Wednesday, February 23, 2022
A7
SPORTS
Cougars hold oﬀ Eagles,
return to state playoﬀ s
Wallowa has
tough ﬁ rst-round
game tonight at
Jordan Valley
By RONALD BOND
Wallowa County Chieftain
BAKER CITY — Zoe
Hermens told herself two
simple words as she stepped
to the line for an import-
ant second free throw with
14.5 seconds remaining in
the third-place game of the
Old Oregon League District
Tournament.
“Make it,” she said.
She indeed did make it,
and gave Wallowa the cush-
ion it needed to get back to
the state playoﬀ s.
Hermens ﬁ nished with
15 points and 10 rebounds
as the Cougars won the rub-
ber match against the Joseph
Eagles, hanging on for a
thrilling 35-34 win Saturday,
Feb. 19.
Hermens’ second free
throw gave the Cougars a
four-point lead, and it was a
much-needed point. Joseph
sprinted down the ﬂ oor on
the ensuing possession, and
Sarah Orr drained a corner
3-pointer with just 5 seconds
remaining. The Cougars,
though, were able to get the
ball inbounded and run the
clock out to earn their ﬁ rst
playoﬀ berth since 2019.
“When I missed the ﬁ rst
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Enterprise’s Maci Marr (25) puts up a shot. The Union Bobcats defeated the Enterprise
Outlaws 46-30 on Saturday, Feb. 19, 2022, to win the Blue Mountain Conference district title
at the Pendleton Convention Center in Pendleton.
Outlaws fall in district title game
Enterprise travels
to Gervais for
ﬁ rst-round game
on Feb. 26
By RONALD BOND
Wallowa County Chieftain
PENDLETON — Union
was quick to make sure the
fourth matchup between
itself
and
Enterprise
wouldn’t be the thriller the
ﬁ rst three had been.
The Bobcats used a 14-0
ﬁ rst-quarter run to take
command early, then put the
game away by scoring the
ﬁ nal 12 points of the third
quarter as they rolled to a
46-30 win over the Outlaws
on Saturday, Feb. 19, in the
Blue Mountain Conference
title game.
“(They scored) a lot in a
hurry, and then you’re bat-
tling up hill all day,” Enter-
prise head coach Mike
Crawford said. “At least we
showed some heart and ﬁ n-
ished it.”
Union
guard
Cal-
lie Glenn was right in the
middle of both runs on her
way to a 26-point night.
The senior was sharp from
3-point range, going 5-for-7
and hitting her ﬁ rst three
attempts, including two in
the ﬁ rst 90 seconds that set
the tone for the night.
“She is going to be a
collegiate player, and she
showed it tonight,” Craw-
ford said of Glenn.
Her third trey midway
through the second quar-
ter gave Union a 22-10
lead, one of ﬁ ve times in
the opening half — includ-
ing at the conclusion of the
early run that resulted in a
14-2 lead — that the Bob-
cats jumped ahead by 12.
“Since we took that ﬁ rst
loss to Enterprise, we were
all devastated,” Glenn said.
“We just came back and
worked harder. We knew
See Outlaws, Page A10
Ronald Bond/Wallowa County Chieftain
Zoe Hermens celebrates Wallowa’s victory over Joseph in the
Old Oregon League third-place game Saturday, Feb. 19, 2022.
Wallowa defeated Joseph, 35-34, to advance to the state
playoﬀ s.
one, I was kind of stressing
out a little bit, but I usually
make my free throws. I just
needed to relax and shoot it,”
Hermens said.
The teams traded key
baskets during a tight fourth
quarter, though Wallowa
never trailed and managed
throughout the period to
keep Joseph at arm’s length.
Twice the lead reached
seven — once on an elbow
3-pointer by Hermens that
made it 27-20, and later
after she converted two free
throws for a 30-23 edge with
3:35 to play.
“I’m satisﬁ ed with what
we did,” Wallowa head
coach Greg Oveson said. “I
know we went from a ﬁ ve-
point lead to one as the end,
but the thing is we did the
things that we needed to
do. We made a couple free
throws toward the end, and
we made them take a lot of
See Cougars, Page A10
Cove knocks Eagles from playoﬀ s
Eagles ﬁ nish
season with a
record of 11-11
By RONALD BOND
Wallowa County Chieftain
BAKER CITY — Three
weeks ago, Joseph had no
issues with Cove in an easy
63-34 home victory.
But in the rematch Sat-
urday, Feb. 19, with a state
playoﬀ berth on the line,
it was the Leopards who
grabbed an early lead, never
trailed and weathered a
Joseph rally late.
As a result, Cove is
headed to the state playoﬀ s
for the ﬁ rst time since 2013.
Caleb Wiggins scored 16
points and hit a key 3-pointer
in the fourth quarter, Terrell
Davis hit three tie-break-
ing free throws with 1:56 to
play, and the Leopards held
on for a 46-42 victory in
the third-place game of the
Old Oregon League District
Tournament.
