A8
Wallowa County Chieftain
SPORTS
Wednesday, February 23, 2022
Love’s late field goal lifts Outlaws past Stanfield
By RONALD BOND
Wallowa County Chieftain
PENDLETON — For the
third time this season, the
Enterprise girls basketball
team saw a second-half lead
against Stanfield evaporate.
This time, though, the
Outlaws had a response.
And as a result, they are
headed to the state playoffs.
Emily Love scored 11
points and converted the
winning layup with nine sec-
onds remaining, and Enter-
prise — despite scoring just
eight points in the second
half — outlasted the Tigers,
31-30, on Friday, Feb. 18,
in the semifinals of the Blue
Mountain Conference tour-
nament at the Pendleton
Convention Center.
“We’ve been in every one
of these games,” head coach
Mike Crawford said. “And
we came out on fire. And
quite frankly, I told them
there’s going to be a fire.
They’re going to come after
us...we gotta be in striking
range, we gotta be in it close
enough. If you stay close
enough, you got a chance.
And we had a chance and
we made it. We attacked the
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Enterprise’s Emily Love, shown in the Blue Mountain Conference title game Saturday, Feb. 19,
2022 against Union, had the winning layup with nine seconds left in the Outlaws’ 31-30 win
over Stanfield on Feb. 18.
basket, made the lay-in from
the backside. Emily has been
clutch all down the stretch,
(and) did it again today.”
With 18 seconds remain-
ing and the Tigers holding
on to a 30-29 lead, Stan-
field’s Alexis Shelby missed
the front end of a 1-and-1.
The Outlaws corralled the
rebound, Maci Marr pushed
the ball up-court and found
Love open at the basket for
the winning hoop.
“Maci found me, she
passed it in and I found my
shot,” Love said. “I just
think that God was watching
over us, really.”
Stanfield got one final
look on an inbounds play
from half court, but a dif-
ficult 3-pointer by Maggie
Sharp fell short.
The Outlaws pulled off
the win despite scoring only
eight points in the second
half, and just two in the first
13 minutes as a 10-point
halftime lead slowly became
a 28-25 Stanfield lead,
which matched the Tigers’
largest lead of the night.
Love ended a five-min-
ute scoring drought with
the Outlaws’ first points of
the fourth, as a layup off a
Jada Gray assist trimmed the
margin to 28-27 with 2:58
remaining.
Two Zuri Reeser free
throws regained a three-
point lead with 2:01 to play,
but free throws from Gray
and Marr cut the margin to
one with just over a minute
to play.
The Tigers twice missed
the front end of a 1-and-1 in
the final 30.2 seconds before
Love’s winner.
The Outlaws opened the
contest with the first eight
points and had a 10-2 lead
just three minutes into the
game, and were ahead 14-6
after one.
Stanfield pulled within
14-9 on Reeser’s floater, but
Enterprise pushed the lead
to 10 on a layup by Love.
Sharp, who had 11 points
and five steals, got two
breakaway layups to trim
the lead back to six, but two
more layups by Gray, who
had a game-high 15 points,
put the Outlaws ahead at the
half, 19-9.
“I told our girls it’s tough
to beat a team three times,
especially when they’re
good,” Stanfield head coach
Daniel Sharp said. “It’s a
good matchup. They’re well
coached. You gotta match
intensity. I thought Enter-
prise was way more intense
in the first half.”
Sharp and Reeser, who
led the Tigers with 13 points,
pulled Stanfield even as they
combined for 10 points
in the third quarter. Sharp
scored six straight before
Reeser hit two shots 90 sec-
onds apart, with her jumper
at the 1:01 mark tying the
game at 23-23.
The Outlaws struggled
mightily on offense in the
third, committing seven
turnovers and going without
a basket until Rilyn Kirk-
land’s jumper just before
the buzzer put the Outlaws
ahead 25-23.
“All I know is we were
one point ahead at the end,”
Crawford said. “That’s good
enough for me.”
Nixy girls topple Joseph in OOL semifinal
Golden Eagles
pull away after
tight first quarter
By RONALD BOND
Wallowa County Chieftain
Ronald Bond/Wallowa County Chieftain
Joseph’s Hayden Hite dribbles to the basket during the
semifinals of the Old Oregon League District Tournament
Friday, Feb. 18, 2022.
