SPORTS
SATURDAY, JANUARY 24, 2015
HERMISTONHERALD.COM
A9
PREP BASKETBALL • SCHEDULE
Special kind Hermiston girls survive The Dalles
of athlete
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BY SAM BARBEE
HERMISTON HERALD
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was most excited
about this season
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Colbray wrestle this
week.
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that kind of record
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around everywhere.
They are few and far in
between.
As the winter season
approached, random
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tell me about Colbray.
“Oh, you’re a sports
reporter here?” they’d
ask. “You need to watch
Sam Colbray wrestle.”
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opportunity.
Colbray won 3-2
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The Dalles Thursday.
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third at 220 pounds and
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been 5-0 or 8-0, but
Colbray was sick and in
survival mode.
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to see this two-time
national champion man-
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flashy match. There
really wasn’t much
action, actually.
Periodically, Colbray
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stonewalled. Then
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shoot, and Colbray
would dance around
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Colbray kept steady
in the middle of the
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takedown in the first
round, and it seemed
like it would be a
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wouldn’t be pinned
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Riverhawks coach
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takedown, basically
at the whistle, and the
match ended 3-2.
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anticipatory than
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truth. The spectators
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baited breath as they
SAM BARBEE
FROM THE SIDELINES
Sports reporter
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to happen. When
Colbray would shoot
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you could feel the
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anticipation or anxiety.
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ever seen someone so
confident about what
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win. He just does.
There’s no intimidation,
no anxiety, no worry,
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knows exactly what he’s
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exactly what he wants
to do. His maturity
on the mat is truly
spectacular. He doesn’t
panic, doesn’t over-
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wrestles.
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a special perspective
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panicker, and it affected
the accuracy of my
passes and soundness
of my decision-
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that is comfortable in
his own skin, to know
he’s put in the work and
trusts himself — that’s
special. What he’s done
on the mat is special,
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technique and all that.
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with him. What will
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is his ability to prepare
and his ability to trust
that preparation in key
moments.
That’s what will take
him far.
— Sam Barbee is the
sports reporter for the
Hermiston Herald. He
can be reached at sbar-
bee@hermistonherald.
com
GO SEE IT
Saturday, January 24
Wrestling
Hermiston @ Reser’s Tournament of Champions @
Liberty, 9 a.m.
Swimming
Hermiston @ Hood River, 11 a.m.
Girls Basketball
Umatilla vs. Nyssa, 4 p.m.
Echo @ Helix, 4 p.m.
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Boys Basketball
Umatilla vs Nyssa, 5 p.m.
Echo @ Helix, 5:30 p.m.
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Sunday, January 25
No events scheduled
Monday, January 26
No events scheduled
Tuesday, January 27
Girls Basketball
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Boys Basketball
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Wednesday, January 28
Wrestling
Hermiston @ Hood River, 6 p.m.
After three quarters
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The Dalles in the Daw-
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its back as the No. 1 team
in the state.
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took a five-point lead
after three quarters and
turned it into a 51-16 win
over The Dalles.
Head coach Steve Hof-
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every week to describe
the situation his team
is in. This week’s was:
“Success leads to compla-
cency, and complacency
leads to failure.”
“We knew that if we
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Abi Drotzmann said after
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that, and so we tried to
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wouldn’t happen.”
Drotzmann and Tav-
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and Katie Conklin had
11 points for the River-
hawks.
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said. “The Dalles is al-
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out and played like we
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the No. 1 team in the
state.”
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did come out like the top-
ranked team in the state
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Sara Ramirez hit a 3, and
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a layup and a free throw.
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led 6-0 at that point, and
led 12-2 with two minutes
left in the first and even-
SAM BARBEE PHOTO
Hermiston’s Jansen Edmis-
ton (20) drives around The
Dalles’ Kailin Hoylman during
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ton’s 51-36 win over the
Riverhawks Friday night in
Hermiston.
SAM BARBEE PHOTO
The Dalles’ Lori Cimmiyotti (14) drives baseline and passes
as Hermiston’s Jansen Edmiston, right, tries to block and
teammate Abi Drotzmann helps during the second half of
Hermiston’s 51-36 win over the Riverhawks Friday night in
Hermiston.
tually took a 16-5 lead
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quarter.
