FEBRUARY 4, 2015
HERMISTONHERALD.COM
A6 WEDNESDAY,
SPORTS
PREP BASKETBALL • SCHEDULE
Echo expecting
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Nixyaawii
BY SAM BARBEE
HERMISTON HERALD
At the beginning of the
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the schedule and circled two
games: a road game Jan. 10
at Nixyaawii and a home test
against those same Golden
Eagles Friday.
The Cougars claimed the
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Brazil said Nixyaawii will be
coming after his team hard in
the second matchup.
“If they win one more
game this year, they want it
to be Friday night,” Brazil
said of the Golden Eagles.
“It’s gonna be intense. Their
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they can still win (the Old
Oregon League) if the right
chips fall, but they can’t do it
if they don’t beat us. If you
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do it without beating them,
but they can’t do it without
beating us.”
Echo is not adjusting its
routine in preparation, how-
ever.
“We’re just treating it
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normal,” Echo leading scor-
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“We won’t come out (and
say), ‘Oh my gosh this is
Nixy.’ We respect them.
They’re a great team, but
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we always do.”
Echo rolls into the game
winners of six of eight
games. The Cougars won
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Country Christian, Tri-Cities
Prep (WA), Dufur and Wal-
lowa. In the loss to Wallowa,
the Cougars’ only league loss
thus far, Echo scored a sea-
son-low 34 points.
As of Tuesday, Echo holds
a two game advantage over
the Golden Eagles, who sit in
fourth place in the OOL with
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Echo has an 8-1 league record
and is edging Wallowa by a
game for the top spot.
Nixyaawii, conversely,
has lost two consecutive one-
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24, Wallowa slipped past
the Golden Eagles 48-47,
and Saturday Powder Valley
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An Echo win Friday
would boost the Cougars’ re-
cord to 9-1 with games against
third-place Powder Valley and
Wallowa remaining.
According to Brazil, Fri-
day night’s tilt against the
Golden Eagles is the first
of three games in a de facto
league championship series.
Echo has to win two of three,
in no certain order, to get a bye
in the district tournament that
starts at the end of this month.
“I feel a little bit nervous,
but it’s nothing we can’t
handle,” Echo senior Bailey
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Elizabeth said, we’re going to
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gle Friday and Saturday for the
teams we’re going to play.”
To win Friday, Echo will
have to hold off Nixyaawii
perimeter threat Charlotte
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is who has the better game:
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“Charlotte, sometimes she’s
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less she’s playing Echo, then
she’s on. We expect no less
out of her. We’re just going
to have to contain her (and)
try to harass the hell out her
and see what happens.”
Echo will use its press to
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the ball up the court and get-
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line, and anything Echo can
do to contain her as no one
has been able to outright
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cantly help the Cougars.
In the half court, Tay-
lor Swaggart will be paired
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in the freshman to handle the
large assignment.
“Taylor has the best de-
fense on the whole team,”
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expect more out of a fresh-
man than Taylor. She’s the
perfect freshman.”
In turn, Echo expects the
Golden Eagles will try to
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Brazil also got good minutes
from his bench, something
he said will have to happen
again Friday.
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rty, they’re probably going
to try and put six girls on her,
some fans and a cheerleader,
and see if they can’t shut her
down and force our other
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shoot in our own gym.”
Ultimately, neither Brazil
nor the players feel any pres-
sure heading into Friday’s
bout with the Golden Eagles.
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ready to play.
That said, the Cougars
expect a battle.
“This is Nixy,” Brazil
said. “There’s a lot of respect.
There’s a lot of blood. It’s an
old story. These games have
been close since they won
state (in 2011). It’s always
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Tip-off for the game is set
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GO SEE IT
Wednesday, February 4
No events scheduled
Thursday, February 5
Wrestling
Hermiston vs. Pendleton, 7 p.m.
Girls Basketball
Umatilla vs. Vale, 3 p.m.
Boys Basketball
Umatilla vs. Vale, 5:30 p.m.
Friday, February 6
Girls Basketball
Hermiston @ The Dalles, 7 p.m.
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Boys Basketball
Hermiston vs. The Dalles, 7 p.m.
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Echo vs. Nixyaawii, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, January 7
Wrestling
Hermiston @ Oregon Episcopal Tournament in Or-
egon City, 9 a.m.
Girls Basketball
Umatilla @ Nyssa, 4 p.m.
Echo @ Powder Valley, 4 p.m.
Boys Basketball
Umatilla @ Nyssa, 5:30 p.m.
Echo @ Powder Valley, 5:30 p.m.
Bulldog run dooms Lady Bucks
Rileigh Andreason
has eight points
in final quarter to
spark run
BY SAM BARBEE
HERMISTON HERALD
Through three quarters in
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had the upper hand.
They were holding off cer-
tain Lady Bulldogs and forc-
ing others to score. They just
weren’t planning on anyone
other than Jansen Edmiston
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They weren’t planning on
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Andreason getting hot in the
fourth quarter.
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straight points early in the
fourth quarter to cut Pendle-
ton’s lead to one and drained
a 3-pointer with 3:39 left to
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a 7-4 run that propelled the
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Court Tuesday night.
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for Steve Hoffert. “It doesn’t
matter how good we are. It
doesn’t matter how good they
are. In the year’s past, when
we had more of a gap, it was
still a good game, this year
more so because they’re a re-
ally good team.”
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game with eight points, all
of which came in the fourth
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shouldered the load, scoring
13 points — seven of which
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Hermiston’s Maddy Juul drives on Pendleton’s Kiana Sperl in the
Bulldogs’ 57-54 win against the Buckaroos on Tuesday in Pendleton
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Sperl led the way for Pendle-
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lene Bodmer chipped in 13.