Joseph’s upset
bid falls short
Eagles outplay
Badgers, but fall
after late free
throws, 55-52
By RONALD BOND
Wallowa County Chieftain
BAKER CITY —
Gritty is the best way to
describe the boys semifinal
between Joseph and Pow-
der Valley.
The Eagles, play-
ing with a chip on their
shoulder as the underdogs
against the second-ranked
1A school, made the Bad-
gers work for every point.
They responded to every
Powder Valley rally, and
led most of the night, right
up to the final minute.
In the end, though, the
Badgers took advantage
of Joseph foul trouble, an
ample advantage at the
free-throw line and got key
shots when they needed
them in a 55-52 win over
Joseph on Friday, Feb. 18.
“My team played with a
lot of heart,” Joseph head
coach Olan Fulfer said.
“They have no reason to
hang their heads, pout or
anything. They battled
through a lot of adversity,
showed a ton of heart, and
that’s all we preach is hus-
tle and giving every bit you
have. That’s what they did.
They left it all out there
today. Some close shots
that we missed, and then a
lot of fouls. We put them to
the line. That’s tough.”
Joseph nearly locked
up the state berth on Feb.
18 with what would have
been one of the biggest
upsets of the season.
The Eagles scored the
first eight points of the
game, led by as much as
nine in the opening half,
and flustered Powder Val-
ley with a stifling defense,
which mixed well with the
Badgers struggling to get
shots to fall.
Even when the Bad-
gers briefly grabbed the
lead — taking its first at
24-23 on a score in the
low post by Reece Dixon,
who led Powder Valley
with 17 points — Joseph
responded. James Bur-
ney replied the Dixon field
goal with a 3-pointer. In
the third, Reece Nelson,
who went off in the sec-
ond half with 15 points for
Joseph and finished with a
game-high 20 points, had a
jumper with 1:12 to play in
the third to put the Eagles
back in front after Kaden
Krieger’s 3-point play for
Powder Valley.
“Reece comes in in
practice...and he domi-
nates,” Fulfer said. “He is
an incredibly gifted player,
and as soon as it clicks
for him, it’s over. He’s an
amazing kid. he deserves
every bit of the praise for
this game.”
Even role players off
the bench for the Eagles
chipped in. Twice, Kane
Johnson had putbacks
that helped keep Joseph
in front. He also hit a run-
ner that gave the Eagles
their biggest lead of the
fourth, 48-43, with 6:15
remaining.
The Badgers chipped
away, mainly at the free-
throw line — where they
were 28-for-44 — but it
was a 3-pointer by Case
Olson that tied the game
at 52-52 with less than two
minutes remaining that
proved to be a key basket.
Krieger’s two free
throws with 42.1 to go gave
the Badgers at the time
their biggest lead. Joseph’s
reply, a 3-point attempt by
Burney, just missed. Pow-
der Valley added a free
throw with two seconds to
go for the final margin.
The odd game saw
the teams combine for
52 fouls, 66 free-throw
attempts, three techni-
cal fouls and one ejected
fan, to name a few. Joseph
had three players foul out.
The Badgers won despite
shooting just 22%. Some
other 22s in the game —
Joseph shot 22 free throws,
making 13, and Cole Mar-
tin for Powder Valley
grabbed 22 rebounds.
BAKER CITY — Nixy-
aawii reached the Old Ore-
gon League tournament title
game after another dominant
victory.
Sophie Bronson scored a
game-high 23 points and had
four steals, Sistine Moses
added 22 points, and the
Golden Eagles took com-
mand with a 16-0 run and
used a dominant second half
for a 66-25 win over Joseph
on Friday, Feb. 18, in Baker
City.
“They’re good,” Joseph
head coach Lance Homan
said. “They get out and run
quickly, they rebound well,
they shoot well. It’s a tough
matchup for us. We tried.”
The Golden Eagles took
the lead for good, 16-13,
on a Moses 3-pointer in the
closing seconds of the open-
ing quarter, one of four she
hit on the night.
It started the snowball
effect that put Nixyaawii
well ahead.
Mersayuss Hart, Kyella
Picard and Bronson all
scored during the first 4:05
of the second, with Hart’s
steal and layup capping
the big run and putting
Ronald Bond/Wallowa County Chieftain
Joseph’s Cooper Nave dribbles to the basket during the semifinals of the Old Oregon League
District Tournament Friday, Feb. 18, 2022.
Nixyaawii up 29-13.
