Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 22, 1977)
V ' ;:- - Mustangs sting Cardinals d fought 37-36 contest .a..:i H 1 -i f ' ; v. ' I v ' v" '.1 Heppner and lone played it down to the wire Friday with the lead changing hands five times in the final minutes before the Mustangs pulled out a 37-36 win. The game was won under the boards where the Mus tangs collected 51 rebounds. On most trips down the floor, the Cards were limited to only one shot while Heppner man- ' aged to keep the ball alive at their offensive end. Dale Holland pulled a game high 17 rebounds and both Mark ' Huddleston and Jerry Cuts forth had nine. Kevin McCabe grabbed eight rebounds for the Cards fol lowed by Robin LaRue and Dennis Stefani with six. Both teams struggled through a cold shooting open ing quarter and neither really found the range for the rest of the game as Heppner hit 30 per cent from the floor and lone connected on 25 per cent of its shots. . Dennis Peck led the Mus tangs with 12 points, Huddle ston had seven and Ken Grieb had six. Stefani was the top scorer for lone with 11 followed by McCabe with nine and Danny McElligott with six. Despite a season high 23 turnovers and the fact that several Mustangs were in foul trouble, Heppner coach Tom Day said he liked the way his team showed poise and control in the final minutes. "lone played a tough, sag ging man-to-man defense and they got hot in the fourth quarter," Day said. "It was good to see us stay together after they went ahead." Heppner held an eight point lead going into the final period but lone continued to chip away at the gap and the Mustang's attempt at a four corner offense backfired when McElligott stole the ball for a layin. Two buckets by Stefani knotted the score at 30 and a McCabe jumper put the Cards on top for the first time in the game. A free throw by Holland and a Grieb basket off a feed from Peck put Heppner back in the lead to set the stage for a furious final two minutes. Card coach Del LaRue said his team played a good defensive ballgame but added that they missed too many easy shots in the first half. "Heppner and lone is al ways a pressure game and we're definitely playing better ball than we were earlier in the year," LaRue said THE SECTION B ETTE-TIME THURSDAY, DEC. 22, 1977 HEPPNER, OREGON 8 PAGES Filly press breaks Cards 39-19 Back door BRYAN MARLIN takes the back door route past Dennis Stefani as Dennis Peck moves into position for a rebound. The lead changed hands five times in the Mustangs 37-36 win over the Cards Friday. Spray tops Cards 6 7-5 7 1 i V Spray's Jodie Sutherland poured in 31 points to head his team past lone Saturday despite a 21 point effort by the Cards' Dennis Stefani. The combination of Suther land's 65 per cent shooting display and Spray's 49-31 rebounding edge kept the Cards off balance and out of the win column for the year. Kevin McCabe hit for 14 points and Robin LaRue added 10 in the game. McCabe again led the Cards in rebounding with nine while John Lind strom pulled six. "We're still getting hurt on the boards," said Card coach Del LaRue. "Anybody with any height is giving us trouble." A bright spot for lone was an exceptional performance at the foul line where the Cards sank 16 of 19 free throw attempts. "Free throws haven't been -one of our better points and we've been working pretty hard on changing that," LaRue said. LaRue said the Cards are becoming a more balanced team and added that he is getting good play from his bench. lone took on Condon Tuesday in their game before the Christmas break. lone Jr. High runs past Wheeler and John Murray's 16 points Jeff Hams' 12 points paced the lone Junior High 8th grade boys team to a 40-26 victory over Wheeler Monday. Denny Starr added six points as the Cards took a 23-8 lead in the first half. Earlier in the afternoon, the 7th grade boys dropped a 20-11 decision to Wheeler. Roger Morter was the top Card scorer with nine points. " i.". I. ) ft . v !. I From the corner ALONE IN THE corner, Diane Holland launches a jump shot over lone defender Natalie Tews. The Fillies have beaten the Cards twice this year on their way to a 4-1 season mark. A full court press in the third quarter helped Heppner break open a tight game with lone as the Fillies cruised to a 39-19 win Friday in Heppner. The Fillies held a 16-12 lead at halftime before springing their press on the Cards and the result was a 23-7 second half scoring edge for the hosts. "When Heppner threw the press on us we lost our composure and couldn't score," Card coach Martha Doherty said. Jackie Mollahan led the Filly scorers with 10 points while Julie Grieb added six and Diane Holland, Lori Rea and Maureen Healy each had four. Grace McElligott was the top Card scorer with six points followed by Carol McElligott and Darcy Rea with four each. Healy and Wendy Myers collected 11 and 10 rebounds, respectively, and Susan Thompson, Rea and Grace McElligott handled most of the board work for lone. Doherty noted it was the first game her team had collected fewer fouls than their oppo nents as the Fillies were whistled 23 times to Ione's 18. Coach Sherri Brock said she thought her Filly team turned in a better overall perform ance than in the season opener between the two teams. Fillies notch number 4 Wendy Myers scored 13 points and Maureen Healy totaled 16 rebounds to send the Heppner Fillies past Helix 49-25 Saturday at Helix. It was the Fillies fourth win of the year against a single defeat. Heppner had de stroyed Helix 71-18 earlier in the season and although the victory margin was not as great this time, the game was never in doubt. Healy and Jackie Mollahan added nine points to the winning effort while Diane Holland scored eight and both Lori Rea and Geri Grieb had four. In the rebounding depart ment, Myers contributed se