BAKER CITY HERALD • TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2022 A5
SPORTS
BAKER BOYS BASKETBALL TEAM
Bulldogs rout Gladstone, earn berth in state tourney
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
Jaron Long had a game-high 19 points in Baker’s win over Sisters on Feb. 26, 2022, in the Baker gym. Long
had 20 points in Baker’s playoff win at Gladstone on Friday, March 4, 2022.
BY JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
With its season goals hang-
ing in the balance, the Baker
boys played with a precision
both brutal and balletic.
Ruthless, really.
With their first berth in the
Class 4A state tournament
since 2007 at stake, the Bull-
dogs played perhaps their best
game of the season, leading al-
most from the start in disman-
tling host Gladstone 80-52 on
Friday night, March 4.
Baker will play top-seeded
Junction City in a quarterfi-
nal on Thursday, March 10
at 2 p.m. at North Bend High
School.
The Gladiators led just
once, 3-2 on Carver Mellema’s
3-pointer.
Gladstone tied the score at 9,
but from there the rout was on.
The Bulldogs scored the
next 12 points, with four play-
ers getting on the board as
Baker turned a close game into
a 21-9 lead in little more than
a minute.
During that brief but de-
cisive sequence the Bulldogs
played with flair and focus,
displaying the full array of
their strengths on both sides of
the court.
Baker’s halfcourt trap flus-
tered Gladstone into errant
passes and led to turnovers
and easy baskets.
Isaiah Jones and Paul Hob-
son each had a 3-pointer.
Jaron Long weaved between
defenders for an acrobatic la-
yin.
Hudson Spike scored in the
lane.
After Gladstone’s Ben Hoff-
man ended the Baker scoring
run with a 15-footer, the Bull-
dogs finished the first quar-
ter with an 8-2 run capped by
Spike’s conventional 3-point
play.
Baker scored a season-high
29 first quarter points, leading
29-13 at the break.
Although it was technically
still early in the game, the
contest was for all intents and
purposes over.
Not that Baker stopped
playing with urgency.
Gladstone never got closer
than 14 points in the final
three quarters, and Baker’s
lead swelled to more than 30
points.
Baker’s stellar play even
showed up in less obvious sta-
tistics than points, rebounds,
steals and assists.
The Bulldogs weren’t whis-
tled for their first foul until
almost halfway through the
second quarter.
By that time Gladstone had
six fouls.
Baker coach Jebron Jones
said he thinks the Bulldogs’
most complete game of the
season probably was their
67-41 rout of La Grande on
the Tigers’ home court on
Jan. 28.
“But this was a close sec-
ond or third,” Jones said of
the Gladstone game.
“The kids knew what they
had to do,” he said. “It was
fun to watch. The kids were
extremely unselfish. If we do
that we get better looks and
easier baskets.”
And now the Bulldogs pre-
pare to compete at the state
tournament for the first time
since 2007, when Baker won
its second state title, and first
since 1938.
Jones said he is confident
the players, many of whom
he has coached since they
were in elementary school,
will be ready.
“They’re playing great ball
right now,” he said.
Jones said that although
he knows his players were
nervous before Friday’s play-
off game at Gladstone, they
weren’t scared, and their per-
formance showed that.
“I told the kids, there’s eight
teams left and anything can
happen,” he said. “It’s a bigger
stage for sure, but I think they
will go into the (state tourna-
ment) with confidence.”
Baker’s unselfish play
against Gladstone showed up
in the balanced scoring sheet.
Four Bulldogs were in dou-
ble figures, led by Spike with
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
21. Long had 20 points, Hob- Baker’s Hudson Spike goes to the basket against La Grande on Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022, in the Baker gym.
son 15 and Isaiah Jones 12.
Spike had a game-high 21 points in Baker’s playoff win at Gladstone on Friday, March 4, 2022.
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