BAKER CITY HERALD • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2022 A3
SPORTS
BAKER, POWDER VALLEY BOYS BASKETBALL
Badgers stun Baker on Dixon’s 3-pointer
Senior point guard
swishes shot with
about 4 seconds
left to give
Badgers 69-68 win
BY JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
The ball left Reece Dix-
on’s right hand, and when it
swished through the net a cou-
ple seconds later the Powder
Valley Badgers went from the
agony of a bitter loss to the ec-
stasy of a landmark win.
The senior point guard’s
3-pointer from the right wing
with about 4 seconds left in the
game elevated the Badgers to
a 69-68 victory over Baker in a
thrilling boys basketball game
Saturday night, Feb. 5, in the
Baker gym.
Baker, which had taken a
68-66 lead on a similarly dra-
matic basket and free throw by
Paul Hobson with 12.7 seconds
left, didn’t have time to get off a
desperation shot.
Dixon and the Badgers gath-
ered in the southeast corner
of the gym for a raucous cele-
bration with dozens of Powder
Valley fans.
As Dixon shook hands and
had his sweat-soaked back
clapped by ecstatic Badger fans,
he pondered the question of
whether he had ever made a
bigger shot.
“Not that I can think of,” he
said with a grin.
Dixon said he didn’t expect
to even try for a potential game
winner in the final seconds.
After Hobson’s three-point
play gave Baker the lead, Pow-
der Valley coach Kyle Dixon
called timeout with 8.7 sec-
onds left.
Reece Dixon said the plan
was to try to get the ball to se-
nior post Kaden Krieger — a
reasonable idea given that
Krieger led all scorers with 30
points and dominated in the
key for much of the game.
But once he got the ball on a
pass, Dixon said he saw that he
had enough space to get off a
3-pointer.
He dribbled to his right,
leaped and let go.
He said the shot felt good
when it left his hands.
But he wasn’t sure, as he
watched the ball drop toward
the hoop, that it was going in.
“I was just hoping that it
wouldn’t be that one inch
short and bounce back to me,”
Dixon said.
Krieger, though, never
doubted his teammate’s aim.
“I saw the ball,” he said with
a wide smile. “I was like, ‘that’s
going in.’ I have a lot of confi-
dence in Reece.”
Baker coach Jebron Jones
said a miscommunication on
defense allowed Dixon a much
more open look than Jones
wanted.
“You never leave the (player
with the) basketball,” Jones
said. “He was left wide open
and he nailed the shot. Hats off
to North Powder. They out-
worked us.”
Reece Dixon, who finished
with 9 points, said the win for
the Class 1A Badgers was espe-
cially satisfying coming against
Baker, a Class 4A school that
has won all the recent meetings
between the two schools that
are just 20 miles apart.
“It means a lot,” Dixon said.
“We’re trying to prepare our-
selves for the state playoffs and
it’s big to play a great team like
Baker. It’s the first time we’ve
beaten them.”
Krieger, in the afterglow of
the win, said it “kind of felt like
winning a state title.”
But he quickly turned serious.
“We’re not done yet,” he said.
“We have a lot of work to do.”
Dixon’s clutch shot — the
sort of shot kids dream about
making while shooting bas-
kets alone in a driveway on
chilly nights — culminated a
tense and close game that had
the atmosphere of a state tour-
nament contest despite pit-
ting two teams that won’t ever
compete against each other at
that level.
The lead changed hands
three times in the final 34.3
seconds.
With Baker leading 65-63,
Powder’s Cole Martin banked
in a shot from the lane and was
fouled with 34.3 seconds left.
Martin made the free throw to
give the Badgers a 66-65 lead.
On Baker’s ensuing posses-
sion, Isaiah Jones, who led the
Bulldogs with 27 points, drove
the lane and had the ball tipped
out of bounds from behind.
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
Powder Valley senior Kaden Krieger led all scorers with 30 points in
the Badgers’ 69-68 win over Baker on Saturday, Feb. 5, 2022, in the
Baker gym.
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
Baker’s Isaiah Jones led the Bulldogs with 27 points in a 69-68 loss to Powder Valley on Saturday, Feb. 5,
2022, in the Baker gym.
Baker retained possession with
14.1 seconds left.
On the inbounds play, Hob-
son broke free in the lane and
Spike made a perfect inbounds
pass. Hobson converted the la-
yin and was fouled. He swished
the free throw to give Baker
its last lead at 68-66 and set up
Dixon’s heroics.
The win was the ninth in a
row for the Badgers, who are
ranked second in Class 1A and
improved to 18-1. Their lone
loss was 80-75 to Adrian on
Dec. 27 in a holiday tourna-
ment in the Baker gym.
Kyle Dixon said he was con-
fident that Reece Dixon would
make a play if Baker foiled the
initial plan to get the ball to
Krieger inside.
“Reece is really good at cre-
ating things,” Kyle Dixon said.
“He had been struggling a little
bit from outside, and he de-
served that 3-pointer. That was
a big one for him.”
Kyle Dixon said it was grati-
fying to get a win against Baker
on its home floor.
“Baker is a great team and
it’s always fun to get a chance
to play them,” he said. “Both
teams played hard. It was an
exciting game. It’s a good lit-
tle rivalry we’ve got going. The
kids all know each other, play
in the summer.”
Reece Dixon’s game-win-
ner was just the last in a series
of key plays and momentum
swings in one of the more ex-
citing fourth quarters played in
the Baker gym in years.
Powder Valley led 53-52
starting the quarter and ex-
tended its lead to 57-53 on
what turned out to be Krieger’s
final basket with a little more
than 6 minutes left.
But Baker, which had its own
eight-game winning streak on
the line, rallied like a team that
also has playoff aspirations.
