A8
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, January 10, 2018
WEDNESDAY
January 10, 2018
Lady Prospectors trample TigerScots
Girls one shot
short against
tough 3A
Lakeview team
By Eric Singer and Angel
Carpenter
Blue Mountain Eagle
The Grant Union girls
basketball team took their
theme of “90 mph all four
quarters” to heart in their
92-54 victory Thursday, Jan.
4, over the Weston-McEwen
TigerScots.
“We had a great game plan
for them,” said Grant Union
head coach Casey Hallgarth.
“We focused on making our
easy shot all week. We were
locked in and executed really
well.”
The Weston-McEwen girls
basketball team goes into each
game with a plan to push the
tempo against its opponent
with the idea of forcing bad
decisions that lead to easy
offense. That plan was a big
reason for Weston-McEwen’s
five-game win streak that it
rode into Thursday evening’s
game with Grant Union.
Except in that game, the
talented Prospectors, current-
ly ranked No. 5 in Class 2A,
used that against them. Grant
Union’s full-court press de-
fense helped force 32 Tiger-
Scot turnovers which fed an
ultra-efficient offense that
broke the 90-point barrier for
the third time this season.
EO Media Group/Kathy Aney
Chelsea Quaempts (32) of Weston-McEwen drives to the
basket past Grant Union’s Alcie Moore during Thursday’s
nonleague game in Athena.
The Prospectors (8-2) had
five players finish in double
figures for the game, with
Kaylee Wright leading the
way with 23 points and Madi
McKrola finishing with 22
points. Grant Union shot 56
percent from the field for the
game (36-of-64).
“They were just better
than us,” Weston-McEwen
coach Mike Giusti said, “and
I think everybody understands
that. They’re very athletic
and simply take advantage
of that. There were just too
many times offensively where
we broke down because they
rushed us.”
Chelsea Quaempts led
the TigerScots (6-6) with
18 points, with 10 of those
coming from the free throw
line. Jordyn Lambert fol-
lowed with 10 points and
Katie Vescio had eight
points. The TigerScots shot
a paltry 28 percent (19-of-
67) from the floor, including
a multitude of close-range
shots that just didn’t seem to
Grant Union boys notch two wins
Team ranked
7th in state
Defense and patient shooting gave
the Grant Union Prospectors a boost
for two road wins, with a 66-51 vic-
tory over the Weston-McEwen Tiger-
Scots Thursday followed by a 65-51
win over the 3A Lakeview Honkers
Saturday.
Duane Stokes and Wade Reimers
led the Prospectors (7-4) in Athena on
Thursday, Stokes with 18 points and
Reimers with 15.
The three other Prospector seniors
also contributed points, with Zack De-
iter scoring 8, and Ty McDaniel and
Cauy Weaver adding 6 each. Soph-
omore Kellen Shelley added 9, and
sophomore Cole Deiter had 4.
“It was a long road game, but I think
the boys were prepared and ready to
come out and play,” said Grant Union
head coach Kelsy Wright. “They had a
lot of composure and patience ... with
good shot selection.”
Weston-McEwen (4-10) scored the
first points of the game on a corner
3-pointer from Brett Speed 25 seconds
into the game for a 3-0 lead. It was the
only time the TigerScots would hold
a lead.
Grant Union took the lead back 4-3
with 6:30 left and finished the quarter
19-8 to give themselves an 11-point
cushion at the end of the quarter.
In the second quarter, the Tiger-
Scots fought back. Their defense
forced some turnovers and led to some
transition baskets, which helped the
TigerScots get within 5 points at 28-
23 with 3:40 left and kept them within
8 points of the Prospectors at halftime.
The tenacity continued early in the
third quarter to keep the TigerScots
close, but they just could not cash in
on opportunities. Three straight pos-
Friday,
Jan. 12
Grant Union wres-
tling @ Oregon
Classic in Red-
mond, TBA
Grant Union bas-
ketball vs. Elgin in
John Day, girls at 6
p.m., boys at 7:30
p.m.
EO Media Group/Kathy Aney
Parker Munk of Weston-McEwen gets ready to pass around Grant Union’s Cauy Weaver (10) during
Thursday’s nonleague game in Athena.
sessions the TigerScots had man ad-
vantages in transition and came away
with no points, instead with one turn-
over and two missed lay-ins.
“That’s something that’s plagued
us all year,” Weston-McEwen coach
Brian Pickard said. “We miss easy
shots, and then it seems like the other
team always turns around and hits a
couple of threes or a few lay-ins and
we can’t recover from it, which hap-
pened again.”
Instead of the TigerScots creeping
closer, the Prospectors took off and
outscored the TigerScots 19-6 in the
third quarter and kept a considerable
lead for the remainder of the game.
In Lakeview, the Prospectors start-
ed slow.
“It was a rocky start,” Wright said.
“We ended up getting our legs under-
neath.”
He said one of their keys to staying
ahead the rest of the game was Duane
Stokes defending one of the Honkers’
best outside shooters.
Grant Union was in some foul
trouble late in the game, and so was
Lakeview.
