermiston’s
Headings earns
NWC honor
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Senior Alex Miranda-Walls
will lead the largest contingent
of Irrigon wrestlers the Knights
have ever sent to the state tournament.
irrigon’s alex Miranda-Walls has competed
against some of the best to prepare for state
By ANNIE FOWLER
East Oregonian
A
IRRIGON STATE
WRESTLING CHAMPIONS
lex Miranda-Walls grew up
in family of basketball play-
ers, but he had his heart set
on wrestling.
Now a senior at irrigon High
School, Miranda-Walls has proven
to his family that it was the right
choice for him. “it was a bit of a
rough start to my career,” Miran-
da-Walls said. “There were all the
‘grabbing another guy’ jokes. Now,
they appreciate what i do.”
anthony
Landeros,
Miran-
da-Walls’ older brother, said he tried
2007 — Frankie Torres (119 pounds)
2009 — Rosario Rios (112)
2010 — Wade Aylett (189)
2013 — Andy Aguilara (152)
to teach his brother to play basket-
ball, but it did not go well.
“He told me one day he was going
to wrestle,” said Landeros, who now
is an assistant basketball coach at
Hermiston. “i think it was good for
him to pick another sport so he didn’t
have to live up to expectations.”
Landeros was part of irrigon’s
2014 and 2015 state championship
basketball teams.
Miranda-Walls, who placed third
at state last year at 170 pounds, will
try and turn bronze into gold this
weekend when he makes a return
trip to Veterans Memorial Coliseum
in Portland.
“There are only four state cham-
pions in school history,” Miran-
da-Walls said. “i want to be one of
the first five.”
Miranda-Walls, who suffered just
his second loss of the season in the
See Alex, Page B2
SPORTS SHORTS
Zion’s freak injury ripples in basketball, business worlds
By JOEDY MCCREARY
Associated Press
durHaM, N.C. (aP) —
Soon after Zion Williamson’s
shoe ripped apart, Nike’s stock
price took a hit.
The freak injury during one
of the college basketball sea-
son’s marquee games imme-
diately sparked debates about
everything from the shoe man-
ufacturer to insurance issues
and whether the likely Nba lot-
tery pick should risk his profes-
sional future by continuing to
play for the top-ranked-for-now
blue devils.
Williamson is day to day with
a mild right knee sprain and is
progressing as expected, team
spokesman Mike deGeorge
said Thursday night.
by Thursday morning, Nike,
which manufactured the shoes
Williamson was wearing, also
was feeling the impact of the
injury.
The company’s stock closed
down 89 cents at $83.95 on
Thursday as the sportswear
manufacturer became the target
of ridicule on social media. a
spokesman said Nike has begun
an investigation into what it
called an “isolated” event.
A trainer holds Duke’s
Zion Williamson’s shoes
after Williamson left the
game due to an injury
during the first half of an
NCAA college basketball
game against North
Carolina in Durham,
N.C., on Wednesday.
AP Photo
Gerry Broome
Former Hermiston basketball stand-
out Tavin Headings was named to the
all-Northwest
Con-
ference second team
Wednesday. She was one
of three George Fox play-
ers honored.
emily Spencer was
named to the first team,
and Hailey Hartney was
selected to the honor-
able mention team. bru-
Headings
ins coach Michael Meek
was named the NWC Coach of the year
for the third time in nine years.
Headings, a senior wing, grabbed her
first honor on the All-NWC Team.
Headings led the bruins in scoring
this season with 12.4 points per game
and is one of five players to average 20 or
more minutes per game.
She holds the fourth-best shooting
percentage in the conference from the
field (51.2) and eighth-best 3-point per-
centage (36.1) in conference games.
Her points per 40 minutes is the sec-
ond-best among conference players at
27.5.
Headings also averaged 2.7 rebounds
and 1.2 steals a game for the bruins (22-
3, 15-1 NWC), who are in the midst of a
10-game win streak.