A8 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2017
Herald Sports
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Bulldogs win
Oregon Classic
Hermiston Herald
STAFF PHOTO BY KATHY ANEY
Andrew James, of Hermiston, goes up for a shot during Saturday’s game against La Grande.
Bulldogs fend off undefeated Tigers
Hermiston finishes preseason
slate with tough win
By ERIC SINGER
Hermiston Herald
HERMISTON — The Hermis-
ton Bulldogs boys basketball team
knew they were in for a battle on
Saturday night.
They welcomed the La Grande
Tigers into the Dawg House, the
No. 3 ranked team in Class 4A
for its non-league finale and it
turned out to be just as advertised.
The teams swapped momentum
throughout the game which stayed
tight until the end, when Hermiston
was able to pull out the 62-54 win.
“Both teams played hard but
we got stops when we needed to
and we executed well when it was
tight,” Hermiston coach Casey Ar-
stein said. “La Grande’s a great
team and there’s a reason they were
unbeaten coming in here, they’ll
dominate their league and I’m pret-
ty sure they’ll get down to the 4A
state tournament, but this is what
we need. We want these types of
hard games and hopefully that gets
us ready for league.”
Hermiston (10-3) benefited from
another strong performance by se-
nior Xavier Rambo, who netted
a game-high 23 points including
eight points in the fourth quarter to
help the Bulldogs seal the victory.
Rambo’s quickness on the court and
the ability to evade defenders and
drive to the basket consistently has
become a real weapon for Hermis-
ton.
“It’s nice having an athlete like
him,” Arstein said, “though he defi-
See BULLDOGS, A9
REDMOND — The
Hermiston
Bulldogs
won the first major state
wrestling title of the sea-
son over the weekend
at the Oregon Classic,
book-ending its tour with
wins over Mountain View
for the 5A championship.
The Bulldogs’ perfect
run through the bracket at
Deschutes County Fair-
ground came with four
spotless individual per-
formances. Seniors C.J.
Hendon (152 pounds) and
Valen Wyse (160) both
were 7-0, as was junior
Kenny Bevan (220), and
junior Adrian Tuia (138)
went 6-0.
Pendleton
placed
eighth for 5A teams while
Mac-Hi (4A), Riverside
and Irrigon (3A) and Hep-
pner/Ione (2A) also com-
peted.
Hermiston (11-7) beat
Mountain View 43-22 in
the championship dual
after having opened the
pool round by beating the
Cougars 48-18.
In the finals, Mountain
View was still in it late
when Luke Schulz edged
Joey Gutierrez 9-6 in the
182-pound bout to trim
Hermiston’s lead to 28-
22.
The Bulldogs would
take the final three match-
es, though, and erased
any doubt of the outcome
with back-to-back pins
by John-Henry Line and
Bevan at 195 and 220,
then a 3-1 win by Beau
Blake at 285.
The loss was Gutier-
rez’s only of the tourna-
ment as both he and Blake
went 6-1, as did Julio Lei-
va (170). Line was 5-1,
and Wade Kirkpatrick
(145) and Ruben Madri-
gal each went 5-2. Gage
Shipley (113) and Jesus
Rodriguez (126) were
both 4-3, and Sean Stew-
art (195) went 1-0.
Hermiston beat Bend
65-6 in the quarterfinals,
and then had its toughest
dual of the tournament
with a 35-33 win over
Dallas in the semifinals.
That match saw the
Bulldogs trailing 33-23
with only two matches to
wrestle when Treve Ear-
hart beat Line 7-1 at 195.
Bevan gave the Bull-
dogs six points with a
pin over Bryce Jordan in
1:44 in the next match,
then Blake secured the
win with six more when
he pinned Ashten Brecht
3:28 into their 285-pound
match.
Also earning wins over
Dallas wrestlers were
Tuia with a 23-8 technical
fall, Hendon with a 10-4
decision, Wyse with a pin
(3:27), and Gutierrez with
a 11-7 decision.
Hermiston’s other wins
in the pool round were 40-
36 over Sweet Home, 67-
10 over McMinnville and
71-10 over Phoenix.
RIVERSIDE — The
Pirates won their first two
duals but then lost their
last three to tie for eighth
place.
Riverside’s wins were
over Burns, 55-24, and
Glide, 40-34. Its losses
were to North Marion, 51-
27, Creswell, 44-33, and
Dayton, 54-27.
Aristotle Rockwell led
the Pirates going 5-0 at
132 and 138 pounds, and
Jacob Harris went 1-0
at 132. Going 3-2 were
Abraham Silva (113), An-
drew Barker (120), Ivan
Escobedo (160) and Ru-
ben Villa (285).
IRRIGON — The
Knights went 0-5 with
losses to Crater JV, 42-36,
Willamina, 60-18, Mac-
Hi, 45-35, Harrisburg, 51-
24, and Glide 66-9.
Jose Romero led Ir-
rigon going 4-1 at 138
pounds, Fabian Miran-
da-Wells (152) was 3-2,
and Tucker McAllister
(220, 195) and Luke Mey-
ers (285) were each 3-3.
