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
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fl oor.
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“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,”
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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
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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