BAKER CITY HERALD • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2022 A5 SPORTS BAKER GIRLS BASKETBALL Bulldogs hold off La Grande, take sole lead in GOL Baker also routs Vale for fifth straight win BY JAYSON JACOBY jjacoby@bakercityherald.com Baker girls basketball coach Jason Ramos knew La Grande would rally. And the Tigers, on their home court and with the sup- port of their fans, did. But the Bulldogs responded to every challenge in the key Greater Oregon League game Friday night, Jan. 28. A 5-0 run in the fourth quarter kept the Tigers at bay and led Baker to a 51-43 win that puts Baker in command, at this point, in the race for the GOL championship. The Bulldogs are alone in first place at 3-0. La Grande dropped to 2-1 and second place. Baker, which followed the win at La Grande with a much less tense 53-24 rout of Vale on the Vikings’ home court on Saturday, Jan. 29, improved to 14-4 overall and moved up to third in the Class 4A rankings. “We feel like we’re playing the way we want to play,” Ra- mos said. On Friday at La Grande, Baker raced to an 18-7 lead in the first quarter as Macey Moore had both of her 3-pointers and eight of her 10 points. BAKER (51) BAKER (53) Elms 4 4-7 12, Flanagan 1 0-0 2, Gyllenberg 0 1-2 1, Pierce 1 3-4 6, Ramos 4 8-10 17, Roy 0 0-0 0, Jaca 2 0-0 4, Moore 3 2-2 10. To- tals 15 18-25 51. Elms 5 6-8 16, Flanagan 0 1-4 1, Wilde 1 0-0 2, Gyllenberg 0 0-0 0, Pierce 0 0-1 0, Ramos 5 9-9 20, Roy 1 1-2 3, Jaca 0 1-2 1, Robb 0 0-0 0, Moore 3 2-2 10. Totals 15 20-28 53. LA GRANDE (43) Shorts 3 4-7 11, Collman 1 2-2 5, Strand 1 2-4 5, Jensen 1 0-0 2, Kump 0 1-2 1, Wilcox 4 1-4 9, Neer 4 0-0 10, Dunlap 0 0-0 0. To- tals 14 10-19 43. Baker 18 7 13 13 — 51 La Grande 10 8 11 14 — 43 dogs during the break between the third and fourth quarters that the Tigers would rally. Grace Neer made a three- pointer to cut Baker’s lead to 41-36 with 4:40 left in the game. Isabelle Kump’s free throw made the score 41-37 with 4:09 left — the closest the Ti- gers had been since the first quarter. Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald, File But even as the La Grande Baker junior Jozie Ramos, in white, goes up for a shot against fans boosted the decibel level, Baker didn’t flinch. Homedale’s Cheyenne Kelly (No. 32) during Baker’s 66-36 sea- Moore made two free son-opening win over the Trojans Thursday, Dec. 2, 2021, in the throws to push the lead to 43- Baker gym. 37 with 3:43 left. Baker maintained a lead of game, and our kids were ex- Jozie Ramos made one of between seven and 10 points cited and energetic,” Ramos two free throws, and Brooklyn for much of the second and said. “We had some defensive Jaca swished an 18-footer to third quarters, leading 25-18 miscues that kept us from ex- give Baker a 46-37 lead with at halftime and 38-29 after tending the lead, but we main- 2:15 left. three quarters. tained it.” Neer made another three- “We had a great start to the Ramos said he told the Bull- pointer to cut the lead to 46- OREGON STATE MEN’S BASKETBALL VALE (24) Messenger 0 0-0 0, B. Johnson 0 0-0 0, Cleaver 0 4-7 4, Peterson 3 2-6 8, Giacomo 0 0-0 0, R. John- son 1 1-2 3, McCourty 3 3-4 9, Ja- cobs 0 0-3 0. Totals 7 10-22 24. Baker 7 18 20 8 — 53 Vale 5 7 7 5 — 24 40, but Baker had another 5-0 run to put the game away in the final two minutes. Rylee Elms started the de- cisive stretch with a 15-foot jumper, and Sydnee Pierce made three of four free throws in the final minute. “We knew there was a possi- bility they would make a run, which they did, but our girls did a nice job of stemming that with some big shots and key free throws,” Jason Ramos said. “We knew La Grande was going to be a test. It was a great game for our kids to bat- tle through.” Jozie Ramos led Baker with a game-high 17 points, including 8 for 10 from the free throw line. Elms had 12 points, Moore 10 and Pierce six. Baker had one of its better performances from the free throw line, making 18 of 25. La Grande was 10 for 19 in a game with a total of 35 fouls — 18 for the Tigers, 17 for the Bulldogs. Dominating win over Vale With the tipoff at Vale about 19 hours after the fi- nal buzzer sounded at La Grande, Baker started slug- gishly, leading just 7-5 after the first quarter. But the Bulldogs dominated the middle of the game, out- scoring the Vikings 38-14. “We struggled in the first quarter, but once we got our momentum going it kind of played out as expected,” Jason Ramos said. Jozie Ramos, who picked up