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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (March 3, 2005)
Spilygy Sports Pqge 6 , Spilyay Tytnoo Mrch 3, 2005 Thomas By Brian Mortenaen Spilyay Tjmoo You might be surprised to learn that one of the Madras girls basketball team's rally ing cries came from a movie released in 2000. But if you understand the way the Buffalos have been able to use their quickness and turn defense into offense, it only makes sense. "Offense sells tickets, and defense wins games" is a line from "Love and Basketball," which senior Raylene Thomas saw with Jaylyn Suppah, who along with Thomas is a co captain of the White Buffaloes team. "We try to focus on defense a lot," Thomas said. "Like on 'Love and Basketball,' 'Offense sells tickets, and defense wins games,' we always tell the girls that." One of the Buffs' main agi tators on defense is Thomas, a senior post playing her sec ond full season on varsity and third overall. At 5-8, Thomas is able to post up many for wards her size, but her extraor dinary quickness helps her on defense and makes her the ben eficiary of a lot of transition baskets. "By far, she's the best run ning post we have," second year Buffs coach Bruce Reece said. Thomas is a major cog to the Buffs' success during the regular season, which con cluded with the Buffs going 12-12 and 7-5 in Tri-Valley League play, good for third place and postseason play. Thomas, playing in 21 games this season, averaged 9.0 points per game and has been the Buffs' fourth-leading scorer. She also, along with Suppah, is one of the last holdovers from Madras' 2003 Women's competition at Toppenish The Fourth Annual All Na tive Women's Big Basketball Tournament is March 25-27 at the Community Center at Toppenish, Wash. The tournament is sponsored by the Women's Native Bailers Association, and the Yakama Nation. First place team received $4,000 and Pendleton back Yakama Nation hosting hoops tourney The Yakama Nation this ball Tournament. The tour month is hosting the Fiftieth ney will be March 23-26 at Annual Tournament of the Wapato High School. Champions All-Indian Basket- JUNIPER AUTO Just bring in your W-2's and we will give you an immediate estimate to purchase a vehicle. Call us at 475-7137. Madras, Oregon We file electronically! JUNIPER AUTO SALES in Madras 1-800-626-0572 sees defense as key I"!' 1". ' ' ..iii.ini.il . I I V '' I ' "" U "I U, '''" ' H 11 , . ' (.. .. . ' ; i ' , ' .V..-.' ' f . .' sr' ' - . r - .. "' y i Raylene state Class 3A championship team. "It was awesome. I didn't get to play very much, but just be ing with the girls during the state championship was fun, exciting, especially after we won," she said. "I was part of the team and that felt good." Thomas is also one of four seniors on the Madras team who played their last home game Sat urday in a league playoff game against Sherwood. The Buffs won, 48-47, to advance to a Class 3A state playoff game at North Marion Wednesday. Thomas scored 16 points in the win, tying a season-high, and was in position to make the game-winning shot. With eight seconds left and the Buffs down, 47-46, Thomas took the inbound pass and drove the length of the packs. Second place, fleece zip up jackets; third, fleece vests; and fourth, draw string bags. Awards for MVP, Miss Hustle, All Stars, Most Three Points, and Sportsmanship. For information contact , Darla Leslie at (509) 865-5121, ext. 4716; or (509) 941-2127. Entry fee is $325, due by March 18. Thomas floor to beat the clock. She missed a driving lay-up, but Suppah, positioned in front of the basket, had a clear rebound, put it up high off the glass and in as the buzzer sounded to give the Buffs the win. "I liked my season," Thomas said. "If I wasn't scoring, I was doing good on defense, so I think I had a pretty good season. I'm happy." Thomas' season started slowly, as she missed the first three games of the season while she was trying to pick her grades up- But she started off with an eight-point effort against Astoria. In fact, she scored in double fig ures in four of her first eight games, including back-to-back 16-point efforts against Scappoose and LaSalle at the K A . ' A ,.. . k fir u A A t - 3 v VTlj You can only relax In the spa, enjoy fine cuisine and play outside so many hours a day. At Kah-NeeTa you hoW an the aces. Do the resort - and get swept up In genuine casino action with Oregon's first Mystery Payout Sots and seasonal pros dealing Poker and Blackjack. Then we sweeten the pot with weekly and rnonthfy Cash Drawings and regular Sot machine. Blackjack and Texas HoW Bm Poker Tournaments. AS the amenities of a hot springs resort plus the thrills of an