A6 BAKER CITY HERALD • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2022
SPORTS
BAKER BOYS BASKETBALL
POWDER VALLEY BOYS BASKETBALL
Bulldogs rout La Grande, Badgers get
take control in GOL race key win over
BY JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
The long-awaited show-
down turned into a Baker
blowout.
The Baker boys basketball
team traveled to La Grande on
Friday, Jan. 28, to take on the
10-1 Tigers with much at stake
besides the longtime rivalry.
The winner would gain the
inside track to the Greater
Oregon League title, and
move higher in the Class 4A
rankings.
Both teams came in with
six-game winning streaks.
La Grande’s recent victories
included a 62-56 win on Jan.
19 at Class 5A Pendleton, the
last team to beat Baker, 84-66
on Dec. 21.
But what appeared on pa-
per to be a toss up turned out
quite differently in front of a
raucous home crowd in the La
Grande gym.
Isaiah Jones scored the first
two baskets to give Baker a 4-0
lead, Hudson Spike’s 3-pointer
pushed the lead to 9-3, and the
Bulldogs were never seriously
threatened in the final three
quarters of a dominating 67-
41 win.
“That was one of the funnest
games I’ve been a part of in my
coaching and playing career,”
Baker coach Jebron Jones said
on Sunday morning, Jan. 30.
“I’m still getting text messages
today from people about Fri-
day’s game. It was a great at-
mosphere.”
Jones played college basket-
ball at Eastern Oregon Uni-
versity.
After Jace Show’s 3-pointer
narrowed Baker’s lead to 12-6
midway through the first
quarter, the Bulldogs closed
the quarter with an 8-2 run to
lead 20-8.
In the second quarter, Bak-
er’s pressure defense — in par-
ticular a halfcourt trap — be-
fuddled the Tigers, leading to
multiple steals and layins.
The Bulldogs converted
three straight steals into easy
baskets midway through the
quarter — two by Isaiah Jones
— to push the lead to 35-14.
“We have a lot of athletes out
there on the court with quick
feet and hands, and as coaches
it’s our job to put them in the
best position to succeed,” Jeb-
ron Jones said. “La Grande got
flustered, and they never really
recovered from that. I think we
came out playing really great
defense.”
Paul Hobson had another
breakaway after a steal to
give Baker a 42-20 lead with
1:12 left, and Diego Quintela
capped the scoring with the
BAKER (67)
Logsdon 0 1-2 1, Harper 0 0-0
0, Gambleton 2 0-0 4, Quin-
tela 4 0-0 11, Younger 1 1-2
3, Molina 0 0-0 0, Spike 7 0-0
16, Jones 6 6-6 18, Long 3 0-1
6, Hobson 3 1-3 8, Charbon-
neau 0 0-0 0, Mitchell 0 0-0 0.
Totals 26 9-14 67.
LA GRANDE (41)
Tsiatsos 2 0-0 5, Williams 2
0-0 4, Young 0 0-0 0, A. Ro-
driguez 0 0-2 0, Bell 8 1-2 21,
C. Rodriguez 0 0-0 0, Hunts-
man 0 0-0 0, Show 2 0-0 6,
Hutchins 2 0-0 5, Staab 0 0-0
0. Totals 17 1-4 41.
Baker
20 27 13 7 — 67
La Grande 8 15 12 6 — 41
Baker improved to 13-3
overall, and capped an unde-
feated January with its sev-
enth win during the month.
Jones said his challenge is
to prevent the Bulldogs from
getting complacent after their
recent run of wins.
“I talked to the guys after
the game, and told them to
celebrate this game the whole
weekend, but when it gets to
Monday we need to forget
about La Grande and move
on to the next challenge,” he
said.
Jones said freshman start-
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald ing guard Jaron Long, who
Baker’s Isaiah Jones goes to the basket against Fruitland on Thursday, was carried off the court at La
Grande with an apparent knee
Jan. 6, 2022, in the Baker gym.
injury late in the third quarter,
second of his three 3-pointers was relatively placid compared seemed to be recovering well.
to give Baker a 45-20 lead.
with the first — Baker scored
Jones said he would know
The Bulldogs led 47-23 at
20 points, fewer than half its
more about Long’s prognosis
halftime, and La Grande never first-half output — the Bull-
on Monday, Jan. 31.
mounted a serious rally in the dogs continued to stifle the
Baker travels to Nyssa on
final two quarters.
