A6 BAKER CITY HERALD • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2022
SPORTS
BAKER BOYS BASKETBALL
POWDER VALLEY BOYS BASKETBALL
Bulldogs pound Ontario, prepare
for their Saturday seeding game
Baker could get a
grudge match
against La Grande
BY JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Baker’s boys basketball
team distributed its points
across the roster in beating
Ontario on Friday, Feb. 11, at
Ontario.
And the Bulldogs had a lot
of points to share.
Eighty of them.
The 80-33 rout over the Ti-
gers was the fifth time Baker
has reached the 80-point
threshold this season.
Twelve Bulldogs played, and
all 12 scored at least 2 points.
Paul Hobson had a game-
high 14 and Isaiah Jones
added 12. Hayden Younger
was the third Bulldog in dou-
ble figures, with 10, while
Maddox Charbonneau and
Lane Molina had eight points
apiece, and Nick Mitchell and
Jaxon Logsdon seven each.
“Everyone scored, which
was cool,” Baker coach Jebron
Jones said. “The kids gained a
little confidence, and they had
fun. I give credit to Ontario —
they played hard throughout
the game.”
Baker finished the Greater
Oregon League regular season
with a 5-1 record, tied with
La Grande atop the league.
Although the two teams split
their regular season games,
Baker is the regular season
champion by virtue of its
higher RPI rating.
That means the Bulldogs
will play host to the GOL
playoff championship game,
which will determine the
league’s playoff seedings, on
Saturday, Feb. 19, at 6:30 p.m.
in the Baker gym.
Ontario and Mac Hi will
play Tuesday, Feb. 15, with the
winner playing at La Grande
on Thursday, Feb. 17. The
winner of the latter game will
travel to Baker two days later.
Jones said that although
whoever plays La Grande
could catch fire offensively
and get the upset, the most
likely scenario is that La
Grande and Baker will renew
their rivalry Saturday night in
Alex Wittwer/The (La Grande) Observer
Powder Valley’s Reece Dixon (13) goes for a layup against Cove at
Powder Valley High School on Friday, Feb. 11, 2022. The Powder Valley
Badgers beat the Cove Leopards 76-50 to conclude the regular Old
Oregon League season as the top team.
Badgers roll past
Cove in league finale
Powder Valley
prepares for
district tourney
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
Paul Hobson, shown here earlier in the season, scored 14 points in Baker’s 80-33 win over Ontario on
Friday, Feb. 11, 2022.
front of what’s sure to be an
enthusiastic crowd.
“This would be the ulti-
mate grudge match,” Jones
said. “It’s kind of like an NBA
playoff series. It’s fun.”
The first two games be-
tween the two teams were
dramatically different — and
in an unexpected way.
In both games the road
team, which generally has a
disadvantage, dominated.
Baker beat La Grande 67-
41 on Jan. 28, at La Grande,
and the Tigers routed the
Bulldogs, 76-44, on Feb. 8, in
the Baker gym.
If La Grande is Baker’s op-
ponent Saturday night, Jones
said the match up will be an
intriguing one.
“Each team has to make
adjustments to what didn’t
work in the game they lost,”
he said. “Hopefully our ad-
justments are better than
theirs.”
The game has potentially
BY DAVIS CARBAUGH
The (La Grande) Observer
significant implications for
BAKER (80)
the Class 4A playoffs.
Logsdon 3 0-0 7, Harper 1 0-0
If Baker wins, the Bull-
dogs are guaranteed to have a 2, Gambleton 1 0-0 2, Quintela
home game in the first round. 2 0-0 4, Younger 5 0-3 10, Mo-
lina 4 0-1 8, Spike 2 0-2 5, Jones
Notwithstanding the
6 0-0 12, Long 1 1-2 3, Hobson
blowout loss to La Grande
in the Baker gym, Jones said 6 0-0 14, Charbonneau 3 0-0
8, Mitchell 3 1-2 7. Totals 36
securing a home playoff
2-10 80.
game is vital.
“The kids like playing at
home, I like playing at home,” ONTARIO (33)
Romayor 2 0-0 4, Hally 0 0-0 0,
he said. “Playing at home is
Mendoza 0 2-2 2, Garfias 0 0-0
important, especially when
0, Rodriguez 0 1-2 1, Berg 0 0-2
it comes to playoff time. Our
0, Roldan 6 0-0 12, Helmic 5 0-0
crowd has been tremendous
14. Totals 13 3-6 33.
all year long.”
If Baker loses Saturday, the Baker 21 23 24 12 — 80
Bulldogs could still have a
Ontario 8 18 4 11 — 33
home playoff game, depend-
ing on results from other
conferences.
week of practice will be ben-
“There’s a lot to play for,” eficial for us for the game
Jones said. “But no matter
Saturday.”
who we’re playing, we have
to control the things we can
control. We can control how
we play on defense, how well
we rebound. Hopefully this
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NORTH POWDER —
The Powder Valley and Cove
boys basketball teams met
for a high-stakes Old Ore-
gon League matchup on Fri-
day, Feb. 12, with the Badgers
coming out on top 76-50 in
the regular season finale for
both teams.
The Leopards started off
strong, taking a 14-11 lead
by the end of the first quar-
ter. However, the Badgers set-
tled in and controlled the re-
mainder of the game. A huge
21-4 advantage for Powder in
the second quarter ultimately
flipped the script, as Cole Mar-
tin scored 10 of his game-high
20 points.
Patrick Frisch was efficient
for Cove, also scoring a game-
high 20 points.
The Badgers continued to
pull away in the second half, as
Cove was unable to slow down
Powder’s high-octane offense.
Reece Dixon was strong for the
Badgers, scoring 15 points on
the night.
The tough loss for Cove
snapped a four-game win-
ning streak and secured the
team’s spot at No. 3 in the
league standings behind Pow-
der Valley (9-0) and Nixy-
aawii (9-2). The Leopards fell
to 8-4. Powder Valley, ranked
second in the state Class 1A
standings, improved to 20-1
on the season.
Both teams will await the
final seedings in the district
tournament, which is set to be
hosted at Baker High School
starting Thursday, Feb. 17.
Powder Valley girls
The Badgers wrapped up
the Old Oregon League regu-
lar season on a five-game win-
ning streak. Powder Valley beat
Cove 46-30 on Friday, Feb. 11,
at North Powder, and topped
Elgin 48-41 on Saturday, Feb.
12, at Elgin.
Powder Valley improved to
9-3 in league and 13-10 overall.
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