ven, Grieb and Mollahan had six and Holland pulled five. Heppner shot 24 per cent from the floor while con verting 47 per cent of the attempts from the line. The Fillies had doubled their opponents point total by half time as they took a 24-12 lead into the intermission. Filly coach Sherri Brock said the game was a good team performance by all her players as Heppner was able to dominate all facets of the game. The Fillies did not have to resort to their tenacious full court press-which completely frustrated Helix in the first encounter. "We were able to work on some variations and try some new things in the game," Brock said. Thursday the Fillies will have a chance to avenge their lone defeat of the year as Hermiston comes to Heppner for a 7:30 p.m. contest. Hermiston edged Heppner on Dec. 5 by a 44-41 margin. Upsets so far in pre-season CMC race could be topsy -turvy to finish The 1977-78 Columbia Basin Conference basketball season should be a real humdinger. Five of the conference's nine teams have new coaches and it should be a topsy-turvy race to the finish, with district spots not decided until the final buzzer of the final game. Two teams from the west and two teams from the east will collide in the district tournament in late February. The winner gets a state spot. Like always, there are some favorite teams. Sherman County is favored to rule the west and Weston-McEwen md Pilot Rock have been getting all the nods in the east. But none of the teams can be written off. For example, Umatilla and Heppner, two of the biggest losers in the CBC last year, are two of the conference's biggest winners so far in pre-season play. This week the G-T takes a look at three of the CBC teams from the east. Next week a look at some west- side teams. UMATILLA Last year Umatilla finished with a 3-9 conference record and a 6-14 overall mark. This year, under new head coach Kelly Bissinger, the Viks are off to a 4-2 start. It's hard to say who's leading the Viks offensively. Ftandy Body, a 6-1 senior forward, has had 23 and 21 point nights but seniors Jeff Watson (5-11), Guy Journot (13-8) and Jeff Carlson (6-1) and junior John Borchert (i-8) have all had big nights along the way. Rebounding strength lies in Carlson, who hauled down 51 boards in two games at the recent Touchet Holiday Tournament, and Body, who had 28 rebounds in the same two tourney games. Bissinger likes to talk about his team's rebounding strength. He also mentions things like becoming the CBC's best defensive team. Offensively, Bissinger wants a lot of movement. The Viks average 57 points on offense and give up 65 on defense. All, .of Umatilla's games have been close two games have been won by one point except for a 95-42 setback to Columbia-Burbank, Wash. Umatilla has five seniors on its roster Body, Watson, Carlson, Journot and Randy DeCan (6-1) who was coming off a football injury. As for the conference this year, Bissinger said "Both Weston-McEwen and Pilot Rock looked awful tough. "Another thing we have to contend with is that Heppner is coming on." Sherman County is the team to beat in the west, he feels. About Umatilla's chances in the east, Bissinger noted that his squad has been working hard and that a district berth is not entirely out of their grasp. RIVERSIDE Hopes are high at Riverside this season. The Pirates, under third year coach Larry French, want a spot in the district playoffs and later they want to go to state. That's a lot to shoot for, but the Pirates have responded to French. His first team was 6-16 overall and last year the Pirates went 12-8. After three straight wins to open the season, a clog were beaten badly at the Heppner Invitational by Heppner and Condon. The Pirates, however, bounced back in play last week, beating Helix and giving Arlington all it could handle before losing. Riverside is now 4-3. "We have a definite shot as long as we don't have any more injuries and continue to play as well as we played this weekend," said French. The injury French is referring to belongs to senior forward Chris Haberstich (6-3) who is out the rest of the season with a knee injury. He was hurt in the first quarter of the Condon game. Leading scorers so far this season have been Luke Maynard, a 6-3 junior center (13.0); Steve Wilkie, a 5 9 senior guard (8.21) and Steve Daulton, a 5-8 sophomore guard (6.7). Top re bounders have been Maynard and 6-1 leaper Scott Witt, a senior. Dan Gordanier (5-9), a transfer from Springfield, is the other senior on the club. With Haberstich out, French has three seniors, two juniors, four sophomores and two freshmen on the roster. Haberstich was averaging around nine points and 10 rebounds per game before being sidelined. One of the Pirates' sore spots this season has been their shooting. Riverside's shooting percentage from the floor in the last four games was 33, 30, 43 and 28. OREGON TRAIL Turnovers have plagued the 0-6 Blazers so far this season. They committed 35 in an 86-51 loss to Columbia Burbank last Friday night And a turnover in the final minute of play against Touchet was the deciding factor in the Blazers' 55-53 loss to the Indians last Tuesday Coach Tom Wolsborn's troops were 5-7 in CBC play last year and 8-12 overall. Center Rich Snow and guard Don Sutton, the Blazers' top players last year, have graduated. Senior forward Marvin Seifer (6-0), a transfer student, is leading the team in scoring this season with an 11.1 average. Seifer is one of seven seniors on the team. Others are guard John Marcum (5-9), forward Duane Coombes (5-10), guard Charlie Berry (5-10), forward Larry Hunter (6-0), forward Kent Madison (6-3) and guard Lyle Nichols (5-9). Juniors Larry Holeman (6-3), a forward, and Brett Rohde (6-0), a guard, and sophomore guard Todd Rohde (5-7) have played well at times this season for the Blazers. . -Bit