Grant Gambleton banked
in a tough shot to cut the lead
to 57-55 with just under 6
minutes left.
Then Isaiah Jones took over.
He made a twisting layin to
tie the score at 57.
Spike made a three-pointer
from the corner with 4:59
left, and the Baker fans
roared as the Bulldogs led 60-
57. It was Baker’s first lead
since the opening minute of
the second half.
Jones then made an acro-
batic, one-hand layin with
his left hand, was fouled and
converted the free throw to
boost Baker’s lead to 63-57
with 4:21 left.
But the Badgers, who have
five senior starters, didn’t wilt.
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
Powder Valley senior Reece Dixon had the game-winning 3-pointer
with about 4 seconds left in the Badgers’ 69-68 win over Baker on Sat-
urday, Feb. 5, 2022, in the Baker gym.
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
Baker’s Hudson Spike drives against Powder Valley’s Kaiden Dalke
during the Badgers’ 69-68 win on Saturday, Feb. 5, 2022, in the
Baker gym.
Cole Martin banked in a
shot from near the free throw
line to cut the lead to 63-59.
Then Dixon also went off the
glass, from the left side of the
key from about 10 feet, to cut
the lead to 63-61 with 3:30 left.
Spike spun in a difficult re-
verse layin to boost Baker’s lead
back to 65-61 with 3:05 left, but
Cole Martin, who had all seven
of his points in the fourth quar-
ter, scored inside to cut the lead
to 65-63 with 2:46 left.
The game started fast
and didn’t have many lulls
throughout.
Baker had five 3-pointers
in the first 4½ minutes — two
by Hobson, one each by Jaxon
Logsdon, Spike and Jones — to
lead 21-12.
But Krieger, who scored 15
of Powder Valley’s 20 points in
the first quarter, had a conven-
tional 3-point play and another
basket, and Kaiden Dalke hit a
3-pointer to cut Baker’s lead to
23-20 after one quarter.
The Bulldogs extended
the lead to 29-22 on Jones’
driving layin early in the sec-
ond quarter, and Kyle Dixon
called timeout.
After the break, Dalke con-
verted an alley oop, Clay
Martin had a layin and Reece
Dixon hit a jumper as the Bad-
gers scored six straight and cut
the lead to 29-28.
Baker responded with a
5-point run to go up 36-30
with 2:05 left in the half, but
Reece Dixon and Dalke each
scored late to cut Baker’s lead
to 38-36 at the break.
The Badgers then scored the
first 9 points of the second half
— 5 by Krieger — to take a 45-
38 lead. Powder Valley took its
largest lead, 51-43, on Krieger’s
basket with about 4 minutes
left in the third quarter.
Baker ended the quarter on
a 9-2 run, capped by Hobson’s
jumper after a turnover, to cut
the Badgers’ lead to 53-52 en-
tering the final quarter.
Baker’s fullcourt press and
halfcourt trap weren’t nearly
as effective at forcing turn-
overs against Powder Valley
as they were against recent
opponents, including Mac-Hi
the previous night.
Reece Dixon shouldered
the bulk of the ball-handling
duties and was able to dissect
the Baker defense on most
possessions.
Baker was without starting
guard Jaron Long, who plays
a key role on defense, for the
third straight game with a
knee injury.
Long could return this week.
Jebron Jones said he was
pleased with Baker’s ability to
rally from the 8-point deficit
in the third quarter — a po-
sition Baker hasn’t been in
since the loss to Pendleton six
weeks ago.
“The kids battled back, and
offensively we did a great job,”
Jones said.
The problem, he said, was
on the other end of the court.
Powder Valley had 32 field
goals — 14 by Krieger.
“You can’t beat good teams
playing bad defense,” Jones
said. “North Powder outhus-
tled us, beat us to loose balls.
It’s good for us to know that
we can’t compete against good
teams playing that way.”
Jones said he told his play-
ers in the locker room after the
game to remember how they
felt in those moments.
“I told them, the way you
feel right now, bring that an-
ger and frustration to practice
Monday and to the game on
Tuesday,” he said.
Baker, which leads the
Greater Oregon League with
• Lumber
• Plywood
• Building Materials
• Hardware
• Paint
• Plumbing
• Electrical
And much more!
POWDER VALLEY (69)
Clay Martin 3 0-0 6, Dixon 4 0-2
9, Krieger 14 2-6 30, Olson 2
0-0 4, Dalke 6 0-0 13, Cole Mar-
tin 3 1-1 7. Totals 32 3-9 69.
BAKER (68)
Logsdon 2 0-1 5, Gambleton 2
0-3 4, Quintela 0 0-0 0, Younger
1 2-4 4, Molina 0 0-0 0, Spike 5
0-0 10, Jones 10 3-3 27, Hob-
son 7 2-3 18, Mitchell 0 0-0 0.
Totals 27 7-14 68.
Powder 20 16 17 16 — 69
Baker 23 15 14 16 — 68
a 4-0 record, returns to its
league schedule on Tues-
day, Feb. 8, playing host to
La Grande at 7:30 p.m. Baker
routed the Tigers 67-41 on
Jan. 28 at La Grande.
Powder will finish its Old
Oregon League schedule with
three games in three days —
Thursday, Feb. 10, at home
against Joseph at 8 p.m., Friday,
Feb. 11, at home against Cove
at 7:30 p.m., and Saturday, Feb.
12, at Elgin at 5:30 p.m.
Winter is here!
Cold weather can
mean icy spots in
shaded areas!
3205 10th Street
Baker City
541-523-4422
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Saturday 8 am - 5 pm
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2390 Broadway, Baker City
541-523-5223