Neither team shot the ball
well. Hermiston shot just 27
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Pendleton shot slightly bet-
ter at 34 percent. The Lady
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going 0-12, and Hermiston
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from deep. Pendleton led the
way in free-throw shooting at
15-20, and Hermiston went
12-18.
Turnovers made the differ-
ence in the game.
Pendleton coughed up the
ball 21 times to Hermiston’s
15. In one stretch in the third
quarter, while leading 37-
33, Pendleton turned over
three straight possessions
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the Bulldogs converted into
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For Hermiston, the main
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step up to provide unexpected
lifts, it points to the team set-
ting higher goals than merely
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“That’s what we need ev-
eryone in the program to do,”
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seeing the maturation.”
After leading most of the
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ton came out hot in the third
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29 lead. A Bodmer jumper
extended the lead to six at 35-
29, the biggest Pendleton lead
of the night that was matched
one other time in the third pe-
riod.
Tavin Headings then
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seven points in just less than
three minutes to pull Hermis-
ton within one at 39-38.
In the fourth, Hermiston
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throughout. With 3:23 on
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3-pointer — her only deep
ball of the night — to tie
things up at 50. Two minutes
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3-ball to give Hermiston the
lead for good. Darian Lind-
sey’s 3-ball at the buzzer went
begging, and Hermiston held
on to the win.
“(Tuesday night) was the
team we want to see heading
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guez said. “We’re gonna get
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tournament. If we can’t grind
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isn’t pretty, we won’t win
many games in the postsea-
son...This team would’ve
folded earlier in the year in a
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Hermiston heads to The
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Umatilla holds off Vale
forced 12 turnovers in the
game.
“It was a great battle on
our guys’ end, for compet-
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up because they could’ve
easily done that,” Lete said.
Umatilla hosts Vale
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day.
Echo splits in Joseph
BY SAM BARBEE
HERMISTON HERALD
Down four with 30 sec-
onds left, the Umatilla boys
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ing for some momentum
heading into the second
half against the visiting
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obliged in a big way.
The freshman hit a
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and made the free throw to
tie things up at 30 heading
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went on to outscore Vale
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in Eastern Oregon League
play in The Pit Saturday.
Eric Garcia led the
game in scoring with 33
points — including sev-
en three-pointers — but
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Webb’s at the end of the
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“It was a huge momen-
tum swing,” Umatilla head
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Lete said he also ex-
pected Garcia to have a big
game Saturday, although
he didn’t couldn’t point to
why.
“Eric’s our man offen-
sively,” he said. “He was
SAM BARBEE PHOTO
Umatilla’s Eric Garcia (3) sets up Vale defender Andrew Weber
during the second half of Umatilla’s 56-53 win over Vale on
Saturday in The Pit. Garcia would hit a 3-pointer on the play,
one of his seven on the way to 33 points.
one of the guys that was
runner-up for player of
the year in our league (last
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play (from) a scoring stand-
point. It was just one of the
feelings you get as a coach
sometimes. I don’t get them
very often, but I had a feel-
ing he was going to have a
big night, and he did.”
Garcia had a feeling, too.
“In pregame (my shots)
were going in, so I felt
pretty good before the
game,” the senior said.
Garcia went 7-15 from
deep, including two con-
secutive deep balls in the
fourth quarter to send Uma-
tilla from down one to up
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period, and positioned the
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stretch run.
Garcia, though, was
more happy with the win
than with the scoring out-
burst.
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points, and if we won I’d
still be happy,” he said.
Defensively, Umatilla
battled a huge Vale front
line that had at least three
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Umatilla has just two regu-
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2.
Lete said the game plan
was to double down on
Vale’s Levi Noethe and Ty-
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that Umatilla could convert
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JOSEPH 52,
ECHO 48
At Joseph, a slow start
doomed the Echo Cougars,
who fell to the Joseph Ea-
gles 52-48 in overtime.
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held to just 11 points, but
he did grab 12 rebounds.
Carlos Chavez led the
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scoring with 21 points.
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ter on 2-13 shooting, but
Joseph didn’t do much
better, netting just eight
points. The game went to
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and another poor quarter
for Echo, the Cougars were
down by seven before ty-
ing the game at the end of
regulation. Echo shot just
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again in a 7:30 p.m. home
game against Nixyaawii
Friday.
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reigning Class 3A state champion Vale
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with the champs for three quarters be-
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down at Umatilla High School.
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their composure and weathered several
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second half counterpunch that put Uma-
tilla’s upset intentions to bed. “If we
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a team in this state that we’re worried
about it,” Umatilla coach Scott Bow
said.
Due to a previous postponement, the
Umatilla girls will have ample oppor-
tunity to prove they can in the coming
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in Umatilla again Thursday, a third time
on Valentine’s day at Vale, and possibly
again in the EOL district title game the
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The step up in competition comes at
a perfect time for Umatilla. Winners of
seven consecutive entering Saturday,
Umatilla had begun to “coast” against
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thing a team with playoff aspirations
can little afford.
“If we do a get playoff berth, seeing
Vale this many times in a row is only
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GIRLS BASKETBALL
ECHO 66,
JOSEPH 45
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Carty’s scored 23 points and pulled
down 13 rebounds as the Cougars
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a rough night from the floor. The
senior was just 8 of 22 from the
field, but made 9 of 13 from the
charity stripe. Echo won despite
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urday night. The Cougars forced
33 turnovers, however, turning
them into 19 points at the other
end.