Polk County Sports
Polk County Itemizer-Observer • March 1, 2017 12A
PREP BASKETBALL
Dragons find groove before play-in round
By Lukas Eggen
The Itemizer-Observer
DALLAS — Dallas’ girls
basketball coach David
Brautigam was looking for
the Dragons to end the regu-
lar season with some mo-
mentum.
Dallas was coming off a
pair of two-point losses to
both Silverton and Central
— games that saw the team
score 31 and 33 points, the
team’s lowest offensive out-
puts of the season.
The Dragons responded
with an 80-9 win over Wood-
burn on Feb. 22 and a 64-63
win over South Albany on
Friday.
“What I told our coaching
staff and our players about
the losses was that we were
one or two possessions away
from winning those games,”
Brautigam said. “We don’t
need to reinvent the wheel.
We just focused on the little
things.”
That focus paid off for the
Dragons, who ended the
regular season with a 13-10
record overall and 8-6 in
Mid-Willamette Conference
play — good for fourth
place.
“I think it’s great to have
that momentum going (into
the postseason),” senior Ste-
fani Tallon said. “Knowing
we can keep building on that
is really helpful.”
Girls play-in
What: OSAA Class 5A girls state play-in game.
Who: North Eugene (11-12 overall, Midwestern League
No. 5) vs. Dallas (13-10 overall, Mid-Willamette Conference
No. 4).
When: Wednesday (today), 7 p.m.
Where: Dallas High School.
Admission: Adults, $6; students and children, $4.
What’s at stake: The winner advances to the first round
of the state playoffs on Saturday.
The Dragons will host
North Eugene Wednesday
(today) at 7 p.m. North Eu-
gene finished fifth in the
Midwestern League with an
11-12 record overall and an
8-6 mark in league play.
North Eugene played two
games against MWC teams
during the regular season,
falling to South Albany 54-46
on Dec. 5 and losing to Cres-
cent Valley 63-49 on Jan. 3.
“North Eugene reminds
me and has similar type
players to teams that are in
our league,” Brautigam said.
“I think our league has pre-
pared us well for this team. I
believe we match up well. All
we need to worry about is
taking one game at a time
and playing our game on
Wednesday (today).”
The winner advances to
the first round of the state
playoffs on Saturday.
Getting to host North Eu-
gene is one more opportuni-
ty to play in front of a home
crowd — something that
players revel in.
“I think it’s awesome,”
senior Becca Ronco said. “I
hope we get a lot of fans out,
because I think that helps
with our energy.”
But players know not to
get too comfortable. The
Dragons have hosted nu-
merous play-in games be-
fore and know firsthand
what can happen when the
team doesn’t come out ready
to battle.
“We’ve had the home
play-in before, and we’ve
seen it taken for granted a
little bit,” Tallon said. “We
know what can happen and
that there are no off days.”
The winner of Saturday’s
game advances to the state
quarterfinals on March 8 at
Gill Coliseum in Corvallis.
“We have to play as hard
as we can — like it’s our last
game — because from here
on out, every game could be
our last,” Tallon said.
LUKAS EGGEN/Itemizer-Observer
Dallas senior Olivia Nelson drives past a Woodburn defender on Feb. 22. The Dragons
defeated Woodburn 80-9. Dallas hosts North Eugene Wednesday (today) at 7 p.m.
WESTERN OREGON ROUNDUP
Men’s basketball looks to defend title
Itemizer-Observer staff report
MONMOUTH — Western
Oregon’s men’s basketball
team ended the regular sea-
son with a 72-56 win over
Montana State Billings on
Saturday. Tanner Omlid
s c o re d 1 7 p o i n t s a n d
grabbed eight rebounds. Ali
Faruq-Bey and Demetrius
Trammel each added 11
points, and Evan Garrison
had 10 points.
Western Oregon ended
the regular season with a 16-
12 record overall and a 13-7
mark in Great Northwest
Athletic Conference play,
good for
third place.
T h e
Wolves
were one
of
six
teams to
qualify for
the GNAC
Omlid
Men’s Bas-
ketball Championships,
which begins Thursday in
Lacey, Wash. WOU will play
N o. 6 M o n t a n a S t a t e
Billings. The winner ad-
vances to face No. 2 Alaska
Anchorage in the semifinals
on Friday. The GNAC title
game will be held Saturday.
The winner of the cham-
pionships gains an automat-
ic berth to the NCAA Divi-
sion II Men’s Basketball
Tournament.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
CLOSES SEASON WITH WIN,
LO S S : We s t e r n O r e g o n’s
women’s basketball season
came to a close on Saturday as
the Wolves lost to Seattle Pacif-
ic 70-60. WOU defeated Saint
Martin’s 73-61 on Thursday.
Shelby Snook scored a team-
high 14 points against Saint
Martin’s. Kaylie Boschma added
12 points, five rebounds and
two steals.
DALLAS BASKETBALL
Dragons end season
with a pair of losses
Itemizer-Observer staff report
DALLAS — Dallas’ boys
basketball team ended its
season with a pair of losses.
The Drag-
ons lost to
Woodburn
62-44 on
Feb. 21 be-
fore falling
to South
Albany 64-
59 on Fri-
day.
Richey
Carter
Weisensee led the Dragons
against Woodburn with 12
points.
Jason Richey scored a
team-high 21 points against
South Albany.
The Dragons ended the
season on a five-game losing
streak.
