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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 2016 HERMISTONHERALD.COM • B1 Herald Sports Follow sports on Twitter @HHeraldSports HERMISTON HOPES EXTRA TIME LEADS TO NEW TITLE By SAM BARBEE Staff Writer It’s a very natural thing to go home when practice ends. As a player, you’ve already gotten in a good workout, you’ve learned about the next team you’ll play and have prepared for them. Af- ter the two hours are up, it’s time to go home, eat, shower and do homework. That hasn’t necessarily been the case for the No. 5 Hermiston girls basketball team (23-5), who have been putting in extra work after practice to prepare for the state tournament which starts Wednesday at Gill Coliseum in Corvallis. The Bulldogs take on the No. 4 Corvallis Spartans (20- 5) at 3:15 p.m. on Wednesday. “We’re just excited. We’ve been putting forth a lot of effort and work and we’re excited with the results that we got last year,” sophomore Rileigh Andreason said. “So we’re ready to be back and prove everybody wrong.” That extra work is a function of coming up short in recent years. Three years ago, the Bull- dogs turned in their program’s EHVW¿QLVKZLWKDWKLUGSODFHWUR- phy, with a loss to Corvallis on the way. Last year, the Bulldogs did themselves one better with a UXQQHUXS¿QLVKDQGZLQRYHUWKH Spartans. This is the last go-around for four-year varsity players Jansen Edmiston and Sara Ramirez. They were present for the third- SODFH ¿QLVK WZR \HDUV DJR DQG last year’s tantalizingly close loss to La Salle Prep. With their experience in hand, they hope their senior season can be the most memorable. “I’m more determined, more focused than excited,” Edmis- ton said. “It’s my last year. It’s our last year. Mine and Sara’s and Kiana’s ... We don’t plan on losing a game. But if we do, we won’t give up.” “It’s shocking to think about (that’s it’s the last one) because it’s kinda sad,” Ramirez added. “But I don’t feel any pressure. It’s just like any of the other three years. We’re gonna go and play as hard as we can and come up with what we can.” The Bulldogs enter as the ¿IWK VHHG QRW EHFDXVH RI D SRRU record, but because of how the OSAA ranks its teams. An important calculation in the OSAA’s equation is the Col- ley Ranking, which depends on STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS Hermiston’s Jansen Edmiston shoots the ball guarded by Liberty’s Andrea Gallegos in the Bulldogs’ 71-48 win against the Falcons on Friday in Hermiston. STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS Hermiston’s Hayden Meyers shoots the ball followed by Liberty’s Alyssa Grenfell in the Bulldogs’ 71-48 win against the Falcons on Friday in Hermiston. playing teams within your divi- sion. Because Hermiston played a number of games in Arizona, and therefore didn’t play any 5A Oregon schools — plus playing in the elite division in Lake Os- wego against some 6A teams — Hermiston doesn’t have the Col- ley Ranking other schools do. So they’re ranked lower. Hermiston doesn’t take it as a sign of disrespect. They under- stand it’s math and doesn’t mean much outside of who plays who. They do recognize, though, that it takes a bit of pressure off them, internally and externally. “That’s a little motivation for us, because we feel like we’re a KLJKHUUDQNHGWHDPWKDQ¿YHE\ the coaches,” Hoffert said. “We still have to go out and prove LW 7KH SUHVVXUH RI EHLQJ ¿UVW or second is not there. The talk from the girls hasn’t been like it’s been in the past because we’re not ranked one or two. We’re not expected to be in the ¿QDOV %XW ZH DUH H[SHFWLQJ WR EH LQ WKH ¿QDOV DQG ZH¶UH KRS- ing to use that to our advantage.” Now the Bulldogs once again see the Spartans in their home city. There is certainly familiar- ity between these squads, but it’ll be a tad different this year. Corvallis is generally similar to Hermiston: not exactly small, but not exactly tall, either, with good guard play and lots of ath- leticism. This year, however, Corvallis brings some size to the equation, which Hermiston is lacking. Though if Hermiston has its way, it won’t be a detri- ment. “They’re big, they try to run, believe it or not, they try to push See TITLE, B3 Tradition never graduates for Hermiston girls basketball Y ou might see the phrase DERXW(GPLVWRQDQGKRZGLI¿FXOW around a Hermiston it was to become the starting girls basketball game. point guard as a freshman and I’ve seen it on T-shirts, mostly, everything that went into that. By sported by the girls, coaches all accounts, she handled it really and their families, but you can well, and has worked her way to catch it on a banner from time being one of the best guards in the to time. “Tradition never state. graduates.” Ramirez is quiet, but she It’s catchy, and I liked it plays loud. At practice, she IURPWKH¿UVWWLPH,VDZLW shoots. When the team’s It’s simple; just three words. doing a drill and she’s on But it also looks back and the sideline, she shoots. forward simultaneously, When practice is over, she which means it’s shoots. In games, when Sam exceedingly well-crafted. open, you guessed it. She Barbee And so, with the 5A girls FROM THE shoots. And boy is she good