WEDNESDAY
February 26, 2020
Prairie City boys win district
tourney with 56-41 win over Crane
Panthers earn first-
round bye in state
tournament, will play
Saturday
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
The Prairie City Panthers boys
basketball team is heading to the
state tournament for the third con-
secutive season after defeating
Crane 56-41 in the championship
round of the High Desert League
Basketball Tournament.
The Panthers, who entered the
league tourney in the No. 1 seed,
reached the championship game
after defeating Adrian 65-50 on
Friday.
The Panthers defeated Crane
46-45 in the final seconds of last
year’s district championship game
and came into Saturday’s game
expecting to face a team that was
hungry and out to avenge last
year’s loss.
Although Prairie City defeated
Crane both times they’ve faced
each other this season, the games
have been competitive and
hard-fought. This game was no
exception.
“We expected it to be a real bat-
tle with Crane,” said Prairie City
junior Jojari Field.
Early on, it looked like it would
be another close championship
game. Crane shooter Chase Joyce
nailed a pair of field goals and a
3-point jumper within first few
minutes of the game to fire up the
Mustangs’ offense.
Joyce would go on to score a
See Panthers , Page B2
The Eagle/Steven Mitchell
The Eagle/Steven Mitchell
Prairie City junior Jayden Winegar zips past a Crane defender Saturday in
the Panthers’ 56-41 district championship win over the Mustangs. Wine-
gar scored 10 points in the contest.
Prairie City fans packed the Grant
Union High School gym Saturday
for the Panthers’ district cham-
pionship game versus Crane. The
Panthers defeated the Mustangs
56-41.
Prospectors fall short in district championship game to Pilot Rock
Grant Union will travel to Coquille
Saturday for first round of state
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
At the championship
round of the Blue Mountain
Conference district tourna-
ment at the Pendleton Con-
vention Center Saturday,
the Pilot Rock Rockets used
a 24-6 second quarter to
pull away from the league’s
second-ranked Grant Union
Prospectors for good as
they rolled to a 68-40 vic-
tory to win the tournament
title.
The Prospectors, with
the superior league record,
earned the conference title
and a trip to the first round
of the 2A state tournament.
Senior Tristan Morris
led Grant Union (15-7, 10-2
BMC) with a team-high 14
points and 10 rebounds. Tel
Thacker of Pilot Rock (21-
4, 8-4 BMC) led all scorers
with 18 points.
“We shot the ball nearly
69 to 70 times, and they
didn’t fall, and sometimes
that just happens,” Grant
Union head coach RC
Huerta said. “It was just an
outlier of a game, and that
is what I told the boys in
the locker room after the
game.”
The Prospectors held an
early 3-2 lead, but Rock-
ets senior Payton Thur-
mond dropped in two back-
to-back 3-pointers midway
through the first quarter to
take over the game at 8-6.
Grant Union put together
a brief 4-point run for an
11-10 lead with 1:58 left
in the quarter, but Thur-
mond returned with another
3-pointer in the final min-
ute, the Rockets up 13-11.
Thurmond gave the
Rockets an even greater
EO Media Group/Kathy Aney
Tristan Morris of Grant Union
and Pilot Rock’s Tel Thacker
fight for a rebound during
Saturday’s Blue Mountain
Conference championship
game against Pilot Rock at
the Pendleton Convention
Center.
distance in the opening
minutes of the second quar-
ter, scoring 4 unanswered
points for a 17-11 game.
Tristan Morris pulled the
Prospectors within 5 points
at 22-17 with 3:51 left in
the half, but the Rockets
proceeded to ignite a quar-
ter-closing 15-point run that
put the game out of reach
for good.
Pilot Rock senior Logan
Weinke began the streak
with a 3-pointer, and junior
Tanner Corwin contrib-
uted 6 points to the run. At
the half, the Rockets were
ahead 37-17.
“We wanted to come
out and play our game,”
said Thacker, a Pilot Rock
junior. “We knew we
needed to lock down Mor-
ris. It was a pretty spread-
out game. We played great
team defense.”
EO Media Group/Kathy Aney
Tanner Corwin of Pilot Rock and Grant Union’s Mason Gerry fight for a rebound during Saturday’s Blue Mountain Conference
championship game at the Pendleton Convention Center.
Thacker helped the
Rockets to a 25-point lead
at 50-25 with 43 seconds
left in quarter three, and
Corwin and Weinke com-
bined for 4 points at the line
in the fourth quarter for a
31-point, 67-38 advantage.
Huerta said his team did
not lose due to a lack of
trying. He said Pilot Rock
head coach Tyler Zyph did
a great job in having his
team prepared and ready to
play.
“Tyler is a great coach,”
he said. “His team was pre-
pared, and they played well.”
The league recognized
Huerta, naming him Blue
Mountain
Conference
“Coach of the Year.”
Morris was named first
team, all-league “Player
of the Year.” Junior Devon
Stokes was named second
team all-league.
Senior Mason Gerry and
junior Jordin Hall were all-
league honorable mentions.
Next up, Coquille will
host the Prospectors in
the first round of the 2A
state tournament Feb.
29. The boys tip off at
5 p.m.
Prairie City Girls lose to Crane in district championship game
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
The Prairie City girls basketball
team fell 59-27 against the Crane
Mustangs on Saturday at the High
Desert League Tournament Cham-
pionship Game, but the Panthers
placed second to advance to the
state tournament.
They were scheduled to play
Chiloquin Tuesday past press time.
Saturday’s game started with
junior Abbey Pfefferkorn scoring
2 points in the first minute of the
game, but the Mustangs quickly
followed up with 2 of their own.
For most of the first quarter, the
score was close. In the latter half,
Mustangs sophomore Kelsie Sie-
gner scored 2 points, which cre-
ated momentum for Crane to begin
building a lead. The first quarter
ended with Crane ahead 8-16.
Crane continued their momen-
tum by scoring 17 points in the
The Eagle/Rudy Diaz
Panther senior Emily Ennis looks at her options during the last quarter against the Mustangs Saturday.
second, while limiting the Pan-
thers to 7. Even with Crane’s lead
growing by the end of the first half,
15-33, the Panthers continued to
work together for the second half
of the game.
As the last quarter began, Prai-
rie City fought back with freshman
Laken McKay scoring a free throw
for a point and then followed up
with another 2 points.
Crane finished on top, 59-27.
Prairie City freshman Betty Ann
Wilson said it felt good to play in a
championship game and be one of
two teams out of the league with
the opportunity.
“The team has really come a
long way,” Wilson said.
Panthers head coach Bo Work-
man said the team’s effort, inten-
sity and intention is a lot better
than it was at the beginning of the
season.
“They’ve really come around,
and it is not just one player,” Work-
man said. “It is every one of them.”
The Eagle/Rudy Diaz
Prairie City senior Hailee Wall goes
in to block a shot against Crane at
the High Desert League Tourna-
ment Championship Game on Sat-
urday.