S PORTS
Hermiston
A9
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13, 2016
HERMISTONHERALD.COM
Hermiston rallies to down No. 4 Summit
Bulldogs use 12-3
fourth-quarter
run to comeplete
game-long comeback
By SAM BARBEE
Staff Writer
After trailing most of the
game, the Hermiston boys bas-
ketball team rallied in the second
half to down the No. 4 Summit
Storm 56-53 Saturday in Hermis-
ton to give the Storm just its sec-
ond loss of the season.
Before taking a 41-39 lead
with 49 seconds left in the third
quarter, the Bulldogs’ (8-6) last
lead was 5-4 in the ¿rst quarter.
For interim head coach Dave
Ego, the comeback was an indi-
cation of the improved “attitude
and work ethic” displayed by his
group, which started last season
2-12.
“It says our attitude’s getting
better,” he said. “Not hanging
your head, and doing the things
that we need to do. They kept
working hard and it was a good
effort down the line.”
Early on, Summit’s size gave
Hermiston some problems. Play-
ing without Tre Neal, Summit’s
tall front line affected numerous
Hermiston shots at the rim, but led
just 16-14 after the ¿rst quarter.
Hermiston started a small lineup
² ¿ve guards ² and wanted to
run the Storm into oblivion.
It wasn’t quite working,
though, and Summit’s Jack Hur-
ley hit a 3-pointer with 4:01 on
the clock in the second quarter to
take its largest lead of the game of
eight points at 24-16.
But, as happened all afternoon,
Hermiston rallied to cut the half-
time de¿cit to just three at 30-2
behind the aggressive fast-break-
ing offense Ego employs, and a
strong effort by 6-foot-5 senior
Preston Peterson off the bench.
“Going small like we did, we
knew we could out-run ‘em,” Ego
said. “That worked out for us. Pe-
terson came in and played well
and ran the Àoor well for us de-
fensively, and that was necessary
for us. It was a good team effort.”
Summit tried to extend its lead
in the third quarter, leading by as
many as ¿ve after &am Baker’s
putback with 2:51 left to move
the count to 39-34, but a -0 Bull-
dogs run gave them its ¿rst lead
since the ¿rst quarter, and the
fourth quarter began with things
tied up at 41.
Then Hermiston’s offense
came alive with help from its de-
fense.
“We did a good job of closing
out and contesting,” Ego said of
his team’s defense against a Sum-
mit squad that likes to, and can,
shoot 3s, holding the Storm to
just four. “We did a pretty good
job of getting the post people in-
side. That’s another weakness for
See RALLY, A10
STAFF PHOTO BY SAM BARBEE
Hermiston guard Chance
Flores (1) rises for a layup over
Summit’s Nick Mason during the
Bulldogs’ 56-53 win Saturday in
Hermiston.
Road tested:
Hermiston
grapplers Dawgs rack up miles in December
Preseason travel
win Gut helps Hermiston
girls appreciate
Check
Dawghouse
Challenge
By ERIC SINGER
Colbray, Coleman
take home
individual titles
By SAM BARBEE
Staff Writer
The Hermiston wres-
tling team continued
its recent success this
weekend, winning the
Gut &heck &hallenge at
the .itsap &ounty Fair-
grounds in Bremerton,
Washington, just across
the Puget Sound from Se-
attle.
Hermiston complet-
ed the tournament with
two individual wins and
163 points, besting the
other 24 scholastic team
present. The only team
to score more — Japan’s
Junior National Team —
scored 228 points, but
was not awarded the Gut
&heck championship as it
was an all-star team. Or-
ting (WA) ¿nished third
with 14 points and <elm
(WA) was a distant fourth
with 126 points.
Sam &olbray topped
&larkston’s (WA) Dylan
Beeler in a close 2-1
match for the 220-pound
championship, and Bob
&oleman beat Taisei 0a-
tayuki of Japan for the
195-pound title 4-2.
9alen Wyse ¿nished
third at 152 pounds with
a 2-1 win over Henley’s
Daine Taylor, and Andy
Wagner beat &hris Joner
of Battleground (WA) by
fall in the third round in
the third-place match at
132 pounds..
Overall
Hermiston
went 23-20, with 11 of
those wins coming in
matches ending in deci-
sions and 12 wins coming
in matches ending in falls.
