WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2017
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A9
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Bulldogs grind out victory
Hermiston
overcomes
sluggish pace to
down Hood River
By ERIC SINGER
Staff writer
Friday night’s Hermis-
ton boys basketball game
against Hood River was not
one of the more entertain-
ing games of the season.
It was a high-scoring
affair with 127 combined
points scored, but there were
also a whopping 49 fouls
called in the game, which
slowed the game down for
the spectators and affected
any momentum for both
Hermiston and Hood River.
“It’s kind of tough to
get in a rhythm ... you start
to get on a run and then a
foul’s called and on and
on,” Hermiston coach Ca-
sey Arstein said. “But I
thought the kids did a good
job holding their compo-
sure.”
In the end, Hermis-
ton’s superior talent shined
through as the Bulldogs put
away Hood River Valley
for the second time this sea-
son with a 75-52 victory on
senior night at The Dawg
House.
“I thought we played
pretty hard defensively and
smart for the most part,”
Arstein added. “I was proud
of the kids that we got a win
at home and now we have
three days to get ready for
the battle at Pendleton.”
See BULLDOGS, A10
TIGERS FEND OFF TIGERSCOTS
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Umatilla’s Kaden Webb shoots the ball between Irrigon’s
Johnny Phillips and Hayden White in the Vikings’ 61-59
win against the Knights on Friday in Umatilla.
Vikings stun
Knights for
district title
Sebastian Garcia
plays hero with
last-second shot
By ERIC SINGER
Staff writer
Sebastian Garcia was a
quiet contributor to Uma-
tilla’s offense through three
quarters of their district
championship game against
Irrigon on Friday night.
But once the final buzzer
sounded at The Pit, Garcia
had elevated himself to hero
status.
Garcia hit a 3-pointer in
transition from the left wing
with just 8.3 seconds to
play, which proved to be the
game-winning shot, as the
Vikings pulled out a 61-59
victory over Irrigon to claim
the district title.
“All I was thinking is
man I have to make this,”
said Garcia, who finished
with 12 points. “And when
it went through, it was just a
great feeling.”
Umatilla (17-7, 8-2) ju-
nior guard Kaden Webb said
he had no doubt that the shot
was going in.
“Sebastian’s a great
shooter and we’ve always
got confidence in him,”
Webb said. “He may miss
five in a row, but there’s no
doubt he’s going to make
the big ones and he did.”
The shot came just sec-
onds after some luck fell the
Vikings’ ways, as Irrigon’s
Hayden White missed a
fast-break lay-in opportuni-
ty that would have put the
Knights up by three points.
Irrigon (15-8, 7-3) then had
a chance for a last-second
shot to tie or win, but the
Vikings defense didn’t give
the Knights a good look.
Daniel Vera’s despera-
tion shot from just inside
halfcourt missed wide at
the buzzer, and the standing
room-only crowd at the pit
exploded into a pandemoni-
um.
“I just can’t believe we
won,” Webb said. “It was a
lot harder than we wanted it
to be, but these are the games
we live for and it’s amazing
... it’s just indescribable.”
“This was the first time
I’ve seen the crowd like this
in this gym and I loved it,”
Umatilla coach Derek Lete
said. “When you can’t hear
yourself think or talk it’s a
great feeling especially when
the scoreboard is like this.”
The game was in Irrigon’s
control for the majority of
the game, with the Knights
leading through most of
the second, third and fourth
quarters. But just as Irrigon
would get a cushion, Uma-
tilla would charge right back.
That was the case late in
the fourth, when Irrigon was
holding a four-point cushion
with less than 30 seconds to
play. But then Justin Maret
hit his biggest shot of the
night, a 3-pointer from near-
ly the same spot as Garcia
would hit from later, to cut
the Knights’ lead to 59-58
with 15.6 left to play. Then
things just fell into place for
the Vikings.
“It was honestly one of
the best games I’ve been
a part of,” Lete said. “You
can’t draw it up like this.”
Webb led all scorers with
23 points and also dished out
eight assists for the Vikings,
with 15 of those points com-
ing in the second half.
Trent Durfey had a dou-
ble-double for the Vikings
with 13 points and 11 re-
bounds while Maret had nine
points and seven boards.
Irrigon led 28-23 at half-
time thanks to a red-hot
shooting performance and
some effective man-to-man
defense. The Knights shot 52
percent (12-23) in the quarter
and were constantly giving
the Vikings fits.
