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About Wallowa County chieftain. (Enterprise, Wallowa County, Or.) 1943-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 25, 2019)
B1 WEDNESDAY December 25, 2019 WALLOWA CRUSHES LA GRANDE By Steve Tool Wallowa County Chieftain After taking a 46-29 wal- loping at the hands of La Grande High School junior varsity. the Wallowa Cougars showed the Tigers who the real king of the jungle is. The Cougs beat the stripes off the Tigers in a 60-36 victory with the outcome never in doubt. The Wednesday, Dec. 18 battle took place in the Cou- gars’ den and La Grande did not leave without paying the price. The game started with Wallowa taking it to the streets, quickly building a large lead, helped along by the unstoppable Tristin Bales, who scored 31 on the night. The score stood at 20-7 early in the second quarter and after the fi rst half, the Tigers never got closer than 14 points before the Cougs started to put on the squeeze. Turnovers were at a mini- mum and Wallowa worked with patience and good pass- ing to sustain its lead. The ending was anti-climatic with the Cougs scoring almost at will. “The kids were pretty excited,” Coach Cody Lath- rop said. “They were a lit- tle frustrated the last time we played them.” Wallowa lost that game, 46-29. Coach Cody Lathrop said the win showcased Wal- lowa’s capabilities when the team works together. “We’re following out shots; we’re crashing the boards and getting some opportunities like we expect to,” Lathrop said. He also noted more player patience on offense that allowed team members to get quality looks at the basket. Lady Outlaws go Panther hunting fi eld and sophomore stand- out, Asiya Salim. Ashlyn Gray added six to the mix. The lady Outlaws shot a Defensively, Farwell few holes and then some in added to her double-digit the Imbler Panthers during performance with an amaz- a Dec. 19 battle. Imbler ing 10 steals on the eve- came up on the very short ning. Four players snatched end of a 63-16 stick on four boards each. their own court. Coach Crawford said The Outlaws were hard the ladies played well at it from the get-go, out- and noted Farwell’s dou- scoring Imbler 15-6 in the ble-double in points and fi rst quarter and 19-1 in steals as well as her 63% the second. shooting You get the from the ‘I LIKE WHERE picture. fl oor. C o a c h “She had a WE’RE AT RIGHT great Mike Craw- game,” ford noted Crawford NOW; WE’RE that the Pan- He PLAYING WELL said. thers are in added that all a rebuilding the players AND LOOKING year and that getting sig- FORWARD TO a sophomore nifi cant fl oor on its squad time is a good EVERY GAME.’ scored more way to go Coach Mike Crawford than half the into Christ- team’s points. mas break. Crawford The Out- played every girl on the laws will face Nixyaawii varsity team, all of whom on Friday, Dec. 27. scored at least two points. “That’ll be a good chal- The ladies spread their lenge a week before we scoring well across the start league,” he said. “I board with junior Claire like where we’re at right Farwell leading the way now; we’re playing well with a dozen points. Scram- and looking forward to bling just behind with 11 every game.” points each were junior The Outlaws have a 6-1 Zari Bathke, who shot a preseason record and rank noteworthy 71 % from the second in the state. By Steve Tool Wallowa County Chieftain Ellen Morris Bishop Wallowa Cougars’ Tristin Bales fi nds himself unimpeded on his way up to the basket for a lay-up versus La Grande JV. Wallowa walloped the Tigers 60-36. Second in the scoring slot was Quinten Tillery with 13 points. Lathrop men- tioned Zeb Hermens’ sev- en-point performance, which he said came from Hermens attracting so much attention from the opposition, which By Steve Tool Wallowa County Chieftain The lady Outlaws jour- neyed to Elgin Huskies ter- ritory for a rare Monday game. The Huskies proba- bly wished the Outlaws had stayed home after receiving a 49-29 beating. “We played very well, the best we’ve played all year, I thought,” Outlaws Enterprise wrestler Hunter Harvey (6-7) placed 5th and scored 11.0 team points at the Mac High Christmas tourney. Harvey, in the 152-pound class, was defeated by a fall in a hard-fought 2 minutes 38 sec. duel with Jacob Harris of Riverside High School. Harvey won his next two matches convincingly, in 0:54 secs and 1:39. Enterprise’s Drew Widener, wrestling in the 285 pound class, won his last two matches by falls, but was unplaced in the matches. By Steve Tool Wallowa County Chieftain The Wallowa Cougars men’s cagers stepped into two Cougar traps over week- end play. The men fell vic- tim to Condon/Wheeler and Ione/Arlington respectively on Friday, Dec. 20 and the following day. Condon proved a huge challenge for the Cougs. Although the score appears a respectable 63-53, Coach Cody Lathrop said Condon was preparing to devour the Cougars, leading the game by 24 points before the Cou- gars leaped back into the fray – too late. “Condon’s a good team,” $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ Lathrop said. “They scored 26 points in the fi rst quar- ter. It was kind of shock and awe. The defense recov- ered and held Condon to 12, 15 and 10 points in the remaining quarters while they scored 16 and sixteen points in the third and fourth quarters. Tristin Bales led the scor- ing with 22 points while Jace