“Cove played really well,
and (we) worked hard but
just couldn’t hit the shots
when we needed to,” Joseph
head coach Olan Fulfer said.
“Came out very ﬂ at, and by
the time we were starting to
play a lot better on defense
we were already down by a
lot and still couldn’t score.”
With the score tied at
39-39 after a 3-pointer by
Joseph’s Hayden Hite with
2:15 to play — the only time
the game was tied other than
0-0 — Davis was awarded
three free throws after a
late foul call on a 3-point
attempt. The trio of con-
versions put the Leopards
Ellen Morris Bishop/For the Wallowa County Chieftain, File
Tegan Evans, top, is one of four Enterprise wrestlers, and ﬁ ve
from Wallowa County, to quality for the 2A/1A state wrestling
tournament this weekend in Culver.
4 Outlaws, 1 Eagle
qualify for state
Ronald Bond/Wallowa County Chieftain
Joseph’s Trace Collier drives up-court during the third-place game of the Old Oregon League
District Tournament Saturday, Feb. 19, 2022. Cove edged Joseph, 46-42, to earn a playoﬀ berth.
ahead for good.
Wiggins extended the
lead to 44-39 with a pair of
free throws with 32.9 sec-
onds to go, but Blade Suto
— who had missed a corner
3-pointer on Joseph’s prior
possession — drained a
deep 3 with 24 seconds to go
to keep the Eagles in striking
distance. Davis missed the
front end of a 1-and-1 with
17 seconds left, but James
Burney — who led Joseph
with 11 points and hit three
3-pointers — missed a cor-
ner 3 for the lead. Patrick
Frisch, who had 12 points
and 10 rebounds, iced the
win for the Leopards with
two free throws with 5.7
seconds to play.
Cove played a nearly
ﬂ awless ﬁ rst half, moving
the ball well and hitting its
shots as it took a 34-27 lead
at the half. The Leopards led
by as much as 10 in the open-
ing half, and shot 58% from
the ﬂ oor. Joseph, though,
made timely shots — often
in response to a Cove bas-
ket — to stay close. Burney
hit all three of his 3-pointers
in the second, with the last
coming just seconds after a
Davis trey to cut the margin
to seven at halftime.
The game took a major
shift in the third quarter as
the teams scored a combined
three points in the period.
Cove struggled to regain its
oﬀ ensive rhythm with a rash
of missed shots and turn-
overs, then seemed bound
for the worst after Frisch,
the team’s key player inside,
picked up his fourth foul at
the 4:14 mark. Cove slowed
the game down, and ended
up posting a scoreless third
quarter.
Joseph, however, didn’t
take advantage, getting just
a ﬁ eld goal and a free throw
from Suto — who had nine
points — and dealing with
its own oﬀ ensive struggles.
Neither team scored in the
ﬁ nal 4:14, and Cove main-
tained the lead through
three, 34-30.
Davis, who had 12
points, ended the more than
nine-minute scoring drought
for Cove with a layup 49
seconds into the fourth, only
to see Brad Wilcox respond
with a trey for Joseph to cut
the margin to 36-33. Wig-
gins and Reece Nelson
traded 3s about two minutes
later, then the teams endured
another run of misses and
turnovers before Hite’s tying
triple.
The teams shot a com-
bined 7-for-34 in the second
half. Joseph’s season ends
with a ﬁ nal record of 11-11.
State competition
set for Feb. 26
in Culver
By RONALD BOND
Wallowa County Chieftain
ADRIAN — Five local
wrestlers extended their sea-
son another week and qual-
iﬁ ed for the 2A/1A OSAA
state wrestling tournament
following their performance
at the Special District 4 tour-
nament Saturday, Feb. 19, in
Adrian.
Four wrestlers qualiﬁ ed
for Enterprise, which tied for
seventh in the tournament.
Leading the way was Gunnar
McDowell, who took second
at 220 pounds. McDowell
needed just one win to reach
the ﬁ nals, pinning Heppner/
Ione’s Nathan Ellsworth in
the ﬁ rst round of their semiﬁ -
nal match.
Adrian’s Toby Clow
pinned McDowell to win the
championship, and in a wres-
tle-back for second place,
McDowell pinned Ryan
Johnson of Culver to secure
one of two automatic bids
from the weight class.
Will Ogden was one of
two wrestlers to take third,
doing so at 195 pounds. He
opened with a win by fall
over Ryan Jackson-Nelson
of Union/Cove, then in the
semiﬁ nals was pinned by
Clancy Rutledge of Culver.
In the consolation semiﬁ -
nals, he edged Union/Cove’s
James Dempsey via a 7-4
decision, then won a rematch
with Jackson-Nelson, again
by fall, for third. Rutledge
took second, given his earlier
win over Ogden, which left
Ogden in third.
The third-place ﬁ nishers
from each weight class were
placed in a pool, and three of
the four from across the state
qualiﬁ ed. Ogden was among
See Wrestling, Page A10
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