“Irrigon played a real-
ly good first half and we
didn’t,” Lete said. “I talked
to the guys at halftime about
just having confidence ... I
thought we could play better
and I didn’t think they could
play any better than they did
... but Irrigon just played re-
ally tough, they’re game plan
was great but I’m just proud
of the guys for pulling it out.”
Irrigon played well for
the majority of the second
half, but missed shots and
turnovers down the stretch
caught up to them. Irrigon
shot 51 percent through three
quarters, but made just 3-13
shots in the fourth quarter
and turned the ball over a to-
tal of 23 times.
UP NEXT
The victory clinches a
home first-round playoff
game for Umatilla, who
will face Horizon Christian
of Tualatin at 6 p.m. Friday.
Irrigon will travel to Salem
Academy for a 7 p.m. game
on Friday in the first round of
the 3A tournament.
Both teams will need
wins to qualify for the quar-
terfinal-round of the tourna-
ment on the Southern Ore-
gon Coast.
————
IHS
14 14 17 14 — 59
UHS
14 9 18 20 — 61
IRRIGON — J. Philips 16, A. Rice 14, H.
White 10, A. Roa 8, L. Covarrubia 5, O. Vera
2, D. Vera 2, E. Carillo 2.
UMATILLA — K. Webb 23, T. Durfey 13,
S. Garcia 12, J. Maret 9, S. Cranston 2, T.
Morris 2.
3-pointers — IHS 5, UHS 6. Free throws
— IHS 12-19, UHS 9-18. Fouls — IHS 15,
UHS 16.
————
Contact Eric Singer at
541-966-0839.
Grogan powers
Stanfield with
game-high 31 points
By ERIC SINGER
Staff Writer
The Weston-McEwen Ti-
gerScots gave the Stanfield
Tigers everything they had
on Saturday afternoon, threat-
ening to snap the top-ranked
team in the state’s win-streak.
But Stanfield finished the
game on a 20-5 run to capture
the Columbia Basin Confer-
ence district championship
with a 88-68 victory over the
TigerScots at the Pendleton
Convention Center.
With the regular season
league championship already
in the Tigers’ (19-1) back
pocket, the district title is the
second of the three major
goals the team had set for it-
self.
“The second game of the
year, coach asked what we
wanted out of our season,”
Stanfield senior Enoel Angel
said following Saturday’s
game. “The first was league
champs, next was districts
and then third was the ulti-
mate and that’s state champs.
Well we have two down, now
just one more left.”
Angel, who finished with
10 points and four rebounds,
hit one of the biggest shots
of the game for Stanfield
late in the fourth quarter. As
Weston-McEwen
(14-10)
was on a 14-5 run to start the
quarter to cut the Tiger lead to
68-62, Angel nailed a wide-
open 3-pointer from the left
corner to bump the lead back
to nine points. That sparked
Stanfield’s sprint to the finish
line.
Prior to Angel’s shot, Stan-
field coach Jason Sperr called
a timeout where Angel said
the coach simply wanted the
team to re-set themselves.
“He just told us to play our
game ... we had slowed down
and that’s when we struggled
in the half-court sets,” An-
gel said. “They (TigerScots)
were playing physical and we
weren’t reacting to it well and
(coach) just said to be smart
and keep playing our game.”
Weston-McEwen
sur-
prised Stanfield to start the
game, as the TigerScots were
able to break the full-court
press and turn those into some
easy shot attempts, keeping
the quarter at a lightning-fast
tempo. The TigerScots held
a 7-2 lead early before Stan-
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Stanfield’s Dylan Grogan shoots the ball over Weston-McEwen’s Shaw Broncheau in the
Tigers’ 88-68 win against the TigerScots on Saturday in Pendleton.
ALL-LEAGUE TEAMS
Player of the Year — Logan Grieb, Heppner
Coaches of the Year — Mike Weinke, Pilot Rock; Jeremy Rosenbalm, Heppner
First team — Shaw Broncheau, Weston-McEwen; Chris Weinke, Pilot Rock;
Dylan Grogan, Stanfield; Ethan Reger, Weston-McEwen; Bryson Pierce, Pilot Rock.
Second team — Ryan Bailey, Stanfield; Jake Lindsay, Heppner; Mike Davis,
Culver; Jose Garcia, Stanfield; Brett Speed, Weston-McEwen.