two early fouls and had to sit for several minutes, had a game-high 20 points. She was 9 for 9 from the free throw line, finishing the weekend 17 for 19. Baker had another solid outing from the line, making 20 of 28. Elms had 16 points and Moore added 10. Baker has won five straight games and now travels to Nyssa on Tuesday, Feb. 1, for a 5 p.m PST tipoff against the Class 3A Bulldogs, who are 16-2. “It’s going to be a tough one,” Jason Ramos said. “But we expect to win out and get ready for the postseason.” POWDER VALLEY GIRLS BASKETBALL Ducks dominate Nixyaawii runs past Badgers Beavers, 78-56 BY DAVIS CARBAUGH The (La Grande) Observer STEVE MIMS Associated Press EUGENE — Jacob Young scored 17 points as Oregon defeated Oregon State 78-56 Saturday night, Jan. 29. Will Richardson added 15 points while Eric Wil- liams Jr. and De’Vion Har- mon each scored 14 points as Oregon (13-7, 6-3 Pac- 12) swept the season series against its in-state rival for the first time since 2016-17. The Ducks shot 55.4% from the field while outrebound- ing Oregon State 40-37. “It feels good going into February,” Young said. “We are ready to get back into the lab, we are not done yet. We have a lot of work to do. We still have to win a lot more games. This is just the be- ginning.” Roman Silva scored 17 points and Jarod Lucas added 12 for the Beavers (3- 15, 1-7), who shot 20-for-66 from the field. “I thought our energy level was good and our bigs set the tone inside, not al- lowing them to get to the rim,” Oregon coach Dana Altman said. “That’s why their shooting percentage was not good and we out- scored them 40-18 in the paint, that was a big differ- ence.” Oregon shot 54.5% from the field in the first half to take a 44-25 halftime lead af- ter Williams beat the buzzer with a 60-foot shot. Oregon State led 17-16 after Maurice Calloo hit a 3-pointer, but Young fol- lowed with five straight points before Williams scored to put the Ducks ahead 23-17. “I was trying to raise the tempo and energy of my team,” Young said. “We had a nice crowd that got us going so I was trying to pick up the energy for my teammates to get them going and get the outcome we got tonight.” Young scored again and Harmon hit a 3-pointer to cap a run of 11 straight points that put Oregon up 28-17. Young pushed the lead to 37-22 on a 3-pointer before the Ducks closed out the half with seven straight points, including five from Williams, who led UO with 12 points in the half. Harmon scored the first seven points of the second half to push Oregon ahead 51-32 before the Ducks went up 57-36 on a layup by Ri- valdo Soares. NORTH POWDER — The Nixyaawii girls basket- ball team built an early lead against Powder Valley and never looked back, winning 67-42 on Saturday, Jan. 29. The Golden Eagles built a 21-8 lead by the end of the first quarter, utilizing a full- court press to limit Powder Valley’s scoring. The Badgers settled in offen- sively as the game went on, but couldn’t stop a strong perfor- mance from Nixyaawii’s Mer- sayus Hart. The junior scored 19 points, 12 of which came in the first half — Nixyaawii built up a 37-18 lead at the half. The Badgers put together a strong fourth quarter effort, but ultimately found themselves too far behind to come back. Jodi Bingham led the team with 11 points on the night. Nixyaawii held on to take the 25-point victory and improve to 15-3 on the year and 7-0 in league play. The Golden Eagles will be back in action at 6 p.m. on Feb. 1 at McLoughlin. Powder Valley fell to 8-9 on the season and 5-2 in league play. The Badgers will be look- ing to bounce back on the road against Wallowa on Feb. 1 — tip-off is scheduled for 5 p.m. Pine Eagle girls lose two The Pine Eagle girls basket- ball team lost a pair of games last weekend. The Spartans lost 32-16 at Powder Valley on Friday, Jan. 28, and lost 52-29 to Wallowa on Saturday, Jan. 29, at Halfway. Pine Eagle is 1-14 on the season and 0-7 in the Old Oregon League. A Smarter Way to Power Your Home. Careers that make a difference Work with people with disabilities! REQUEST A FREE QUOTE! ACT NOW TO RECEIVE A $300 SPECIAL OFFER!* (844) 989-2328 www.ImpactOregon.careers *Off er value when purchased at retail. Solar panels sold separately. Blazing Fast Internet! ADD TO YOUR PACKAGE FOR ONLY 19 . 99 $ /mo. where available 2-YEAR TV PRICE GUARANTEE 69 99 $ MO. for 12 Mos. America’s Top 120 Package 190 CHANNELS Including Local Channels! 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