Dallas finished the season
with a 7-17 record overall
and a 2-12 mark in Mid-
Willamette Conference play.
The Dragons took eighth in
the team standings.
S n o o k
scored a
game -high
20 points
against
Seattle Pa-
cific. The
Wolves fin-
ished the
season with
Snook
an 8-19
record overall and 4-16 GNAC
record.
SOFTBALL WINS THREE OF
FOUR: Western Oregon’s soft-
ball team won three of four
games against the College of
Idaho on Saturday and Sunday.
WOU won 5-4 and 9-0 on Sat-
urday before splitting a dou-
bleheader on Sunday, falling 5-
4 before winning 12-1.
Pitcher Sammi Cadwallader
earned a complete game
shutout in the second game on
Saturday. In the series finale on
Sunday, Ashlee Lynch hit a
grand slam, helping the Wolves
cruise to the victory — extend-
ing WOU’s lead to 9-0 in the
fourth inning. Western Oregon
opens GNAC play by hosting
Simon Fraser on March 11.
SOFTBALL WINS THREE OF
FOUR: Western Oregon’s track
and field team competed at the
Seattle Pacific Final Qualifier on
Saturday. Sophomore Olivia
Woods won the women’s 800-
meter run in 2 minutes, 10.14
seconds, setting a new school
record. Suzanne Van De Grift fin-
ished second in 2:10.57 and jun-
ior Megan Rose finished in
2:13.18. All three times were
NCAA provisional qualifying
marks.
Junior Kennedy Rufener fin-
ished the women’s mile in an
NCAA provisional qualifying
time of 4:57.01. Sophomore
Dustin Nading won the men’s
mile in 4:05.22.
The NCAA Division II Indoor
Track and Field Championships
will be held March 10-11 in
Birmingham, Ala.
CENTRAL BASKETBALL
Panthers close regular season with losses
Itemizer-Observer staff report
INDEPENDENCE —
Central’s boys basketball
team ended the regular sea-
son with a
pair of
close loss-
es, falling
to Corval-
lis 56-55
on Feb. 21
and to
Woodburn
54-49 on
Barry
Friday.
Andrew Barry scored a
team-high 14 points against
Corvallis. Peter Mendazona
added 13
points,
and Bren-
d
a
n
Lesmeis-
ter and
Alec Barba
re c o rd e d
10 points
Barba
each.
“(Corvallis) was a tough
loss,” coach Tim Kreta said.
“We came in prepared and
knew what we wanted to
do, but did not finish the
game the way we would
have liked.”
Mendazona scored a
game-high
18 points
against
Wo o d -
burn, but
the Pan-
t h e r s
trailed 33-
15 at the
Mendazona half, and a
fourth-quarter rally fell
short.
The Panthers finished the
regular season with a 12-11
record overall and an 8-6
record in Mid-Willamette
Conference play, finishing
in fourth. Central hosted
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Eagle Point in the state
play-in round Tuesday after
press time.
The winner advances to
the first round of the state
playoffs on Friday. First-
round winners move on to
the state quarterfinals on
Tuesday at Gill Coliseum in
Corvallis.
Pirates: Perrydale faces Crosshill Christian
Continued from Page 11A
The Pirates built their lead
to as many as 17 in the third
quarter, thanks to a balanced
attack seeing key contribu-
tions from Dustin Silver,
Daniel and David Domes,
Haylen Janesofsky, Cooper
Butler, and Jacob Pope.
“It felt really good out
there,” Silver said. “It was re-
ally loud and intense.”
The win didn’t come as
easily as the score might sug-
gest. Powers pulled to within
nine points twice in the
fourth quarter, and Janesof-
sky fouled out with about
four minutes left in the
game. Some shaky free-
throw shooting down the
stretch kept it interesting, but
the Pirates never let Powers
seriously threaten.
“We just needed to stay
calm and play our game,”
Butler said. “We didn’t let
anything else get in our
head.”
When the final buzzer
rang out, the celebration was
on.
“Those were the longest
three minutes with fouls and
dead balls,” Janesofsky said.
“It’s a relief to know (we’re
going to Baker).”
The Pirates enter the quar-
terfinals as the fifth seed and
will face a familiar opponent
— Crosshill Christian. The
two teams have clashed
three times. Perrydale has
won all three matchups —
most recently a 48-34 win in
the Casco League tourna-
ment title game on Feb. 17.
Crosshill Christian defeat-
ed No. 4 Triangle Lake 65-58
on Friday in its first round
playoff game.
Despite the success Perry-
dale had against Crosshill
Christian, coach Brian
Domes said the Pirates can’t
afford to look ahead.
“We’ve handled them
three times, but they’ve kept
it close,” Brian Domes said.
“They’ve been here before
but the kids have an under-
standing that this is a very
winnable game and we can
move on and play for some-
thing pretty meaningful.”
The winner advances to
the semifinals on Friday
against the winner of No. 9
North Douglas vs. No. 1 Sher-
man.
The loser advances to the
consolation bracket on
Thursday.
Perrydale is headed to
Baker City for the first time
this century, and for many of
the players, it was a promise
to each other finally fulfilled.
“You have no idea how
much this means to us,”
Daniel Domes said. “…
Haylen and I have dreamt
about this since sixth grade.
We’d tell each other, ‘just wait
until we’re in high school.’ …
It’s literally a dream come
true.”
LUKAS EGGEN/ Itemizer-Observer
Perrydale’s Dustin Silver, right, battles for a rebound against Powers on Friday night.