Honorable mention — Thyler Monkus, Stanfield; Caden Hedman, Heppner;
Tony Flores, Stanfield; Weston Basl, Culver; Kevin Murray, Heppner.
field quickly tied it, and then
re-took the lead for the re-
mainder of the quarter at 20-
17.
“Most teams don’t want
to match our speed and I
think that was a bit different
to our guys, surprised them,”
Sperr said. “But I thought
Weston-McEwen was as
good a team as we’ve seen
all year basically from start
to finish at playing our style
of game and it was fun to
Hermiston rolls past Eagles
Hermiston Herald
The Hermiston girls bas-
ketball team kept its hot streak
going with a 67-29 blowout
victory on the road over Hood
River Valley on Friday night,
the Bulldogs’ fourth consecu-
tive victory.
“We came out early and
the girls got a good jump right
out of the gates,” Hermiston
coach Juan Rodriguez said.
“Our offense was humming
tonight and our defense was
playing great.”
Hermiston led 16-2 after
the first quarter and then held
a 36-10 advantage at halftime.
Maddy Juul led all scorers
with 20 points for the Bull-
dogs, as she found her way to
the basket with ease especial-
ly in the second half.
“It was a typical Maddy
where she got real aggres-
sive,” Rodriguez said. “She
knew we couldn’t have a
sluggish start in the third
quarter and she found ways
to score with her back to
the basket and the ability
to drive to the basket. I was
pretty happy with the way
she played.”
Following behind Juul
was Jordan Thomas with 14
points, Rileigh Andreason
with nine and Madison Wil-
son with seven. In total, nine
players earned their way into
the scorebook.
This week
Hermiston hit the road
again on Tuesday to travel
to Pendleton for the rubber
match with the Buckaroos.
The Bucks took the first
game in Pendleton, 53-48,
and Hermiston won the sec-
ond match at The Dawg
House, 62-31. The game
started to late to get results in
this week’s print edition of the
Hermiston Herald, but look
for results online at www.
hermistonherald.com.
————
HHS
16 20 17 14 — 67
HRV
2 8 11
8 — 29
HERMISTON — M. Juul 20, J. Thomas
14, R. Andreason 9, M. Wilson 7, J. Romero
6, H. Meyers 4, S. Stefani 3, S. Gilbert 2, K.
Padilla 2.
HOOD RIVER — E. Curtis 8, H. Baker
7, L. Orr 7, A. Kinoshita 3, L. Weekly 2, A.
Goodman 2.
3-pointers — HHS 6, HRV 2. Free throws
— HHS 11-19, HRV 6-20. Fouls — HHS 18,
HRV 15.
watch.”
Stanfield’s offense took
some time to settle in as well,
as the Tigers hit just 5-19
shots (26 percent) in the first
quarter, but then went 26-55
(47 percent) over the final
three quarters. Dylan Grogan
led all scorers with 31 points
on 12-22 shooting and added
seven rebounds and four as-
sists.
“We know if we need a
score, we can give Dylan
the ball and he’ll do it,”
Angel said. “He’s arguably
the best player, I say, in the
state.”
See TIGERS, A10
SCOREBOARD
Local slate
PREP BOYS BASKETBALL
Friday
#9 Horizon Christian, Tualatin at #8 Umatil-
la (Class 3A first round), 6 p.m.
#15 Oakland at #2 Stanfield (Class 2A first
round), 6 p.m.
#13 Irrigon at #4 Salem Academy (Class
3A first round), 7 p.m.
Hermiston at Hood River, 7 p.m.
PREP GIRLS BASKETBALL
Friday
Hood River at Hermiston, 7 p.m.
PREP WRESTLING
Friday-Saturday
Hermiston, Pendleton, Mac-Hi, Irrigon,
Riverside, Heppner/Ione at OSAA State
Championships
Prep Standings
BOYS BASKETBALL
5A Columbia River Conference
Conf.
Ovr Rank
Pendleton
7-0
12-4 10
Hermiston
5-2
15-6
11
Hood River
1-5
6-12 29
The Dalles
1-7
4-15 27
GIRLS BASKETBALL
5A Columbia River Conference
Conf.
Ovr Rank
Hermiston
6-1
12-9
11
Pendleton
6-1
10-7 12
The Dalles
2-6
7-11 22
Hood River
0-6
6-10 28