This was when The
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ed to chip away. At one
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led 21-6, but Lori Cimmi-
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hit a pair of free throws
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a layup to cut the deficit
to 21-12 with about four
minutes left.
Hermiston scored the
next five, on a jumper by
Kynzee Padilla and an-
other 3 by Ramirez, but
The Dalles would score
the next four on baskets
by Cimmiyotti and Conk-
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er room down 26-16 but
with momentum.
The Dalles continued
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deficit to four on a Kailin
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the clock that forced Hof-
fert to call a timeout.
“We knew we weren’t
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mann said. “We knew we
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this.”
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3 after a Conklin basket
to put Hermiston up five.
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but couldn’t hit the free
throw, and McCall hit a
3 with 10 seconds left to
cut the deficit to five at
36-31. At that point, The
Dalles outscored Herm-
iston 25-5 since it was
down 21-6 with 6:12 on
the clock in the second
quarter.
Hoffert said he wasn’t
concerned with the small
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fidence his team would
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weren’t supposed to,” but
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dribble-drive offense and
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said. “Sometimes it just
takes a couple knockout
attempts to wake us up.”
Hermiston have a few
knockout attempts of
their own in the fourth,
and most of them landed.
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the fourth, Edmiston hit a
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39-31, and they wouldn’t
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lowed that up with a
layup off one of 15 Riv-
erhawk turnovers, and the
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Dalles 15-5 in the final
period.
The last time Hermis-
ton lost in the Columbia
River Conference was in
2012-13 when The Dalles
pulled it off. Drotzmann
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that.
“We don’t plan on los-
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said. “We know that ev-
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us because we’re No. 1 in
the state, and everyone’s
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BY SAM BARBEE
HERMISTON HERALD
From the outside, the
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team’s matchup today
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at 5:30 p.m. today, pits the
top-ranked, one-loss and
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second-ranked, two-loss,
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son came to undefeated 3A
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school power Tri-Cities
Prep and 1A powerhouse
Horizon Christian out of
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1, 3-0) hasn’t lost in three
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a buzzer-beater win over
Pendleton.
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you can prepare yourself
for postseason,” senior
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said this weeks.
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hold the top spot in the Co-
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“When they’re at home,
they’re a completely dif-
ferent animal,” head coach
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at home, that’s your op-
portunity to take care of it
because, there, it’s just a
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From the outside, the
story lines abound, and
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possible state title preview
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championship series.
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that is simply noise.
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for different results from
last year, however, when
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their six-point fourth-quar-
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undefeated before that tilt.
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later that season and topped
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Conference playoffs.
Added to that already in-
herent motivation is a small
history lesson.
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current Hermiston coach
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Conference play. The next
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SEE SHOWDOWN/A10
Best of the West tournament begins today
BY SAM BARBEE
HERMISTON HERALD
Today, thousands of people will
descend on Hermiston for the 12th an-
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tournament at Hermiston schools.
The two-day tournament features
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Hermiston is,” Mike Kay, Hermiston
School District director of operations
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teer, said.
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local schools, with the championship
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player introductions, like the school
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Kay say it’s an experience the play-
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said.
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or La Grande or even Pendleton to
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el costs add up over time for parents.
Kay said the tournament also
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the modern facilities it boasts at its
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key.
“We have the facilities to do it,
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to do it so we can accommodate so
many teams without a hitch,” he said.
“A lot of communities don’t have the
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We’re able to provide facilities to ev-
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“People are impressed when they
come to Hermiston and see the facil-
ities we have,” Moss added. “Plus,
Hermiston is a nice place to come
and visit. So that also lures teams in.”
As well, Hermiston businesses
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and restaurants.
Kay and Moss said the commu-
nity also embraces these events and
works hard to make others’ experi-
ences in Hermiston memorable for
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“The entire tourney is run by vol-
unteers and our youth basketball pro-
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tively involved for nine years, and
it’s been a lot of work to make it a
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win-win for everybody.”
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ketballClub.com.