state basketball tournament SIDELINES at it. starting today, that phrase These two have given a could mean more than in years stability over the four years that past. If Hermiston wins, then is invaluable. Head coach Steve it would take on a whole new Hoffert didn’t have to worry about meaning. who would distribute and who Hermiston has boasted some would score. Those two already pretty good players recently. existed and would for four years. Maloree Moss started all 33 It was just who would go around games for Eastern Oregon this them. season as a senior. But Jansen If this isn’t the best roster Edmiston and Sara Ramirez have Ramirez and Edmiston have been been bedrocks for this program. on, than it’s very close. Edmiston is a four-year starter Yeah, the ranking isn’t at point guard. Just that fact in what it was last year, but the LWVHOILVLPSUHVVLYH7KH¿UVW Bulldogs closed out their league basketball story I wrote here was schedule convincingly — with WKHH[FHSWLRQRIWKH¿QDOKRPH game against Pendleton — and I’ve been impressed with them all year. Led by the seniors — including Kiana Heehn, can’t forget her — this Hermiston team can run the table in Corvallis. 7KH\JHW&RUYDOOLVLQWKH¿UVW URXQGDQGDUHFRQ¿GHQWWKH\FDQ advance. I don’t sense any over- FRQ¿GHQFHDQ\ORRNLQJWRWKH next-round. ,MXVWVHQVHDFRQ¿GHQW basketball team that knows it’s good, but also knows it has to go play. This is why Hoffert took the team to Arizona to play really good teams. It’s for this week. Hermiston did well there. They’ll do well here. I’m not saying they’ll bring KRPH WKH EOXH WURSK\ WKH ¿UVW for the program. I’m saying they have a good chance. A really good chance. — Sam Barbee is a sports re- porter for the Hermiston Herald and East Oregonian based out of Hermiston. He can be reached by email at sbarbee@hermistonher- ald.com or on Twitter @SamBar- bee1. Follow Herald Sports @ HHeraldSports. %XOOGRJVÀRRU Falcons on KRPHFRXUW Big third quarter propels Hermiston into state quarterfinals By MATT ENTRUP Staff Writer Going into halftime, the Liberty Falcons had to be feel- ing good about their chances of making a run at the Hermis- ton Bulldogs during the second phase of action in Friday’s 5A girls basketball state playoff game. By the time Hermiston junior Hayden Meyers sank a jump- er in the lane to close the third quarter, the only hope the Fal- cons had left was keeping the score respectable. But even that, apparently, would be wishful thinking. When the Bulldogs were do- ing their thing there was nothing the Falcons could do to slow them down, and Hermiston turned a dominant second half into a 71-48 rout for a return to Corvallis and the state bracket’s ¿QDOVLWH “It’s so exciting for all of us,” said junior Kynzee Padilla. “Our seniors deserve it so much, and our whole team deserves it be- cause we work so hard.” The Bulldogs (22-3) were in control the entire way, but a lapse in the second quarter allowed the Falcons (13-12) to cut a nine-point lead to one when Kenzie Pimentel sank a three-pointer to make it a 24-23 ballgame with 3:39 left in the frame. “We talked all week about the certain things we have to do,” said Hermiston coach Steve Hoffert. “In the second quar- ter we didn’t do those certain things. We did the things that al- lows Liberty to keep themselves in the basketball game.” Hermiston put its foot down there, though, and following a Liberty timeout went on a 10-2 run to regain their buffer before halftime. Bulldogs junior Rileigh $QGUHDVRQ VFRUHG ¿YH RI KHU team-high 15 points during the three-minute stretch, and Herm- iston took a 34-25 lead into the locker room. “We just needed to step up our defense,” she said. “We had a lot of open looks and people on the boards the whole time.” STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS Hermiston’s Sara Ramirez shoots the ball in front of Liberty’s Cami Smotherman in the Bulldogs’ 71-48 win against the Falcons on Friday in Hermiston. The second half couldn’t have started much worse for the Falcons, or much better for the Bulldogs. Hermiston senior Sara Ramirez stole a lazy inbound pass to open the third quar- ter, and when her three-pointer bounced out Andreason was there for the putback. Hermis- ton went on a 6-1 run over the ¿UVWWKUHHPLQXWHVWKDWSURPSWHG two Liberty timeouts, which did nothing more than delay the in- evitable. With Hermiston shredding the Liberty press and dominat- ing the offensive glass the lead quickly ballooned, and Meyers’ basket with four seconds left in the third made it 54-32. “We cracked down on no turnovers and smarter shots in the second half,” said senior -DQVHQ (GPLVWRQ ZKR ¿QLVKHG with 13 points and a team-high nine rebounds. “We’d been practicing for a couple days how to break (the press). We’d seen ¿OPRQWKHPZHZDWFKHGWKHP play Pendleton who they played in their play-in game, so we just studied them for a couple days and knew how to do it.” Hoffert said the third quarter, during which the Bulldogs out- scored Liberty 20-7, went even better than he could have hoped. “It was the game plan, two times better than we did it in practice,” he said. “We exe- cuted everything defensively, offensively, and it just sort of clicked.” See BULLDOGS, B3
