Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, March 7, 2018
A13
WEDNESDAY
March 7, 2018
Panther boys claw to second at state
Prairie City has best
season in 23 years
By Angel Carpenter
Blue Mountain Eagle
EO Media Group/Kathy Aney
Grant Union’s Mariah Moulton (25)
drives to the basket as Morgan
Correa of Heppner defends
during Thursday’s OSAA 2A girls
consolation state tournament game
in Pendleton.
Grant Union
girls earn fourth
place in third
trip to state
Lady Pros beat
Heppner and Oakland
By Angel Carpenter
Blue Mountain Eagle
The Grant Union Prospector girls
brought home a fourth-place trophy last
week, improving on their third consecu-
tive run at the OSAA 2A Basketball State
Championship in Pendleton.
Grant Union lost the quarterfinal on
Thursday to the Faith Bible Falcons 53-
49. The Prospectors then made a strong
finish, defeating the Heppner Mustangs
62-46 in the consolation semifinals on
Friday and the Oakland Oakers 54-44 on
Saturday for fourth place.
“The past couple of years we came
out with no hardware, and we were hop-
ing to come out first, but even though we
lost our first game, we still played like
it was the championship,” said Grant
Union senior Mariah Moulton. “Every-
one worked hard. I wouldn’t change a
thing about the season if I could.”
Prospector head coach Casey Hall-
garth said his team battled and played a
great tournament.
“It was fun watching some of the girls
step up their game and not back down,”
he said. “The bench came up big all tour-
nament long.”
Faith Bible’s height caught them off
guard, Hallgarth said. While their Play-
er of the Game was 5-foot-7, two other
key players, twins Sarah and Katie Fajer,
were 6-foot-1.
“Once we made the adjustment at
halftime and knew what to expect from
them, we knew we would come back,”
Hallgarth said, adding his team excelled
at defense and making adjustments on
the fly, including some line-ups they
hadn’t used before.
In the end, it came down to a few
plays that made the difference in the Fal-
cons’ favor.
Trinity Hutchison started off the scor-
ing for Grant Union with a jump shot off
an assist from Mariah Wright.
Hutchison also went 3-4 at the free-
throw line in the first quarter, with
Kaylee Wright contributing two 3-point-
ers and 2-2 free throws and Madi McK-
rola adding 2-2.
Grant Union led 13-11 going into the
second, and were neck and neck to half-
time. In the third, the Prospectors lost
some ground, but came back, trailing 38-
37 going into the final 8 minutes.
The teams tied the score twice. Then
both had a handful of missed shots.
At 47-47, Faith Bible pulled ahead,
by scoring 6-8 at the free-throw line to
Grant Union’s 2-2.
See GIRLS, Page A18
The Prairie City Panther boys
are celebrating their best finish
at the OSAA 1A Basketball State
Championships in years, placing
second, with the Pacific Pirates
taking the championship title Sat-
urday with a 73-50 win.
The Panthers last competed at
state 20 years ago, and finished
second 23 years ago. Sam Work-
man, in his first year as Prairie City
head coach, said the team had great
expectations this season.
“They grew stronger, and may-
be they wanted it a little bit more,”
he said. “They wanted to see how
far they could go, and the young-
er kids stepped up this year when
they needed to.”
On their way to the final game,
Prairie City beat Sherman 68-53 in
the quarterfinals, followed by a 61-
53 defeat of Jordan Valley in the
semifinals.
After defeating Jordan Valley,
Workman said he told the team in
the final minutes to “take care of the
ball and intensity — keep it up and
play smart.”
Panther Dorran Wilson said beat-
ing the Mustangs was great on their
way to the championship.
“It was rough around the edges,
but we got it done, and I’m proud of
these guys,” he said.
It was the third time Prairie City
met up with Jordan Valley, having
beat them once in the regular sea-
Contributed photos/Tanni Wenger Photography
The Prairie City boys basketball team poses with its second-place
trophy after the OSAA 1A Boys Basketball State Championships
in Baker City Saturday.
Prairie City’s Syd Holman drives the ball against a Pacific opponent
in the finals at the state tournament Saturday.
son and again at the first-round state
playoff.
Preparing for the championship,
Workman said the team would have
to “go at it like their hair is on fire.”
Panther Syd Holman launched
the tipoff to his team against Pa-
cific, with Wilson starting off Prai-
rie City’s scoring with a 3-pointer.
Holman added a bucket for a 5-0
Dorran Wilson, left, and Levi
Burke celebrate after receiving
all-tournament awards after the
state tournament where the
team placed second.
lead. Then Pacific took action, mov-
ing ahead 16-5 before Prairie City
would again find the basket.
Wilson added 3 more points
from the free-throw line, then scored
twice in the final seconds, including
a layup off his steal, and Pacific led
25-12 in the first quarter.
Prairie City narrowed Pacific’s
lead to 7 in the first three minutes of
the second quarter, with Panther Lu-
cas McKinley scoring a 3-point shot
off an assist from Holman, Jojari
Field adding another 3-pointer off
an assist from McKinley and Levi
Burke scoring off two jump shots,
with an assist from Holman.
Pirates Colton Keeler, Justin
Hall and Jack Lehnherr scored most
of Pacific’s points in the quarter.
The Pirates outshot the Pan-
thers 24-17 going into halftime,
the score 49-29.