authentic casino. Just a short drive away? tou betl Set Kh-r7 tor compkn ckOOv KNT Mrgrmrf rrwrvrt the rtRht prornoaonrtnyBmeOTandopa to victory LaPine Tournament just before Tri-Valley play started. "I guess in a way I'm sur prised. I knew this was my se nior year, and I really wanted to do good this year," she said. "I guess I stepped it up a little." During the Tri-Valley League season, she averaged a solid eight points a game. While Thomas' contribu tion is important to the Buffs (as one of only four players averaging more than two points a game), hers is almost mysterious in origin. Unlike the three-pointers or layups off steals freshman point guard Brianna Stacona accumulates, or the moves inside fellow post Suppah gets, Thomas's points seem to come so much within the flow of the game that a peek a the post-game box score al most leaves the reader shaking his head, in a 'how-did-she-do-that' way. "Me and the other posts, we've been working on post moves, and if they get the ball in to me, we try to work it," she said. "And this season I got a lot of breakaway layins." Reece agrees. With the Buffs' other more well-known scor ing threats, Stacona, Suppah and junior Susan Ahem, "no body seems to pay attention to her." And with her speed up the floor, Thomas gets a lot of lay ins as a by-product of her team's defensive pressure. "When we get the ball up the court, we know Raylene's going to be there," Reece said. "She's always hustling," Reece said. "She works 3s hard as., anybody on the, court, bhe works extremely1 hard and gives as good an effort as anybody day in, day out." Thomas lives in the Greeley Heights area of the reservation. Please see THOMAS on 7 H N C C - T A l tKHKSHTIQOITtCASMO 1-800 354-4SUN - kahnerta com Repeat at wrestling championships for Begay Blaine Begay's second trip to the OSAA-U.S. Bank Class 3A Wrestling Championships ended up about the same way his first trip to state did in 2004. Begay, a junior at Madras High who had won the Tri-Valley League 275 lb. wrestling championship a week earlier, was pinned twice at the state meet at the Pavilion at the Or egon State Fairgrounds in Salem Feb. 17. Begay lost to Jerad Jaehnig, a sophomore from North Bend, in one minute, one second, and then in the consolation round, lost to Daniel Edwards of Sea Time for Little Warm Springs Little League sing-ups are this month. The sign-up schedule is as follows: At the Warm Springs Mar ket on Thursday, March 10, and Monday, March 28. At the Ad ministration building on Friday, March 11. And at IHS on Tues day, March 29. Sign-up time on those days is from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. There will also be baseball and softball fundamentals on Monday and Tuesday, March 28-29, starting at 4:30 p.m. at the Papoose field. This is for all ages. Co-ed tournament April 8-10 The First Annual Yazzie All-Indian Co-Ed Youth Bas ketball Trounament is set for April 8-10 in Warm Springs. Age divisions are 16 and urider ($150 entry fee); 12 and ' under ($100 entry); and 9 and under ($100 entry). Limit of eight teams per division, and eight players per team. Prizes: first, hooded sweatshirts; sec ond, zip hooded sweatshirts; U N B E A T A f y J w V., Over $26,000 LUCKY 7s PROGRESSIVE DRAWINGS $77 3t a EtfJtfaMlpmcntfielast; I saarayatnernontn I TOURNAMENT LOVERS i As about February I Peter, Kackjack 8 Slot I I Tournaments $ V to ancd or ater side, pinned in 3:39. Edwards lost to eventual state champion Brennan Olander of North Valley in the second round before winning four straight matches in conso lation action, including matches against both Begay and Jaehnig. He then lost to Heath Paxton, the No. 1 seeded wrestler from Baker who had lost in the semi finals, and then lost to David Iverson of Newport in the match for fifth place. Begay, in his first trip to state last year, was also pinned in his first two matches. League sign-ups Baseball tryouts: Wednesday, March 30 at the Papoose field. Softball tryouts: Thursday, March 31 at the Softball field. Announcement from the Recreation Department: If you plan on playing this year, you need to be signed up right away. This determines the number of teams before the league deadline. For those who have their 2004 uniform, please turn them in to your last year's coach or at the Recreation De partment. For information call Recre ation at 553-3243. third, crew sweatshirts; four, t-shirts. All Stars, male and fe male each division; MVP, male and female each division. Fee paid by April 1; if late, add $25, Mail checks to, Priscilla' Yazzie, PO Box 734, Warm Springs, OR 97761. For information call Priscilla at (541) 553-5817, or (541) 980-9060. L E 9810cm plus s i