Fisher added eight. “It was a rough week- end,” Coach Lathrop said. “We’re getting our offense perfect; we’re running per- fect and getting the shots we want with our big guys under the basket, and we’re not making the shots.” The following game ver- we missed,” Lathrop said. “It was frustrating; we got rebounds and all that good stuff, and the kids are work- ing so hard.” Lathrop said he and assis- tant coach Kayden Lathrop looked through the team’s game stats and hitting shots is the key. “Once we get to that area where we’re hitting even 50 percent of our shots, it’ll be awesome,” Lathrop said. The weekend left the Cougs with a 3-5 preseason record. They next face Echo at the Bouncin’ Cancer tour- nament on Friday, Dec. 27 and get a rematch with Ione/ Arlington on the following day. sus Arlington/Ione wasn’t much better, as the Cougs fell by a wider margin: 61-43. Wallowa missed 17 shots – in the fi rst quarter. Not hard shots either. The team also missed 10 free throws over the duration. “Man, they were a big, physical team,” Lathrop said of Arlington. Nonetheless, the Cougs still had Bales notch 19 points while scrapper Zeb Hermens canned 14 while Quinten Tillery harvested fi ve consecutive offensive rebounds. Unfortunately, no one else scored more than fi ve. “These were lay-ins and really high percentage shots $ $ $ $ $ $ 541-426-2100 311 West Main St. • Enterprise $ $ $ OF $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ Defense was the key to the victories and Fulfer said defense was rock-solid. “They played hard this weekend on defense and I was proud of them for that – every kid that played,” he said. Surprisingly, Fulfer said the squad didn’t feel like they played to their potential in either game. “Even though we won, we still have a lot of stuff we can improve on, which is exciting,” he said. The Eagles’ preseason record improved 6-1. They next travel west for a three- game stint on consecutive days versus Dufur, Perrydale and St. Paul on Dec. 26-28. The following day saw the Eagles knocking off for- mer 2A school, Sherman, 50-39. Ferre‘ led the Eagles attack with an impressive performance from beyond the paint, sinking 6 of 8 bombs. Carson Littlep- age had his best game of the season not only defen- sively, but adding nine to the score while Hadley Miller sank eight. Hayden Hite also got kudos for defense as did Reece Nelson for both his defense and stellar rebounding. Coach Fulfer said that although no one else had such breakout scoring, the rest of the squad still shot consistently for the victory. $ SEASON $ $ SAVINGS $ $ $ fi nal quarters were good for the Eagles with the squad not playing its best ball in the second and third quar- ters although he was proud that the team weathered the storm and claimed a victory. “Ione is going to be pretty good,” Fulfer said. “They’ve got a lot of athletes, and they’re pretty competi- tive with the two schools combined.” Marvelous Chase Murray led the scoring with 20 while Mason Ferre‘ hit the bucket for 19. Three other players added fi ve points each for the victory. Fulfer also noted the defensive play of returner Juston Rogers. $ $ $ $ $ $ $ Salim brought home fi ve boards each. Gray also had eight thefts to her credit. The Outlaws own a 5-1 pre-season record and are ranked at second in the state. Coach Crawford think the team is well on the way to making its mark in the Blue Mountain Conference. “We are making great strides right now,” Craw- ford said. at our scores, the only thing that’s different different this time is we are stacking up a few more points.” He added that the entire varsity squad got time on the fl oor. The Outlaws’ strong defense held the Huskies to just fi ve points in each of the fi rst three quarters. Kirkland took the chairman of the boards honors with six while Gray and Asiya Eagles men fl y high over weekend opponents $ www.main-street-motors.com $ $ $ Coach Mike Crawford said. Senior cager Ashlyn Gray led the balanced Out- laws attack with 11 points on the evening while soph- omore Rylin Kirkland added six. Junior Claire Farwell added fi ve points to the Outlaws’ arsenal. The Outlaws shot 35% from the fl oor. “It’s been balanced,” Crawford said. “If you look Cougars’ men stumble over weekend The Eagles made it count this weekend with two impressive victories over Ione/Arlington and Sher- man, respectively. Coach Olan Fulfer called the 54-47 Ione game win the more impressive of the two victories. “We made a pretty crazy comeback Friday,” Fulfer said. “We were down by 12 late in the game and came back with some plus shots and really good defense and they played their hearts out – it was a really exciting game.” Fulfer said the fi rst and By Ellen Morris Bishop Wallowa County Chieftain Ellen Morris Bishop Wallowa Cougars’ player, Mason Moore, goes for for a successful reverse lay-up during the Cougs’ 60-36 demolition of La Grande High School on Wednesday, Dec. 18. Outlaws ladies gun for more By Steve Tool Wallowa County Chieftain Mac-Hi Christmas Tourney Results for Enterprise allowed other players to score. The coach also noted that with the more prominent role of Mason Moore, things were falling into place. “I think we’ve found out exactly where we need to be,” he said. $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ S ee $ our $ ad on page A10 $ $ $ Old Fashioned Values Sales & Service $ $ $ $ $
