B1
WEDNESDAY
January 29, 2020
Outlaws boys suffer
sixth straight defeat
By Steve Tool
Wallowa County chieftain
Steve Tool
IT’s mine! Outlaws player, Morgan Jenkins, isn’t about to give up the ball to a Weston-McEwen players during the Outlaws’ 44-27
victory on Tuesday, Jan. 21.
Lady Outlaws keep opponents on the run
By SteveTool
Wallowa County Chieftain
Weston-McEwen came
to visit the Enterprise Out-
laws’ home court and fell
to EHS 44-27. Highly over-
matched, the Tiger Scots’
bruising loss happened even
with Outlaws’ coach, Mike
Crawford, playing 10 girls
in the fi rst quarter.
The Tiger Scots only
scored 12 points through the
fi rst three quarters.
The rest of the game
stayed much the same.
Every girl got quality time
on the court. Sophomore
Rylin Kirkland netted nine
while Casidee Harrod nailed
seven and sisters Ashlyn
and Jada Gray bucketed six
each.
Defensively,
Harrod
had six boards while Asiya
Salim gathered fi ve. Zari
Bathke notched fi ve steals
on her belt and handed out
four assists.
Crawford said the game
ran rough at times and was
never very pretty.
“There were a lot of
fouls, and it had no fl ow,”
Crawford said. “It was obvi-
ous we were going to win,
early in the game.” He also
said his starters played very
little in the contest, adding,
“There’s no joy in beating a
team by 60 points.”
Nearly everyone on the
squad scored points and
seating the starters gave less
experienced players valu-
able time to work on their
game, and the squad reached
one other milestone.
“We’ve offi cially qual-
ifi ed for district now,” he
said.
The ladies strode one step
closer to state with a mixed
weekend including a sat-
isfying home win against
arch-enemy, Grant Union,
but suffering defeat by a one
point margin at the Union
Bobcats’ lair.
Friday’s Jan. 24 game
against the Prospectors
proved the Outlaws have
overcome major barri-
ers over the years as Grant
Union has proved very
tough to beat. This year, the
Lady Outlaws cruised to vic-
tory in both home and away
battles versus their nemesis.
The Outlaws’ balanced
scoring attack persevered
in the 38-32 victory despite
shooting a mere 22% from
the fl oor and 57% from the
foul line. Enterprise led the
entire way and outscored the
Prospectors in each quarter,
save the last.
“We played decent bas-
ketball against GU most of
the night,” Crawford said.
Carsyn Miller popped in
14 points while Ashlyn Gray
poked through 11. Jada Gray
added six points. Defen-
sively, Ashlyn Gray served
as queen of the boards with
an even dozen in her efforts
while Claire Farwell seized
11. Gray also committed six
thefts and recorded an amaz-
ing seven defl ections on the
evening.
The following day saw
the ladies traveling to Union
Bobcat country and leav-
ing with a tough 33-32 loss.
Stats showed the Outlaws
shooting only 21% from the
fi eld with not a single scorer
in double digits.
EHS trailed 16-15 at the
half and the game tied at 23
after the third quarter. Trag-
ically, Enterprise held a one
point lead with 7.8 seconds
left before one of the Out-
laws ladies was charged
with a loose ball foul. The
Bobcats player sank both
shots to put the game away
in the waning seconds.
Gray and Miller led the
scoring with nine and eight
points respectively. Defen-
sively, Rylin Kirkland
snagged a dozen rebounds
and a block while Farwell
grabbed seven boards and
had fi ve steals to boot.
“It was a really good
game,” Crawford said. “It
wasn’t an offensive game; it
was a great defensive game,
and we played well enough
to win it.”
The coach added that
although the ladies played
well last week, he thinks
they’ll play even better this
week.
“I think we’re motivated
to get it done,” he said.
The ladies are 5-2 in
league play and 13-3 overall
while holding down the sixth
slot in state rankings. They
next play at Weston-McE-
wen on Saturday, Feb. 1.
Joseph Charter School Eagles boys drop pair
By Steve Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
The Eagles men dropped
a rare pair of games in their
fi rst weekend outing after the
tragedy of its gym fi re. Fac-
ing the two top teams in the
Old Oregon League proved a
bit much for the Eagles.
Friday, Jan. 24, saw the
Eagles visiting the Badgers’
den of Powder Valley and
limping away after a 51-39
loss. Turnovers proved the
name of the game as the
Eagles turned the ball over
21 times, which the Badgers
put to good use.
“They helped us see
where we need to be by the
end of the season,” Coach
Olan Fulfer said. “Not hav-
ing a game in two weeks hurt
us; we were defi nitely rusty,
and our heads weren’t in it.”
Still, the Eagles had a
decent scoring night with
Mason Ferre’ leading the
scoring with 15 while part-
ner in crime, Chase Murray,
nailed 13.
Nixyaawii also proved a
diffi cult mountain to climb
as the Eagles didn’t get off
the ground in the fi rst half
during a 71-57 loss. Fulfer
said the squad had diffi -
culty getting it together, but
fi nally realized during the
second half that despite cir-
cumstances, they still have a
great team. Nixyaawii, one
of the state’s top teams, only
bested the Eagles by four
points in the second half.
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“We showed a big
improvement in the second
half, and that’s all I asked,”
Fulfer said. “I just wanted an
improvement from the night
before.”
Fulfer noted that the
Eagles cut turnovers down
to 12 against a much tougher
defense. Also, the dynamic
duo put together a decent
scoring machine for the
Eagles as well.