Staff Writer
When any basketball
coach or athletic direc-
tor puts together a season
schedule, they typically like
to keep things balanced.
Plenty of home games, but
still enough road games to
test the team.
However,
Hermiston
girls basketball coach Steve
Hoffert wanted to give this
year’s team a challenge
— a tougher, unbalanced
schedule that he believes
will help the Bulldogs in
the long run.
Hermiston has complet-
ed 14 games in the 2015-
16 season so far, and only
four of those games have
been played in Hermiston.
In 10 away games played
in the month of December
the Bulldogs have traveled
more than 2,800 combined
miles by bus and plane,
traveling to destinations
such as Lake Oswego and
Phoenix, Arizona for a pair
of intense preseason tour-
naments.
The tournaments came
almost back-to-back with
each other, with the Bull-
dogs playing in Arizona
from Dec. 18 until Dec.
22 and then in the Port-
land suburbs from Dec. 2
through Dec. 30 — with
just enough time in between
to spend a few days at home
for the holidays.
“We’re road tested now,”
Hoffert said last month,
“which I think can only
help us come playoff time.”
So when the Bulldogs ¿-
nally took the court again at
The Dawghouse on Jan. 2
— a long 21 days after their
previous home game — the
players were relieved and
even had a new perspective
on the feeling of playing
home games.
“It’s de¿nitely more re-
warding now,” said Herm-
iston senior Jansen Edmis-
STAFF PHOTO BY SAM BARBEE
The Hermiston girls basketball team spent most of the holiday season abroad, playing games
in Arizona and Lake Oswego before returning Tuesday for a home game against La Grande,
its Àrst in nearly a month.
“It reminded me of playing AAU
(basketball), but bigger. With staying
in hotels, playing a lot of games with
a lot of teams. It was cool.”
— Jansen Edmiston
Hermiston Senior
ton. “We didn’t appreciate
(playing at home) as much
before, it was just a game,
and now we do. It brought a
calming effect.”
In that ¿rst game back
at home, the Bulldogs gave
their fans plenty of satisfac-
tion on the court, defeating
.ennewick (WA) 1-38.
Just three days later, Herm-
iston took the Àoor again
at home and again took the
win, defeating La Grande
56-42 to improve their
overall record to 11-3.
And although the team
was happy to get back
home, the road trip is an
experience the Bulldogs’
players will remember for a
while, and it started all the
way back in the spring of
2014.
Hoffert, the eighth-year
Bulldogs coach, had been
trying for several years to
challenge and reward his
team with a trip to an out-
of-state preseason tourna-
ment. But for the last three
years his team had sat on
a waiting list, one that is
judged partially off previ-
ous year successes.
Twice Hoffert anticipat-
ed an invitation, and twice
he was left disappointed.
However after the Bull-
dogs made their run to the
state championship game
last spring, Hoffert ¿nally
received the coveted invi-
tation — a trip to the Nike
Tournament of &hampions
in Phoenix — which was an
offer he quickly accepted.
“I didn’t want to trav-
el with a team that I knew
wouldn’t compete, but this
(team) would do really
well,” he said.
When Hoffert broke the
news to the girls in April
of last year, he said they
thought he was joking.
“I had been talking
about it for three years so
they didn’t want to get too
excited,” he said.
But after he showed
them the of¿cial invitation,
the girls’ excitement shot
through the roof, especially
for Edmiston and her senior
teammates.
“I was super excited,”
she said. “It’s my senior
year and getting to travel,
have a vacation and play
basketball was pretty cool.”
The tournament was a
unique experience for the
Bulldogs. It featured 90 to-
tal teams originating from
18 different states split into
six brackets for competi-
tion.
Hermiston competed in
a bracket with schools from
&alifornia, Arizona, and
&olorado and won three
out of the four games they
played for a ninth place ¿n-
ish.
“It reminded me of play-
ing AAU (basketball), but
bigger,” Edmiston said.
“With staying in hotels,
playing a lot of games with
a lot of teams. It was cool.”
The tournament also
brought in more than 80
registered college basket-
ball coaches, ranging from
the NAIA level up to pres-
tigious N&AA Division I
schools such as Stanford,
0ichigan State, and 0ary-
land — presenting a great
opportunity for players to
possibly get noticed for the
next level.