“We like to push the
tempo, we’re uptempo we
like to move the ball. The
girls like to run. We get a
lot of things off our defense.
We’re more of a defensive
running team, if that makes
sense,” Nixyaawii head
coach Michael BadWarrior
said. “Once we get going
running, we get a lot of
stops, get a lot of fast breaks,
all that sort of stuff.”
Two layups by Joseph’s
Aimee Meyers, who led the
Eagles with eight points,
briefly stemmed the tide,
but the Golden Eagles reas-
serted themselves with the
final seven points, going into
the half up 36-17 on a Bron-
son jumper.
The Eagles made one
more brief run to start the
third, with Cooper Nave,
Meyers and Sarah Orr all
scoring in the first 1:20 to
make it 36-23. But that was
as close as Joseph got. Bron-
son’s 3-point play and layup
pushed the lead back to 18,
and she closed the quarter
scoring with a 3-pointer for
a 48-25 lead.
The Nixyaawii bench
finished the win, with 18
fourth-quarter points to
cap what ended up being a
game-ending 30-2 run.
Joseph did what it needed
to to stay in the game early,
slowing the pace and hit-
ting its shots. Maggie Miller
twice gave the Eagles an
early lead of 6-4 and 8-6
with field goals, and the
teams were tied at 13-13
after a Meyers layup and a
trio of Miller free throws.
But Nixyaawii had too
much firepower, as the
Golden Eagles shot 49% for
the game and connected on
six 3-pointers. Joseph strug-
gled from the floor, shooting
just 20%.
Badger girls outlast Wallowa in OOL semifinals
By DAVIS CARBAUGH
The Observer
BAKER CITY — Bas-
ketball is a game of runs,
which was proven in Pow-
der Valley’s victory over
Wallowa.
The Badgers capitalized
off a huge fourth-quarter
swing to top Wallowa 38-26
in the semifinals of the Old
Oregon League district
tournament at Baker High
School on Friday, Feb. 18.
The victory secured Pow-
der Valley’s spot in the state
championship and Old Ore-
gon League title game.
“Our defense made the
difference for four full quar-
ters,” Powder Valley head
coach Allen Bingham said.
“I thought as a team we did
really well.”
The game was neck-and-
neck early on, as the Bad-
gers built up an 11-8 lead
at the end of the first quar-
ter. Powder’s defense was
stifling from start to finish,
as Wallowa struggled shoot-
ing during the matchup. The
Badgers held the Cougars
to under 10 points in each
quarter.
The second quarter was
a spark to Powder’s even-
tual victory, as junior Dal-
Davis Carbaugh/The Observer
Wallowa’s Libby Fisher brings the ball up court during a
semifinal matchup against Powder Valley in the semifinal
round of the Old Oregon League Tournament at Baker High
School on Friday, Feb. 18. The Badgers defeated the Cougars
38-26.
lee Jo Bingham scored eight
points. The Badgers out-
scored the Cougars 10-7 to
take a 21-15 lead heading
into halftime. Powder Val-
ley’s defense continued to
prove advantageous, forcing
Wallowa to turn the ball over
16 times in the first half.
“In the first half, we had
way too many self-inflicted
wounds,” Wallowa head
coach Greg Oveson said.
A balanced effort by Wal-
lowa gave the Cougars a
slight 6-4 advantage in the
third frame, heading into the
fourth quarter trailing 25-21.
Sophomore Sophie Moeller
scored two points for Wal-
lowa in the third quarter en
route to a team-high seven
points.
In the fourth quarter, the
game looked as if it would
go down to the wire. The
Cougars climbed back to
trail 26-24 with just over
four and a half minutes left
in the fourth quarter. The
Badgers responded with a
huge 10-0 run to jump out to
a 36-24 lead late in the game
— Powder Valley held Wal-
lowa scoreless for nearly
four consecutive minutes.
Dallee Jo Bingham was
efficient in the fourth quarter
for Powder Valley, scoring
seven more points. The for-
ward finished with a game-
high 17 points.
“We thought if we exe-
cuted the offense that we
would get isolation looks,”
Allen Bingham said. “She
just got better and better and
better.”
The loss put Wallowa in a
difficult spot, needing a win
in Saturday’s third-place
game in order to make it to
the state tournament.
“We’re a lot farther ahead
than I thought we’d be at the
beginning of the season,”
Oveson remarked.