See STATE, Page A18
Grant Union boys finish sixth at state
Team graduates
five seniors
By Angel Carpenter
Blue Mountain Eagle
The Grant Union Prospector
boys placed sixth at the Thurs-
day through Saturday March 1-3
OSAA 2A Basketball State Cham-
pionship in Pendleton.
The No. 8-seed Prospectors
faced an uphill battle against the
No.1-seed Western Mennonite
Pioneers, losing 60-38 in a phys-
ical game in the quarterfinals, be-
fore beating the Toledo Boomers,
60-49, in a semifinal consolation
round. Grant Union fell 54-45 to
the Kennedy Trojans in the fight
for fourth place.
The Prospectors came within
2 points of Kennedy in the fourth
quarter, but the Trojans pushed
through for the 10-point win.
Grant Union head coach Kel-
sy Wright said the team achieved
their goals of earning the league
title and district tournament win,
and although they came up short
of their goal to win state, he’s still
happy with the team.
“I’ve had a blast with these
boys,” he said. “We went into
state (seeded) eighth and came out
sixth, so I’m extremely proud of
these boys.”
In the quarterfinal match, Pros-
pector Zack Deiter started off by
blocking Pioneer Keaton Hull’s
shot.
Kellen Shelley put Grant Union
on the scoreboard with a 3-pointer
off an assist from Wade Reimers,
who also blocked Hull’s jump
shot.
Contributed photo/Tanni Wenger Photography
Grant Union’s Duane Stokes drives against Kennedy’s Mason Boen in the consolation finals at the
state tournament Saturday in Pendleton. Kennedy won, 54-45.
Grant Union moved ahead 11-9
when Cole Deiter added 1-2 at the
free-throw line with a 2-pointer
from Shelley and a 3-point shot
from Duane Stokes, but that was
the last time the Prospectors would
have the lead.
Grant Union trailed 15-11 in
the first.
In the second quarter, Stokes
was roughed up and out for the
second half.
Shelley scored a 3-point shot
for the Prospectors’ only points in
the second, Grant Union trailing
36-14.
Shooting was even the rest of
the way, 13-13 in the third and 11-
11 in the fourth, but Western Men-
nonite kept their comfortable lead
for the win.
Shelley was named the Player
of the Game for Grant Union with
10 points, two steals and three re-
bounds.
“We played great basketball the
first half, and the second half they
(Western Mennonite) made adjust-
ments,” Wright said. “They threw
us off guard a little bit, and it was a
hole we couldn’t dig out of.”
Grant Union came back strong
against Toledo.
Reimers, who was named Play-
er of the Game for Grant Union,
led both teams in scoring against
Toledo with 23, rebounds with
17 and blocks with three. He also
had two steals, tying for the top
mark with three Toledo players.
For Grant Union, Zack Deiter,
Stokes and Shelley each scored
10, followed by Cole Deiter with
4, Ty McDaniel with 2 and Cauy
Weaver with 1. The team shot 38.8
percent from the field and hit 81
percent from the free-throw line.
Zack Deiter was named Play-
er of the Game in the final game
See BOYS, Page A18
Grant Union Gold will present Spring Showcase Friday
By Angel Carpenter
Blue Mountain Eagle
The Grant Union Gold
dance team will hold its annu-
al Spring Showcase at 7 p.m.
Friday, March 9, at Grant
Union Junior-Senior High
School’s new gym.
A taco feed fundraiser for
the team will start at 6 p.m. in
the school cafeteria. The taco
dinner is $5 a person, with 6
and under free, and the Spring
Showcase admission is by do-
nation.
The event is the team’s
kickoff to OSAA Dance State
Championships held Friday
and Saturday, March 16-17,
in Portland.
In past years, younger
dancers from Body, Fitness &
Dance joined in the program.
However, this year, they will
hold a separate event.
Grant Union Gold, with
14 team members, will pres-
ent three routines as a team,
as well as smaller group and
solo performances, which the
dancers have choreographed
themselves. The grand finale
will be their presentation of
their state routine set to the
song “Rise” by Katy Perry.
“The more times we can
perform in front of an audi-
ence the better, because it in-
creases their comfort level,”
said head coach Kattie Piazza.
She said performing for
the home crowd is especially
rewarding.
“We, as a dance team, feel
supported by the community,
so anytime we have a chance
to give back, we like to take
those opportunities, and per-
forming is one of the ways to
show that,” she said.
The team will leave Grant
Union March 15 for state.
“Being able to share all
the hard work and everything
we’ve put into the dance with
the community is just a great
feeling as we head off to our
toughest competition of the
season,” Piazza said.
Grant Union compet-
ed Saturday at the Thurston
Dance Competition, taking
second. Marshfield, the only
other team competing in the
4A/3A/2A/1A division, took
first.
“We improved our scores
and had some great feedback
from the judges to further pre-
pare us for state,” Piazza said.
At the first round of state
competition, the top 50 per-
cent in each division will
move on to round two.
“The team continues to
improve each time they per-
form, including how they
move together as a team
on the floor,” Piazza said.
“They continue to improve
in how they dance the chore-
ography and their ability to
stay in sync.”
Contributed photo
The Grant Union Gold dance team sports their costumes
for state competition at Saturday’s Thurston Dance
Competition.