B10
Sports
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Grant County Lady Tigers, Panthers battle at districts
Day/Mon beats
Prairie City in
Game One
By Angel Carpenter
Blue Mountain Eagle
JOHN DAY — The Day-
ville/Monument Lady Tigers
clawed their way to a 41-37
victory over the Prairie City
Lady Panthers Thursday, Feb.
18, at the 1A-8 High Desert
League Tournament held at
Grant Union.
The Tigers entered the tour-
nament seeded fourth, and the
Panthers were the ifth seed.
Scores were fairly even in
the irst half, when the Tigers
kicked things into high gear.
The irst quarter had the Ti-
gers ahead 7-6, then the Pan-
thers outshot the Tigers 14-9 in
the second.
FAMILY
HEALTH
Panthers contributing to scor-
ing in the second were Brianna
Zweygardt with six points, in-
cluding a three-pointer and a free
throw; Cassie Hire and Lindsay
Wall with four points; and Ama-
ya Zweygardt with two.
Tiger players Kendall
Hettinga and Kristina Hum-
phreys helped the team with
two three-pointers in the third,
along with Skylar Powell and
Danielle Rhoda adding points
to the scoreboard, and the
teams were tied, 29-29.
“I think going into the sec-
ond half, they picked up their
intensity, and won one quarter
at a time, instead of a lot at
once,” said Tiger head coach
Taylor Schmadeka. “Team-
work was a lot better in the
second half. They moved the
ball a lot and communicated
on defense a lot better.”
Scoring went back and
fourth in the inal period, and
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the game was tied 37-37 with a
minute and a half left.
Rhoda scored her last two
of six points in the quarter off
a steal.
Powell added one of two at
the free-throw line, putting the
Tigers up by three.
Schmadeka said it was
“pure hustle from the girls”
that kept the ball in their
hands. Then Hettinga added
another point at the line to end
the game.
“I’m so proud of every-
body,” said Tiger player Han-
nah Flower. “They really came
together when it mattered as a
team — I’m just excited.”
Panther head coach Penny
Black said her team kept good
composure through the irst
half.
A couple key players were
lost when they fouled out near
the end.
The Panthers’ leading scor-
er was Brianna Zweygardt
with 20 points in the game.
next morning to win the con-
solation game 54-42 against
Harper/Huntington.
The Panthers trailed 12-13
in the irst quarter, but bounced
back for a 26-17 lead going
into the half.
Prairie City kept their lead
for the remainder of the game.
Harper/Huntington outshot
the Panthers 16-14 in the third,
and Prairie City closed out the
game, scoring 14 to the Hor-
nets’ 9.
Black said Harper/Hunting-
ton had improved over the sea-
son, and knew they would be a
challenge.
She said she’s enjoyed
coaching the Panthers this
year.
“No matter what they have
fun, and that’s important,” she
said. “I’m looking forward to
next season. I preach to them
about practicing out of season
— we have strong eighth-grad-
ers coming up, so they really
need to work on their game.”
Prairie City girls
Prairie City went on the
Dayville/Monument girls
The Tiger girls were strong
in their game on Friday against
Crane, but took a 25-50 loss.
Schmadeka said the score
didn’t relect the effort his
team gave.
“They didn’t give up,” he
said, adding that Crane de-
served credit as a solid team,
playing without two starters
who were injured.
“We played really hard; we
just ended up making more
mistakes that they did,” said
Tiger player Kendall Hettinga.
The Tigers suffered a 39-68
loss on Saturday to the Jordan
Valley Mustangs who took
third in the tournament and
advanced to the state playoffs.
Schmadeka said he was
happy with the season.
“I felt like, overall, we
played hard, especially the
irst two nights — I’m proud
of the girls for sticking with it
and keeping with it,” he said.
“We’re losing one senior, so
we’ll have a lot of returning
players, and we’ll be good
next year.”
He said he would never for-
get his irst year of coaching.
The Eagle/Angel Carpenter
Dayville/Monument
Tiger Danielle Rhoda
scores, breaking the
final tie of the game,
Prairie City Panther
defenders Raven Maloy
(11) and Sarah Ennis
(20) in the action. The
Tigers went on to win
the game, 41-37.
Long Creek/Ukiah teams make strides
Teams learn
basketball and
improve
By Angel Carpenter
Blue Mountian Eagle
LONG CREEK — Every
year a new string of basket-
ball players join the Long
Creek/Ukiah boys and girls
teams.
All the players are foreign
exchange students this year,
with the exception of one
player who moved from Alas-
ka; the other players’ home
countries include Spain, Ger-
many, Brazil, Thailand, Chi-
na, Taiwan and Japan.
TC Conner coaches the
boys, and Ray Martin leads
the girls.
Conner has coached high
school teams since 2008,
and this is Martin’s irst year
coaching the high school
girls, and third year coaching
junior high.
Most are new to the sport,
and this year was no differ-
ent, although a couple play-
ers on the boys team added
experience.
Conner said most of his
players had experience in PE
classes, but not competition;
however, Aaron Yeung and
Ben Huang had both expe-
rience and passion for the
game.
Yeung said, “Basketball is
my life.”
“We get new kids every
year, and we go back to the
basics and learn the game,”
Conner said.
He added, in some of the
countries, the boys learned
only one skill, such as pass-
ing.
Conner turned that around,
and said his goal was to teach
each boy to play all aspects
of the game, including pass-
ing, catching and shooting
the ball.
“The hardest part was get-
ting them to understand the
competitive team aspect, and
speed and motion offense,”
he said. “Defense just falls
into place. They came to un-
derstand their roles.”
This season the boys team
beat the Dayville/Monument
and Adrian’s junior varsity
teams.
“Ben hit a last-second shot
that took us into overtime,
and we won in overtime —
that was an exciting game,”
Conner said of the contest
against Adrian.
They also had a close
game against Pilot Rock ju-
nior varsity.
“I told them in the last
practice it’s probably the
funnest team I’ve coached,”
Conner said. “They came to-
gether as a team, from learn-
ing how to dribble and catch,
to playing the whole game
from the tip to the buzzer.”
Ray Martin said a lot of the
girls on his team didn’t have
the opportunity to play sports
in their home countries, but if
they could stay together, their
progress would show up next
season.
Unfortunately, the stu-
dents will return to their
home countries at the end of
the school year.
“These kids have played
with good attitudes,” he said.
“They always try and love to
play no matter what, and they
show great improvement ev-
ery week.”
He said he’ll remember
the girls singing on the bus
trips, their motivation to keep
trying and their smiles.