Tigers, holding them to 18
Tuesday, Feb. 1, for a 6:30 p.m.
“That was the best first half points.
PST tipoff. Nyssa is 3-14 on
we’ve played all year,” Jebron
“Eighteen points is another the season.
Jones said.
great half of defense,” he said.
Baker’s game against Vale,
La Grande made seven
“It’s kind of hard to play with
originally scheduled for Sat-
3-pointers in the first half, but a big lead like that, it’s human urday, Jan. 29, in the Baker
only one two-point field goal. nature. But I have nothing
gym, was postponed due to a
“They shoot a lot of 3’s, and negative to say about how we
lack of referees. The game has
we knew that coming in,” Jones played the entire game.”
been rescheduled for Wednes-
Isaiah Jones led a balanced day, Feb. 9, at 6 p.m. in the
said. “Only one or two out of
those seven 3’s in the first half Baker offense with 18 points, Baker gym.
were uncontested, and the rest including 6-for-6 from the
free throw line. Spike added
we had a hand in their face,
16, Quintela 11 and Hobson
and they just made the shot.”
eight.
Although seven 3-pointers
Jebron Jones said he told the
in a half would normally cause
team before the game that “it’s
serious concern for a coach,
OK to be nervous. I under-
Jones said he had no com-
plaints with Baker’s defense in stand. But the rims are still 10
feet high and the court is still
holding the Tigers to just 23
points in the first two quarters. the same size. Hopefully that
put them more at ease.”
“That was the best half of
The win gives Baker sole
defense we’ve played all year
possession of first place in the
long,” he said.
With a 24-point lead at half- GOL standings at 3-0.
The Bulldogs also swapped
time, Jones said he emphasized
to his team in the locker room places in the Class 4A rank-
that they needed to continue to ings with La Grande, moving
to sixth while the Tigers fell
play with energy and focus.
to eighth.
Although the second half
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Nixyaawii
BY DAVIS CARBAUGH
The (La Grande) Observer
NORTH POWDER —
The Powder Valley boys
basketball team defended
home turf in one its biggest
games of the season.
The Badgers knocked off
the Nixyaawii Golden Ea-
gles 76-64 on Saturday, Jan.
29, taking a firm position
on the top of the Old Ore-
gon League standings. Pow-
der Valley senior forward
Kaden Krieger was a force
in the paint throughout the
game, scoring 24 points.
The matchup started at
an incredibly quick pace,
with both teams pushing
the fast break. Powder Val-
ley’s Cole Martin scored six
of his 19 points in the first
quarter, helping the Bad-
gers take a narrow 19-17
lead at the end of the first
frame. Nixyaawii’s Baron
Moses was efficient on of-
fense for the Golden Ea-
gles, scoring 10 points in
the first quarter — Moses
finished with 24 points.
A huge second quarter
helped propel Powder Val-
ley into the lead, with the
Golden Eagles never man-
aging to retake the lead for
the remainder of the game.
Krieger scored 10 points
in the second frame as the
Badgers went into halftime
leading 42-29.
The third quarter was
more of the same, with
Powder Valley extending its
lead to 59-41 heading into
Pine Eagle boys
split 2 games
The Pine Eagle boys bas-
ketball team split a pair of
weekend games.
The Spartans lost 82-47 at
Powder Valley on Friday, Jan.
28. The next day the Spartans
played host to Wallowa and
won 37-28 to improve to 6-9
overall and 3-4 in the Old
Oregon League.
the final eight minutes. The
Golden Eagles gave one last
push in the fourth quarter,
drawing the game to within
single digits with three
minutes remaining. Dylan
Abrahamason scored nine
of his 13 points in the
fourth quarter to lead the
comeback attempt.
It was Krieger’s steady
shooting at the free-throw
line that ultimately sealed
the deal for Powder Valley —
the forward went 9-10 at the
line in the fourth quarter.
The win improved Pow-
der Valley’s record to 6-0 in
conference play and 16-1
overall. The Badgers will
play again on Feb. 1, fac-
ing Wallowa on the road at
6:30 p.m.
Nixyaawii dropped to
14-5 on the season and
5-2 in Old Oregon League
competition. The Golden
Eagles will be back in ac-
tion at McLoughlin on Feb.
1 — tip-off is slated for
7:30 p.m.
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