“We hit our free throws the whole
way,” Wright said.
Stokes led the Prospectors with 25
points, followed by Cole Deiter with
10.
Also contributing points were Zack
Deiter, 8; Reimers, 7; Weaver, 6; Shel-
ley, 4; Jacob Vaughan, 3; and Taylor
Hunt, 2.
Grant Union, now ranked seventh
by the OSAA among 2A teams, hosts
the Elgin Huskies (8-6) at 7:30 p.m.
Friday in John Day for the Prospec-
tors’ league opener.
Nail-biter
slips away for
Monument-
Dayville
Blue Mountain Eagle
Cassie Hire
Senior, middle hitter
Honorable mention
See BOYS, Page A9
Panther girls defeat Tigers by 10
By Richard Hanners
Brianna Zweygardt
Senior, setter
Second team
SPORTS
SCHEDULE
Ukiah/Long Creek
JV basketball @
Pilot Rock JV, girls
at 4 p.m., boys at
5:30 p.m.
Blue Mountain Eagle
HONORS
See GIRLS, Page A9
Thursday,
Jan. 11
By Angel Carpenter
A LL -S TATE
1A VOLLEYBALL
bounce favorably.
Weston-McEwen scored
the first points of the game on
an elbow jumper by Trinity
Hearn just 15 seconds in for a
2-0 lead, which was the only
lead the TigerScots would
hold for the entire game.
Grant Union took the lead
back one minute later on a
3-pointer by Mariah Moulton
as the Prospectors then went
on a 17-2 run over the next
five minutes to take complete
control of the game and coast
to the victory.
Hallgarth said he was im-
pressed with his team’s perfor-
mance.
“Our effort and teamwork
was the best so far this season,”
The Monument-Dayville
girls matched up well with
the Panthers in Prairie City
on Jan. 6, holding their own
in a first half that ended tied
at 18 before seeing the game
slowly slip away in the final
quarters. The Panthers topped
the Tigers 46-36.
While the Panthers strug-
gled in the first half, taking
tough shots and scoring off
their rebounds, the Tigers ran
their plays and controlled the
ball on offense. They also
outrebounded the Panthers in
the first half, but foul trouble
impacted the smaller Tiger
team early on.
Both teams saw players at
the free-throw line, however,
with the Panthers going six
of 14 and the Tigers going
five of 13 in a scrappy game.
Prairie City was up 11-9 at the
end of the first quarter, as both
teams vied for the lead.
The Eagle/Richard Hanners
Monument-Dayville junior Kyla Emerson is closely
guarded by Prairie City senior Brianna Zweygardt in
the Jan. 6 game in Prairie City.
“We missed a few open
shots we’d normally make,”
Tiger coach Taylor Schmade-
ka said.
The Tigers went to the
full-court press late in the
third quarter and narrowed
the margin at 26-25 with a
3-pointer by sophomore De-
nali Twehues. But the Pan-
thers’ offensive game stepped
up with better outside shoot-
ing, including a 3-pointer, and
Prairie City ended the quarter
ahead 35-29.
“We played with more
intensity in the second half,”
Prairie City coach Bo Work-
man said. “Our shots were
falling, and our defense
stopped them from getting the
shots they wanted.”
Senior Brianna Zweygardt
led Prairie City with 13
points, followed by fresh-
man Samantha Workman
and senior Cassie Hire, each
with 9 points and a 3-point-
er. Sophomore Rilee Emmel
had 6 points, senior Megan
Camarena had 4, sophomore
Emily Ennis had 3 and sopho-
more Hailee Wall had 2.
“We stopped rebounding
in the second half,” Schmade-
ka said. “Our defense was
better in the first half, but we
got lazy in the second half,
not sticking with our assign-
ments.”
Senior Danielle Rhoda
led the Tigers with 12 points,
followed by junior Kyla Em-
erson with 9, Twehues with
7, junior Faythe Schafer with
6 and sophomore Aubrey
Bowlus with 2.
“We had two players in
foul trouble,” Schmadeka
said. “Denali fouled out,
See PANTHERS, Page A9
Prairie City basket-
ball @ Crane, girls
at 6 p.m., boys at
7:30 p.m.
Monument/Dayville
vs. Burnt River in
Monument, girls at
6 p.m., boys at 7:30
p.m.
Saturday,
Jan. 13
Grant Union wres-
tling @ Oregon
Classic in Red-
mond, TBA
Grant Union basket-
ball @ Union, girls 4
at p.m., boys at 5:30
p.m.
Prairie City basket-
ball @ Harper, girls
1 at p.m., boys at
2:30 p.m.
Ukiah/Long Creek
JV basketball @
Huntington, girls at
2 p.m., boys at 3:30
p.m.
Tuesday,
Jan. 16
Grant Union basket-
ball @ Burns, girls
at 6 p.m., boys at
7:30 p.m.
Prairie City basket-
ball vs. Burnt River,
girls at 4 p.m., boys
5:30 p.m.
Ukiah/Long Creek
JV basketball @
Monument/Dayville
in Dayville, girls 5
p.m., boys 6:30 p.m.