This time Murray led
with 19 in the hoop while
Ferre’ chipped in with 14.
Hayden Hite sparked the
third quarter with his eight
points, draining two shots
from behind the paint in the
process.
“I’m really proud of my
team,” Fulfer said. “Even
with the losses, they play
with heart and class, and
they never give up and they
hold each other up. I have
nothing but pride for our
guys.”
The weekend left the
Eagles with a 1-2 league
record and 10-5 overall.
Still the squad is ranked sev-
enth in the state. They next
host Wallowa at the Enter-
prise High School gym
on Wednesday, Jan. 29,
at 7:30 p.m. Fulfer thinks
the rest of the season looks
bright for the Eagles.
“We’ve got 10 games left
in the season to get a little
bit better each game,” Fulfer
said. “We were trying to be
perfect, and we’re not there
yet.”
The Outlaws boys made
it six straight losses after
consecutive defeats to
Weston-McEwen, Grant
Union and Union over the
past week.
The
embarrassing
49-47 loss to Weston McE-
wen took place on Tues-
day, Jan. 21. Ranked con-
siderably lower in state
rankings, Weston took the
Outlaws to task, virtually
dominating most of the
game against the larger,
stronger and more talented
Outlaws.
EHS junior, David
Salim, kept the Outlaws
within striking distance and
was the only Outlaw to put
in a consistently good per-
formance during his fl oor
minutes, out-shooting and
out-rebounding far taller
teammates. However, foul
trouble led to Salim miss-
ing signifi cant time in the
second and third quarters
and the Outlaws suffered
without his presence.
Salim returned at about
the start of the fourth quar-
ter and helped spark a rally
that seemingly set the Out-
laws on the path to victory.
However, an ill-advised
intentional foul on the
part of an Outlaws player
gave the momentum back
to Weston and cost EHS
much needed points as the
Tiger Scots sank both free
throws and a bucket as
they were allowed to retain
possession after the free
throws because of the call.
Although not ejected, the
player did not see the fl oor
the rest of the night.
Although the Outlaws
Cougars boys win pair
By Steve Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
The Wallowa Cougars
men are on a hot streak after
two straight wins on Jan.
24 and Jan. 25. The Friday
game saw the Tom Cougs
taking on the Griswold
Grizzlies under less than
ideal circumstance: The fl u
sidelined four of the Cougs’
top six players. Nonethe-
less, stalwarts Tristin Bales
and Zeb Hermens remained
unaffected and their pres-
ence shepherded the Cougs
to a 52-45 shellacking of
the Grizzlies.
The replacement play-
ers played heads up ball,
especially considering their
lack of varsity fl oor expe-
rience. Coach Cody Lath-
rop specifi cally mentioned
sophomore Willie Gibbs’
performance. He also said
Zeb Hermens deserved
the game ball for playing
smart basketball and keep-
ing fl oor presence up while
setting up Bales with the
opportunity to make good
shots.
The Cougs next met
Cove, nailing down a 41-39
win over the Leopards,
even if it wasn’t in the most
appealing fashion.
“It was uglier than sin,”
Coach Lathrop said with
only a hint of humor. “It was
horrible, or even worse.”
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were able to narrow the
gap to two, fi ve of those
points came in the last
minute with the last three
from a Cason Kirkland
three pointer at the buzzer.
Kirkland led the scoring
with 16 points and seven
boards while Salim gar-
nered 14 and also snagged
seven boards.
“I know my team can
perform better than we
did,” Coach Kyle Craw-
ford said. “That was defi -
nitely a rough one for us.”
Friday, Jan. 24, saw
the EHS boys falling on
their home court to confer-
ence leaders, Grant Union,
62-47.
“We played a really
great fi rst half, we were
only down by three
points,” Crawford said.
“Grant Union came out
in the second half and hit
multiple threes (pointers),
and that was really pretty
much the difference. I was
pretty proud of our effort
there.”
The following day
saw the Outlaws shooting
blanks as they fell to the
Union Bobcats, 38-21, in a
defensive contest.
“It was our lowest scor-
ing game of the season,”
Coach Crawford said. “Of
course, it was one of theirs,
too.” He added that in the
third quarter the Outlaws
were scoreless, but the
Bobcats managed only two
points.
“It was an interesting
game; I don’t know how to
describe it,” the coach said.
The coach noted it had
been a diffi cult week, but
knows things will get bet-
ter in the season’s second
half.
He added that there seemed
to be a lid on the basket that
didn’t allow shots to go in.
Even scoring machine,
Tristin Bales, had issues
sinking shots, with balls
going in and out of the
hoop. Although he scored
23, Lathrop said it could
have been 50. The coach
added it was a game where
he hoped to get out alive
and go home. Although
nearly everyone on the
Cougs scored, no one else
was in double digits.
“We still got the win, and
it set us up in the middle of
the pack for the league,” he
said.
Lathrop said the squad
is working on chemistry
between players who have
and haven’t played, and
the transition is diffi cult.
According to the coach,
a number of things need
attended for this year as
well as preparation for the
next and beyond. He added
that although the team had
a number of things to fi x,
the players noticed those
things and are intent on fi x-
ing them.
“In my mind, that’s
the fi rst step to creating
what we need to accom-
plish going forward — and
we will,” Lathrop said. “I
couldn’t feel happier or
luckier than to coach this
group of kids.”
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