Hoffert said the tourna-
ment helped teach the team
about where their skills
stand right now as it got
a taste of different styles
and paces of play, some-
thing that Edmiston and her
teammates enjoyed a lot.
“We got to see a lot
of different defenses and
things like that,” she said.
“The teams were quicker
than a lot of the ones we
face and it helps us get in
better shape.”
But aside from the on-
court play, the Bulldogs
also got to do some team
bonding in Arizona. Hof-
fert took them to a Phoe-
nix Suns NBA game and
an Arizona State women’s
basketball game, as well as
a few shopping trips to the
local malls.
The girls also did some
things by themselves in
their free time, often gath-
ering to watch a movie,
more shopping trips, or
goo¿ng around at the resort
golf course.
0ore than 20 Bulldog
family members traveled to
both tournaments as well,
making the experience that
much better.
“It was way more relax-
ing,” said Edmiston.
The lone drawback of the
tournament was its proxim-
ity to &hristmas, where the
lacking holiday atmosphere
and warm desert weather
was a little different than
the colder climate of Ore-
gon the players were used
to.
“It didn’t feel like
&hristmas there,” Edmiston
said. “With no &hristmas
lights on houses and warm
weather … it felt odd.”
Hermiston
returned
home from Arizona just a
few days before &hristmas,
and then hit the road again
as quick as they got in for
the three-hour drive west to
See DAWGS, A10
Riverside leaves Echo 3-way dual 2-0
Echo/Stanfield, tops
Irrigon
By SAM BARBEE
Staff Writer
Dual wrestling meets are
rare for small school pro-
grams, as size differences
and travel make them more
dif¿cult to pull off than, say,
Hermiston’s program which
is used to the team-based
events.
Even so, Irrigon, River-
side and EchoStan¿eld got
together for a 3-way dual
Thursday night that saw the
Pirates go 2-0, and the &ou-
gars 1-1, and the Knights 0-2.
Riverside used its expe-
rience to beat Irrigon 36-21
and EchoStan¿eld 33-12,
and Echo beat Irrigon after
the meet ended in a 30-30
draw. The &ougars, though,
won on the tiebreaker be-
cause they scored 24 points
in head-to-head matches
while the Knights scored
just 12. The rest of the points
came from forfeits.
In the ¿rst dual of the day
— Riverside vs. Irrigon —
the ¿rst match wrestled was
Irrigon’s Damon Sawyer
against Riverside’s Ulises
&alvillo with the Pirates up
18-6 on forfeits. Already up
11-2, the Pirate 145-pounder
pinned Sawyer with a minute
STAFF PHOTO BY SAM BARBEE
Echo’s Damien Curiel (top) looks to control the back of
5iverside’s 8lises Calvillo during a 3-way dual at StanÀeld
High School Thursday night. Calvillo beat Curiel 13-7.
left in the ¿nal period, setting
the tone for the rest of the
dual.
Pirate 152-pounder Ivan
Escobedo followed &alvil-
lo’s pin with one of his own,
this one coming in the ¿rst
period over Alex Walls. Irri-
gon came back with a win,
though, when Jeff Patton
slipped past Jason Navarro
5-4 to move the count to 30-
12. Irrigon then won a forfeit,
coming within 12 at 30-18.
To close out the meet,
Riverside just needed to not
lose by pin and they had it,
and that’s how it worked out.
&hristian 0ichaels of Irrigon
topped Zach Ferguson of
Riverside to move the team
scores to 30-21, then, after
a double forfeit, Riverside’s
Anthony Kernal stuck Tuck-
er 0cAllister to end the day
at 36-21.
Riverside then got the
upstart EchoStan¿eld club,
which is vastly improved
from last season. Kyle Rang-
er lost a close match -5 to
Pirate Gabriel Romero with
several hand-locking penal-
ties going against the Echo
sophomore. Down 5-0 after
one round, Ranger tied it at
¿ve in the third round, but
two hand-locking penalties
gave Romero two points and
the win.
“Kyle Ranger’s come
a long way,” Raymon
Smith said. “To lose it on
a hand-locking is a mental
See DUAL, A10