HEPPNER — The
Mustangs placed sixth at
the 2A/1A level with their
only win coming 36-12
over Elgin.
Heppner lost to Low-
ell, 72-12, Redmond JV,
36-33,
Neah-Kah-Nie,
48-27, Myrtle Point, 42-
36, and Monroe, 27-21.
Senior Cord Flynn
(195, 220) went 5-1 to
lead the team, and Ja-
cob Wallace (170, 160)
matched him in wins go-
ing 5-2. Leo Waite (126,
132) was 4-2 and Charles
Cason (145, 152) was
3-2.
Lady Dawgs take hot streak into league play
By ERIC SINGER
Hermiston Herald
HERMISTON — Herm-
iston coach Juan Rodriguez
had two reasons to smile on
Saturday night.
The first reason being
that his Bulldogs team was
actually able to get on the
floor after two games last
week were called off due to
inclement weather. The sec-
ond reason was that his Bull-
dogs team pulled out a 61-51
win over West Valley out of
Yakima, Wash., in its final
non-league tuneup before
Columbia River Conference
play starts up this weekend.
The victory marked
Hermiston’s fourth straight
win on the season as well,
as Hermiston (6-7) has re-
bounded well after a hitting a
rough patch in early Decem-
ber.
“Everybody is well aware
of our struggles through that
middle part of the presea-
son,” Rodriguez said, “and I
think we’ve corrected some
of those. But we’re still a
long way where we want to
be, but it’s just nice to keep
building momentum and
that’s huge for us right now.”
West Valley gave Herm-
iston a fight early on, hang-
ing with Hermiston bas-
ket-for-basket and held a
10-9 lead over the Bulldogs
at the end of the first quar-
STAFF PHOTO BY KATHY ANEY
Maddy Juul (20), of Hermiston,
goes up for a shot under
pressure from West Valley’s
Kaitlyn Gasseling (10) on
Saturday in Hermiston.
ter. The Bulldogs took the
lead at 11-10 in the second
quarter and held the advan-
tage for the rest of the half,
but West Valley used its
full-court pressure defense
to force a flurry of Herm-
iston turnovers to get back
into the game in the third
quarter. Overall, Hermiston
had 21 turnovers with many
forced by the full court press,
though Rodriguez said the
miscues are not a concern
moving forward.
“Normally we’re pretty
good against the press but I
just think once we got tired
we got lackadaisical and we
think that nobody will be be-
hind us sometimes,” he said.
“Our girls have to under-
stand that teams are going to
press us and we have to take
advantage of that on the oth-
er side.”
But in the end, Hermiston
was able to regain its com-
posure and pull away for the
win, which is a sight that Ro-
driguez was very pleased to
see.
“Our girls, that killer
mentality is finally coming
back after it was lost at the
beginning of the year,” he
said. “The middle of the
year we probably would’ve
lost this game because we
had no leader to step up and
go get the ball and now we
have several girls stepping
up into that role, which is
big for us going into league
play because we’re going to
be in some dog fights and
we have to have somebody
that’s going to calm things
down.”
Hermiston saw its best
success with its half-court of-
fense and being able to attack
the basket. As a team, the
Bulldogs shot 22-32 from
inside the 3-point line for a
staggering 68 percent clip.
Leading the way was sopho-
more forward Jordan Thom-
as with 17 points, while Ril-
eigh Andreason scored 12
points and Maddy Juul 11
points.
Thomas’ outburst gave
Bulldogs a glimpse at the po-
tential that has been waiting
to ooze out of her 6-foot-3
frame.
“I’ve told her since she
was a freshman that she has
the potential to be unstoppa-
ble inside and it just takes the
mentality and she’s finally
realizing it,” Rodriguez said.
“The biggest thing for me is
she doesn’t make me change
our defensive scheme.
Sometimes with taller girls
coaches have to go to a zone,
but she’s worked so hard on
her footwork and her speed
that she can switch off to a
guard on the perimeter and
that definitely makes our life
easier.”
Hermiston now prepares
for the start of league play
at home against The Dalles
Friday.
“We have to get ready for
a really tough league that’s
really kind of up-in-the-air
as of right now,” Rodriguez
said.
————
WV
10 10 18 13 — 51
HHS
9 17 16 19 — 61
WEST VALLEY — E. Teske 11, N. Rasmus-
sen 11, K. Gasseling 7, N. Nagle 7, S. Curtis
6, K. Kruger 4, L. Fetzer 3.
HERMISTON — J. Thomas 17, R. Andrea-
son 12, M. Juul 11, K. Padilla 8, J. Romero
5, H. Meyers 4, S. Gilbert 3.
3-pointers — WV 4, HHS 3. Free throws
— WV 6-8, HHS 7-21. Fouls — WV 18,
HHS 10.
STAFF PHOTO BY KATHY ANEY
Rileigh Andreason (12), of Hermiston, passes to a teammate
during Saturday’s game against West Valley in Hermiston.